Vantage PCMark 8 - Storage Test:

PCMark 8 is a complete benchmark for Windows. It includes five benchmark tests, each designed around a specific scenario. The storage benchmark measures drive performance using real-world traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office and a selection of popular games.

PCMark 8 also includes a consistency test which measures the performance consistency and degradation tendency of a storage system. The test reports the performance level at the start, the degraded steady-state, and the recovered state as well as the number of iterations required to reach them. For this test, we are focusing on the Adobe Photoshop (Heavy) trace and will look at both the bandwidth and latency of the drive

The 860 PRO did fairly well throughout PCMark's consistency test. While not as fast as the Crucial MX500, it performed better than the Plextor M8V and Crucial BX300 throughout the degradation and steady state phases. The 860 PRO's performance also increased during the recovery phase, topping out at about 320 MB/s.