Intel Optane 900P

[coercitiv]

Forgive my lack of knowledge of QD depth, but I thought that most workstation/desktop level tasks were in the low QD range (where the 900p shines). And that higher QD depth workloads (which most SSDs are benchmarked at) were more server task orientated.

Yup, I was talking about high performance in low QD scenarios. My wording could have been more clear.

Regardless, I love new technology and I bought because I wanted to see what all the hype was about. I will still use my Samsung 960 Pro as a data drive.

As I said, I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy the drive and I'm looking forward to hear about your experience.

 

[IntelUser2000]

Forgive my lack of knowledge of QD depth, but I thought that most workstation/desktop level tasks were in the low QD range (where the 900p shines). And that higher QD depth workloads (which most SSDs are benchmarked at) were more server task orientated.

Optane 900P loading tests with Star Citizen: https://unlocked.newegg.com/article...present-intel-optane-ssd-900p-citizencon-2947

Towards the bottom they test loading times.

Here's the problem with 900P, and why the high volume market is reserved for Optane Memory and Optane DIMM.

It isn't just about having insane low QD performance. The gains will be miniscule, if the whole ecosystem is built for storage that's orders of magnitude slower than DRAM. What you can do as a programmer becomes limited, even if your team were allowed to have different paths for HDD and SSD. You still need to make your game/program acceptable for people using HDDs, which means the game is going to be loaded into RAM as much as it can.

I think the reason Star Citizen shows any benefit is because the game and its world are so massive. I can't see many applications falling into that category. Even then, there's likely fixed time paths that can't be sped up.

I know a game that's known for absolutely ridiculous loading times on HDDs. Anno 1404. It takes minutes. When I went from a Raptor to X25-M I've noticed huge reduction in loading time for that game. Maybe Optane should be tested on that game.

 

[Excessi0n]

This sounds perfect for my modded Skyrim install and its tens of thousands of loose files. IOPS, baby!

 

[Edrick]

Images coming soon

 

[Carfax83]

I'd be really interested in one of these things for my next platform upgrade, though only if the capacity is increased to around 1TB and the price isn't too outrageous. For a gaming storage drive, I think 1TB is about the minimum considering how big games are these days.

That said, the NVMe drive didn't do too badly in that loading test:

 

[Carfax83]

You still need to make your game/program acceptable for people using HDDs, which means the game is going to be loaded into RAM as much as it can.

That's how it should be though right? SSDs or Intel's new Optane drives are still much slower than RAM. As large and seamless as Star Citizen is, I think it might be the first game that makes having 32GB of RAM and above actually viable for a game. The most RAM hungry game these days will top out around 10GB or so, which makes getting above 16GB practically useless.....for gaming that is.

 

[Edrick]

Results taken from the same rig. It sure looks good on the benchmarks, but I am having a little trouble seeing a major "noticeable" difference thus far. But I guess that was to be expected. Still loading all my apps, so I will do more tests later.

Windows load speed (from BIOS) with 900P = 3.4 seconds
Windows load speed (from BIOS) with 960Pro = 4.2 seconds

 

[Bier667]

Nice Results

Can you test the 900P via CPU and Chipset Lanes and report back?

 

[pcslookout]

Just got one and have it installed.

Not sure if it is worth it compared to my Samsung 850 Pro. Sure it is faster.

 

[cbn]

I'm just curious as to what people are thinking about today's new Optane drive:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/11953/the-intel-optane-ssd-900p-review

Costly and power hungry but makes the Samsung 960 Pro look like a slow mechanical drive in heavy use cases (especially with random access). People love to hate Optane, but this is their first product that really looks compelling.

If the price ever got to the $200 range, then I'd be tempted. But, at $389, I can't justify it for my uses.

It is expensive, but I was just thinking how interesting it might be as a RAM Extender (particularly for a Haswell or Broadwell Xeon Workstation) using Memory drive?

 

[cbn]

The real impact we expect from 3D XPoint lies in Optane Memory(surprise!) and eventual Optane DIMMs. The former, needs support for multi-drive and secondary drive configurations. The technical knowledge needed for Optane Memory on a DIY computer can be, depending on your luck steep. But pre-built systems are where the volume will be.

Optane DIMMs won't make any impact on the consumer side, but it will on the server and workstation. Eventually though, that's where the dream is. With OS/BIOS/Application fully built and optimized to work with Optane DIMM, we can ditch the basic computer architecture we've been using for 50 years. The benefits brought on by that will be something everyone will see. Of course that's probably 10 years away.

Besides DIMMs, Maybe atom (or whatever follows atom) having the optane directly on top of processor? If not that initially, then on package.

This combined with an optional SSD or Hard drive?

EDIT: Perhaps even 16GB Optane on package works for some scenarios?

 

[biostud]

What about using primo cache with the 900p?

https://www.romexsoftware.com/en-us/primo-cache/

Edrick could you maybe try primocache with your 900p and your other drives?

A time limited trial version is available from their site.

 

[Bier667]

Got my AIC 280GB SKU today after waiting nearly 10 days for the 2.5" version to come to me; what gives, the temps are inline with what is so far reported (~38°C idle +6 under Load (write)): quite cold here in germany...

Atm on the Z370 with 8400 Plattform so using the PCH for the 900p.

Mabye will switch to CascadeLake once it comes out; depends on so many things (Coming from a Broadwell-E Plattform the Skylake-S+ plattform sucks).


The PCM stuff is the best thing to come along since Nehalem

 

[biostud]

Bier667 maybe you could try running primocache on yours?

 

[Dayman1225]

Interesting way to get a point across, Intel.

 

[Bier667]

This slide fits my nickname perfectly Intel and me have so many in common its unbelieveable...


@Dayman1225
You have by any chance some "special" info if the optane dimms will come to the Cascadelake-X plattform 2H 2018 too?

 

[Dayman1225]

This slide fits my nickname perfectly Intel and me have so many in common its unbelieveable...


@Dayman1225
You have by any chance some "special" info if the optane dimms will come to the Cascadelake-X plattform 2H 2018 too?

I don't see why they wouldn't it wouldn't make sense for Intel to block it considering it would work on Cascade Lake SP and I assume Skylake SP boards.

 

[IntelUser2000]

I don't see why they wouldn't it wouldn't make sense for Intel to block it considering it would work on Cascade Lake SP and I assume Skylake SP boards.

Not all the boards seem to support it from what I've seen. It seems they need the changes coming with Cascade Lake, whatever that is, to get Optane DIMM support. Since its an entirely new concept it might need broader platform support to work.

I wouldn't count on HEDT version of Cascade Lake to support it.

 

[cbn]

I'm just curious as to what people are thinking about today's new Optane drive:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/11953/the-intel-optane-ssd-900p-review

Costly and power hungry but makes the Samsung 960 Pro look like a slow mechanical drive in heavy use cases (especially with random access). People love to hate Optane, but this is their first product that really looks compelling.

If the price ever got to the $200 range, then I'd be tempted. But, at $389, I can't justify it for my uses.

It is expensive, but I was just thinking how interesting it might be as a RAM Extender (particularly for a Haswell or Broadwell Xeon Workstation) using Memory drive?

I found out that the 900p doesn't come with Intel Memory drive (and you can't buy it as an option either).

That is really surprising.

Maybe future versions of these consumer SSDs could remedy (in some way) this omission?

 

[Bier667]

The price for the Memory drive alone is ~2K$ so it's not surprising that Intel decided against it for the client market.

I wouldn't count on HEDT version of Cascade Lake to support it.

​

That's my concern but even as a hardcore enthusiast i struggle to see the benefits for the consumer.

I think the prices for the 900p are somewhat a first step in the right direction: maybe after Icelake there will be some room for the optane dimms for client computing but that depends on Intels market strategy.

 

[cbn]

The price for the Memory drive alone is ~2K$ so it's not surprising that Intel decided against it for the client market.

The software is a $431 option on the P4800X:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/11208/intel-introduces-optane-ssd-dc-p4800x-with-3d-xpoint-memory

The full licensing cost structure for Intel Memory Drive Technology is not clear, but the MSRP for a 375GB P4800X bundled with Memory Drive Technology is $1951 compared to $1520 for the SSD alone. The Memory Drive Technology hypervisor must be booted from a USB device or an IDE-compatible storage controller, and the guest operating system cannot be booted in UEFI mode. Intel Xeon E5-x6xx v2 or later and E7- x8xx v2 or later processors are supported.

 

[Bier667]

Ah sorry, i should check my reading comprehension once in a while

"full licensing cost" and "bundled together" are somewhat of a different kind. My bad :/

 

[Bier667]

deleted

 

[Dayman1225]

Intel 900P 960GB, 1.5TB Mentioned In Official Document

 

[Dayman1225]

The Intel Optane SSD 900p 480GB Review