Benchmark SSD & Hard Drive Performance with Disk Speed Test for Mac OS X

Dec 16, 2011 - 49 Comments

Mac SSD and Hard Drive benchmark test tool

Want to compare hard disk performance or see just how big of a speed difference that SSD upgrade had? Grab the free Disk Speed Test tool from the Mac App Store, it’s a quick and simple way to measure drive performance. The app works by creating large blocks of temporary data that are written to the drive and then read, allowing for a consistent benchmark across multiple Macs or disks. The UI is easy to understand and there’s no frills, just launch the app and the test starts.

It’s not exactly scientific, but it’ll give you a good idea of performance changes with upgrades or different disks, just note the read and write speeds both before and after an upgrade, or have your friends run it on their Mac to test speeds across drives.

For example, a MacBook Air might write to an SSD at around 180mb/sec and read at 220mb/sec, whereas a standard 5400 RPM drive in a MacBook Pro may only write at 45mb/sec and read at 60mb/sec. Many third party SSD’s perform even better than the MacBook Air, and these kind of numbers really drive home the day-to-day performance boost you’ll see with an SSD upgrade. If you’re in the market for one, check out the deals on SSD drives at Amazon and get yourself an early Christmas present.

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Posted by: William Pearson in Mac OS, Tips & Tricks

49 Comments

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  1. craigk49 says:

    Hackintosh

    Samsung 950 Pro 512
    Write 1,440
    Read 2,640

  2. dedeck says:

    Mac pro 5.1 2010 dual 2.4
    32GB Ram
    Gtx980
    2 x Samsung sm951 512GB ahci ssd raid0 on a amfeltec squid carrier board (still 2 slots free!!)

    write: 2566 MB/s
    read: 2310 MB/s

    !!!!!!!!!

  3. Amrit says:

    hi
    Macbook 5 (2008) aluminium intel core 2 duo
    samsung 850 evo
    write 206 mbps
    read 272 mbps

  4. Robin says:

    Early 2015 13″ MBPr i7 16Gb 512Gb SSD (PCIe):

    Write: 1451 MB/s
    Read: 1398 MB/s

  5. Greg Olson says:

    Hackintosh GigaByte H97N-Wifi
    Xeon E3-1241 quad core 3.4Ghz
    16 GB Ram
    Samsung Sata III 128Gb x 4 Raid 0

    Write: 1051.8 MB/s
    Read: 1244.4 MB/s

  6. Lorenzo Warie says:

    MacBook Pro (Retina, medio 2012)
    Processor: 2,6 GHz Intel Core i7
    RAM: 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

    Testing with BlackMagic:

    Write: 407.1 MB/s
    Read: 449.0 MB/s

  7. Damien says:

    MBP 13-inch, Mid 2009
    4 GB RAM
    2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

    Drive: PNY Optima SSD 240GB (SATA III 6Gb/s)

    Testing with BlackMagic:

    Write: 208.7 MB/s
    Read: 265.9 MB/s

    Cold boot: 28.6 seconds
    Full Restart (with iPhoto, Safari, Photoshop open, no dialog popups): 31.6 seconds

    Wake From Sleep: 0.87s (mouse immediately responsive)

    App start times (tested after fresh restart):

    Photoshop CS6 – 3.61 s
    Final Cut Pro – 6.06 s
    iTunes 12.1.0.50 – 3.14 s
    Safari – 2.21 s
    Apple Pages – 2.61 s
    Apple Numbers – 1.58 s
    Launchpad – .26 s

    Hope this is useful information, in some way.

  8. chad says:

    i just swapped out my SSD in my macbook air early 2014 i5 dual processor. 120GB SSD to 500GB SSD apple samsung and i didn’t get a chance to run this test on my original SSD but the new one reads as follows:

    write 680mbs
    read 700mbs

    whats so fresh about this is as a compare to these other posts from you guys is that it ranks up there with some of the higher hardware you guys are running. i bought the absolute bare minimum when it came to specs I’m so glad i upgraded my SSD..*cheers*

  9. Neil says:

    Macbook Pro
    15-inch: 2.3GHz
    with Retina display
    2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
    16GB 1600MHz memory
    512GB PCIe-based flash storage
    Intel Iris Pro Graphics
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M
    with 2GB GDDR5 memory

    write 705.8 MB/s
    read 730.4 MB/s

    Amazing!!!!!

  10. Ryan says:

    Macbook air 2013

    Ahem

    700MB+ both

  11. Landru says:

    Mac Pro build
    ML 10.2
    i7 3770k
    16GB
    GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB
    SanDisk Extreme 240GB (SDSSDX-240G-G25)

    write: 228.4 MB/s
    read: 471.3 MB/s

  12. ben says:

    iMac late 2011
    i3 3.2Ghz
    4GB
    SanDisk Extreme 256 SSD
    Write: 247MB/s
    Read: 269 MB/s

  13. marco says:

    mac book pro 15.4 2012
    i7 2.3
    4 ram
    Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD

    write:470 MB/s
    read:520BM/s

  14. What it do! says:

    MacBook Pro 15.4 Late 2011
    OSX 10.8.2
    Processor 2.2 GHZ i7
    16 GB Ram @ 1600MHZ

    Raid 0 SSD @
    Write: 888.6 Mbs/
    Read: 954.1 Mb/s

  15. Shawn says:

    MacBook Pro 13.3 Late 2011
    OS X 10.8.2
    Processor 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
    Memory 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
    Samsung 840 Pro 512GB SSD

    write:470 MB/s
    read:520BM/s

  16. Prasanth says:

    Early 2011 13 inch MacBook Pro
    Running Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
    8GB Ram
    Samsung 840 PRO 256 GB SSD
    Write: 474 Mb/s
    Read: 512 Mb/s

  17. Luca says:

    Mid 2011 27 inch iMac 3.4 Ghz Quad Core i7
    Running Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
    24 GB Ram 2 GB ATI 6970 m
    Samsung 840 PRO 256 GB SSD
    Write: 499.3 Mb/s
    Read: 519.8 Mb/s

  18. MBP_SLC says:

    MBP late 2011, 17″
    CPU 2.2GHz, i7
    RAM 16GB DDR3 1333
    SSD Samsung 830 512GB
    Tested with BlackMagic
    Write: 388 MB/s
    Read: 473 MB/s

  19. iM@rek says:

    MBP late 2011, 15″
    CPU 2.4GHz, i7
    RAM:8GB DDR3 1333

    SSD OCZ VERTEX 4 256GB

    Write: 401MB/s
    Read: 452MB/s

    Really impresive… ;-)

  20. blutus says:

    Mid 2012 Macbook Pro 2.3 GHz i7
    16 GB 1600 MHz RAM
    Running Mac OS 10.8

    2x Samsung SSD 830 256 GB (RAID0)

    Write: 780 MB/s
    Read: 897 MB/s

    It makes a lot of fun, really fast. Unfortunatly i can not measure the speed since updating to 10.8.2 :(

  21. rs says:

    Hackintosh running OS X Lion 10.7.4
    Running under VirtualBox! (VMDK pointing to raw partition on SSD)
    Samsung 830 Series 64GB SSD

    Write: 160 Mb/s
    Read: 215 Mb/s

    Not fantastic numbers, but not bad considering it’s a VM.

  22. Flavius says:

    Doesn’t seem to work with 10.8

  23. Lucy says:

    Early 2011 MacBook Pro 10.6.8
    OCZ Agility 3 240

    186 MB/s Read
    150 MB/s Write

    I was expecting faster speeds, any suggestions?

  24. Jbob says:

    Black Macbook 2.0 Ghz Core 2 4GB Ram OSX 10.6.8
    Sandisk SSD 120

    104 MB/s Read
    133 MB/s Write

    Sata 1 :(

    Nice improvement tho. Negotiated link speed is 150 MB/s. Anything I can do to max out the speed?

  25. david says:

    same stats as ben. a little faster read…intel 330 mid 2011 MacBook i7
    what are good numbers? ie what should I be seeing? is 160 a diss appointing write??

  26. Ben says:

    Woo!

    bit of a disappointing 160MB/s on write, but 480.3MB/s read.

    Vertex Agility 3 in a Macbook Pro.

  27. Ryan says:

    Mid 2011 27 inch iMac 3.4 Ghz Quad Core i7
    Running Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion
    12 GB Ram 2 GB VRAM
    Crucial M4 256 SSD
    Write: 256.3 Mb/s
    Read: 506.2 Mb/s

    Never going back to HDD ever again.

  28. Chris says:

    OCZ Vertex 4
    Mountain Lion
    Write – 397.2 MB/s
    Read – 441.1 MB/s

  29. ISO says:

    Hackintosh running OS X Lion 10.7.4 (toshiba laptop sata2)
    OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS 120G
    Write: 242.2 Mb/s
    Read: 497.9 Mb/s

  30. ISO says:

    Hackintosh
    OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS 120G
    Write: 242.2 Mb/s
    Read: 497.9 Mb/s

  31. MING says:

    Aluminum, late 2008, Macbook
    Mac osx Lion
    OCZ Vertex 3 120G
    Write:105.6 MB/s
    Read: 134.3 MB/s

  32. Aaron says:

    Late 2008 Aluminum MacBook
    OS X Lion 10.7.4
    2.4 ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
    256gb Crutial M4

    Write: 202 MB/s
    Read: 268 MB/s

    Mid 2012 Mac Pro
    OS X Lion 10.7.4
    2 x 3.06 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon (12-cores)
    2 x 3 TB 7200 rpm Seagate Barracuda, RAID 0

    Write: 380 MB/s (peaks at 415)
    Read: 380 MB/s (peaks at 418)

    I’d be curious to see an SSD in my Mac Pro.

  33. Visionary says:

    MacBook Pro
    Retina, Mid 2012
    2.6Ghz i7, 16GB, 512GB
    OS x Lion 10.7.4 (11E2620)

    399.0 MB/s write
    489.6 MB/s read

  34. montag says:

    Crutial M4 / 256GB
    Mac Book Pro 2ghz I7
    Fall 2011 / OS X Lion 10.7.3

    257.4 Mb/s write
    496.6 Mb/s read

    :)

  35. llRed_Baronll says:

    282.2 Mb/s Write
    514.4 Mb/s Read

  36. Shai says:

    I tried to use this on my SSD but I get an error message telling me that the disk can’t be written to :-(

    Anyone else having the same issue?

    • cherimoya says:

      Same here, weird, used to work before the ssd install. There are other apps you can download to test the speed though. I am getting 180/250 on a mid 2009 mbp 13″

      • Zack says:

        Click the preference button in the center of the window to choose your disk, then while in the browser choose your desktop. Now you should be able to run the test!

  37. Charles says:

    MBP15 2.2 i7

    Toshiba 750GB 5400rpm (stock)
    102 Write – 101 Read

    OWC 240GB Mercury Extreme Pro 6g
    260 Write – 502 Read

  38. Bernard says:

    MBP13inch mid 2010 with 300GB Intel SSD
    Write 160 Read 250

  39. aris says:

    I tested the 256GB OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro SSD 3G that I installed in my 17-inch, Early 2009 macbookpro and seems to write at about 95 and reads at 200.
    james what ssd install ?

  40. Mr. Darden says:

    70 Read, 70 Write on a mid 2010 MBP, I need a freaking SSD.

  41. Mr. Byu says:

    MacBook Air 2011 (13 inch, 1,7 Ghz i5):

    Write: 246
    Read: 264

    You’re doing to wrong, guys :D

  42. James says:

    I tested the 256GB SSD that I installed in my 2009 MBP…. seems to write at 179 and reads at 237. One of my favorite upgrades ever!!

  43. Benizia says:

    200 read and 180 write with a new MacBook Air. Very fast, no complaints.

  44. Ian says:

    260/240 read/write. Woo woo SSD FTW!

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