macOS' APFS File-System Performing Much Better Than The Dated HFS+

Written by Michael Larabel in Apple on 26 September 2017 at 06:14 AM EDT. 97 Comments
APPLE
I'm currently running some macOS 10.13 vs. Linux benchmarks for publishing within the next day or two on Phoronix. But so far in my macOS 10.12 Sierra vs. macOS 10.13 High Sierra benchmarks, what has stood out the most is the file-system performance due to HFS+ file-systems automatically being converted to the Apple File-System (APFS).

I'm still running the fresh Linux benchmarks from this Haswell era MacBook Air, but the file-system results are interesting in their own right. With there being many file-system geeks in the forums, I am posting the disk benchmark numbers for now...


Tests were done with the Phoronix Test Suite on macOS.
MacOS 10.12.6 MacBook Air

SQLite is a heck of a lot faster.
MacOS 10.12.6 MacBook Air

BlogBench reads are faster.
MacOS 10.12.6 MacBook Air

The BlogBench write numbers are faster. Some have complained of slowdowns with APFS, but for the most part my benchmark numbers are showing faster results.
MacOS 10.12.6 MacBook Air

MacOS 10.12.6 MacBook Air

MacOS 10.12.6 MacBook Air

MacOS 10.12.6 MacBook Air

We'll see how these numbers compare to Linux shortly.
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About The Author
Michael Larabel

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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