The Patriot Hellfire M.2 480GB Review: Phison NVMe Tested

Mixed Random Read/Write Performance

The mixed random I/O benchmark starts with a pure read test and gradually increases the proportion of writes, finishing with pure writes. The queue depth is 3 for the entire test and each subtest lasts for 3 minutes, for a total test duration of 18 minutes. As with the pure random write test, this test is restricted to a 16GB span of the drive, which is empty save for the 16GB test file.

The Patriot Hellfire has great performance on the mixed random I/O test, tying the OCZ RD400 and falling behind only the much larger 2TB Samsung 960 PRO.

The Patriot Hellfire draws more power than the Samsung drives, but otherwise is one of the most efficient drives on the mixed random I/O test.

Patriot Hellfire M.2 480GBPatriot Hellfire 480GB (heatsink)Crucial MX300 525GBIntel SSD 600p 512GBIntel SSD 750 400GBOCZ RD400 512GB (M.2)OCZ RD400A 512GBPNY CS2211 480GBPlextor M8Pe(Y) 512GBPlextor M8PeGN (M.2) 512GBSamsung 850 EVO 500GBSamsung 850 Pro 512GBSamsung 950 Pro 512GBSamsung 960 EVO 1TBSamsung 960 EVO 250GBSamsung 960 Pro 2TB

Performance increases slowly but steadily as the portion of cacheable writes increases, but the spike in performance when the workload shifts to pure writes is not as big as exhibited by some of the Patriot Hellfire's competitors.

Mixed Sequential Read/Write Performance

The mixed sequential access test covers the entire span of the drive and uses a queue depth of one. It starts with a pure read test and gradually increases the proportion of writes, finishing with pure writes. Each subtest lasts for 3 minutes, for a total test duration of 18 minutes. The drive is filled before the test starts.

The Patriot Hellfire turns in the second-worst performance from a PCIe SSD, but at least it is still clearly faster than any SATA SSD. Even the 250GB Samsung 960 EVO fares better. This test is another sign that the Patriot Hellfire does poorly when full.

The Hellfire's power consumption across the mixed sequential I/O test is about average for an NVMe SSD, so its overall efficiency is fairly poor.

Patriot Hellfire M.2 480GBPatriot Hellfire 480GB (heatsink)Crucial MX300 525GBIntel SSD 600p 512GBIntel SSD 750 400GBOCZ RD400 512GB (M.2)OCZ RD400A 512GBPNY CS2211 480GBPlextor M8Pe(Y) 512GBPlextor M8PeGN (M.2) 512GBSamsung 850 EVO 500GBSamsung 850 Pro 512GBSamsung 950 Pro 512GBSamsung 960 EVO 1TBSamsung 960 EVO 250GBSamsung 960 Pro 2TB

The addition of a heatsink only slightly improves the minimum performance of the Patriot Hellfire across the mixed sequential I/O test, and actually led to slightly reduced performance overall.