Question Interpreting 3DMark Storage results?

[AgentBirdnest]

I recently started getting into SSD testing. Just a fun hobby for myself. And as "the tech guy" in my circle of friends, a friend just asked me to benchmark an SSD and give him a brief review for him, so I'm throwing it through the test gauntlet. I'm learning the ins and outs of various benchmark programs - but there is something that I am having trouble wrapping my head around (especially while brain-fogged.) 3DMark Storage results.

Specifically, I'm looking at the game loading bandwidth. On my 980 Pro, loading Battlefield V is around 858 MB/s, and for my external Crucial X6, the number is 212 MB/s (and the other games in the 3DMark results are more or less consistent with that.)

I don't have the games that 3DMark tests, but I know that the 980 Pro doesn't actually load games 4x faster. Maybe a few percent faster. So, what do these "load" results really mean? Why does "load Battlefield V" have a number that's 4x faster, but the game wouldn't actually load 4x faster? What good are these results for load bandwidth?

I looked at 3DMark's documentation, but didn't really learn much.

I hope I don't sound too stupid. Just trying to learn new stuff. : D

 

[hotaru.hino]

The thing is, "loading" isn't just moving data from storage to RAM, the computer also has to initialize the program to get it to a point where a person can use it.

To put it in another way, the act of moving data from storage to RAM would be like moving bread, jam, and peanut butter to a counter. This action alone doesn't give you a sandwich, you still have to "process" the ingredients to make a sandwich.

After some point, the CPU becomes the bottleneck in the loading process.

 

[AgentBirdnest]

[snip]
After some point, the CPU becomes the bottleneck in the loading process.

Ah, alright - that makes total sense now! I didn't consider that (obviously, lol.) Thanks for the explanation!