Recently I was at a local user group meeting where the presenter noted that the maximum throughput of the NTFS IO stack was 1 GBps. He substantiated his claim by simultaneously copying two large files from the same logical volume to different logical volumes (i.e. [a] is the source, [b] is destination 1 and [c] is destination 2) and noting the transfer rates hovering around 500 MBps. He repeated this test a few times and noted that the underlying storage subsystem was flash (to make sure we didn't suspect slow storage).
I've been trying to verify this assertion but cannot find anything documented. I suspect that I'm searching for the wrong search terms ("1GBps NTFS throughput", "NTFS throughput maximum"). I'm interested in whether or not the IO stack is actually limited to 1GBps throughput.
EDIT
To clarify: I do not believe the presenter intended to imply that NTFS was intentionally limited (and I'm sorry if I implied that as well). I think it was implied that it was a function of the design of the filesystem.
Best Answer
Even assuming you meant
GBps
and notGbps
...I am unaware of any filesystem that has an actual
throughput limit
. Filesystems are simply structures around how to store and retrieve files. They use metadata, structure, naming conventions, security conventions, etc. but the actual throughput limitations are defined by the underlying hardware itself (typically a combination of lots of hardware involved).Comparing different filesystems and how they affect performance of the underlying hardware can be done, but again that isn't a limitation directly imposed by the filesystem but more of a "variable" in the overall performance of the system.
Choosing to deploy one filesystem over another is typically related to what the underlying OS is, what the server/application is going to be, what the underlying hardware is, and soft factors such as the admin's areas of expertise and familiarity.
==================================================================================
TECHNICAL RESOURCES AND CITATIONS
Optimizing NTFS
Scalability and Performance in Modern File Systems
NTFS Optimization
New white paper providing guidance for sizing NTFS volumes
What's new in NTFS
Configuring NTFS file system for performance
https://superuser.com/questions/411720/how-does-ntfs-compression-affect-performance
Best practices for NTFS compression in Windows