SSD Write Speeds Cut In Half

Any Ideas?

Hey guys. I'm posting this in hopes that someone out there has had my problem and has the answer.

 

I seem to have lost half my write speed on an OCZ Agility 4 SSD.

 

256 GB Sata III on a Sata III Mobo.

 

Trim enabled.  ACHI mode.

 

 

 

 

1-13-2013 result on left....2012 on right.

 

 

 

EDIT: Windows 7 64 bit.  16 GB ram.

 

171,693 views 50 replies
Reply #1 Top

 

Seriously, though... what did you do last before this started?

Also... are you dealing with compressed or non compressed data? Compressed data will artificially bounce speeds up.

Are the "pre" numbers from before installing W8?

Also depends on your cache size and NAND. http://www.anandtech.com/show/6143/ocz-agility-4-256gb-review/3

 

Reply #2 Top

How full was the drive at each instance?

Reply #3 Top

(Seriously, though... what did you do last before this started?)

 

Installed a graphics card.

 

(Also... are you dealing with compressed or non compressed data? Compressed data will artificially bounce speeds up.)

 

Whatever the benchmark program uses, Doc, it was the same program and settings both times.

 

Are the "pre" numbers from before installing W8?

 

Windows 8 is on a different rig.  Windows 7 only.

Reply #4 Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 2
How full was the drive at each instance?
End of Jafo's quote

That info is in the screenshots. 

 

Now: 39% of 238 GB.

 

Then:  23% of 238 GB.

Reply #5 Top

Time for a yrag consult.

Reply #6 Top

It will be interesting to hear, after you contact the maker of the SSD, as to what may have caused the difference in the write speeds.  :sun:

Reply #7 Top

I will be researching the OCZ forums. I appreciate any and all input here from those who have SSDs or knowledge of.

 

Reply #8 Top

Jim, I think your answer is going to be here:  http://www.anandtech.com/print/5817


and has to do with incompressible data write rates.

Here:  http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2281922

Anand's own testing showed rates comparable to what you're seeing, so I don't think you actually have a problem.

Reply #9 Top

From what I have read, an SSD drive after it "settles in" loses some speed, even on WEI.

Reply #10 Top

Quoting LightStar, reply 9
From what I have read, an SSD drive after it "settles in" loses some speed, even on WEI.
End of LightStar's quote

But half?

What's the point then?

Reply #11 Top

Quoting RedneckDude, reply 10
What's the point then?
End of RedneckDude's quote

It's still way above the speeds of a platter...;)

Reply #12 Top

I seem to have lost half my write speed
End of quote

Sharpen your crayon. :P

Reply #13 Top

Redneck i have owned MANY OCZ items and just RMA it they have excellent customer support even if you no longer have warranty they will do what they can to fix it for a small fee.  :grin:

Reply #14 Top

part of the problem is OCZ drives are of very poor quality compared to much of what else is availabl despite all of the raving over them across tech. sites

 

sustained random write iops is the single most important metric across the board; try comparing a Mushkin "enhanced chronos" or current-generation Corsair drive off NewEgg or elsewhere to the current and recent-history generations of OCZ consumer drives...   there's a reason their company almost went under!

 

have you checked to see if any firmware updates are available?   ...did your benchmarking software get updated and begin disabling trim temporarily (or hopefully not permanently) for "testing purposes" ?

 

p.s; had a bit of trouble following this thread but did you say that you installed a new video card..? that may have had something to do with it - if you don't manually set your pagefile size windows would have automatically increased the initial paging filesize on your default page drive (boot drive, which I'm assuming is your ssd) while also increasing the reserved freespace for its expansion and copying any data from the front of the address-space to make room - that can be a taxing operation especially if your ssd had an abundance of temporary or unmovable files or/and pending updates around the time the operation occured

Reply #15 Top

Hey RND,

to your screenshot it looks like something interfered while you made that diskmark...not the one you have currently made the old one
The thing is i tested a lot of SSD´s and never had a write speed that was higher than the reading spead on all of the write tests.
you should check out writing speed of your SSD....
i know it can go up to close 400 write im pretty sure it can lets say 350-60 but jumping over the marker 400 cant be correct since it is listed and tested with specifications  read: 400MB/s • write: 300MB/s so you can see there is no way it will cross the 400MB write marker...something has to be gone wrong in the previous test. The results of your current test are ok like Doc said and when comparing the test with the specs. .
 

Reply #16 Top

Log off at night. It will activate GC.

.....and stop doing 'speed/performance' tests. You should have a 'feel' for the speed of your own computer. If it's running right, leave it the fuck be. 

+2 Loading…
Reply #17 Top

Quoting yrag, reply 16
If it's running right, leave it the fuck be.
End of yrag's quote

Yeah, like that's going to happen......right after I win the lottery. :rofl:

Reply #18 Top

Quoting yrag, reply 16
Log off at night. It will activate GC
End of yrag's quote

I shut down at night. So, log off and leave it running?

 

Reply #19 Top

Quoting RedneckDude, reply 18
So, log off and leave it running?
End of RedneckDude's quote

 

Quoting yrag, reply 16
Log off at night. It will activate GC.
End of yrag's quote

Reply #20 Top

:moo:

Reply #21 Top

I know the older OCZ ssd's had lots of complaints of failures, that's why I was kind of nervous about getting the Vertex 4, but with a 5 year warranty it looked like they were finally backing the product with some level of confidence. The Vertex 4 is insane in terms of speed. Like yrag said, I only had to use it to know it was insane in terms of speed. 

Reply #22 Top

Log out and leave the computer on the login screen for a few hours a week. That's the best way to ensure GC is working. There is no way to turn it on and there is no way to turn it off. You can't check to see if it's working apart from monitoring performance (which just reverses any improvement by hammering the drive with random writes). There is simply no reason why it won't work as long as you give the drive time. GC is done at the SSD controller level, and is entirely independent of and invisible to the OS and other hardware.

While talking to Crucial about there garbage collection software for their SSD's, they told me to just either sign-off or log off your computer. Your computer will go in a rest state and the hard drives will shut down. The software will not work if there is any hard drive activity. This is when garbage collection starts working. They said to do it for at least 30 minutes, once a week, but the more the better depending on how much you’re writing to your drives on a daily basis.

Just for your general info.

+2 Loading…
Reply #23 Top

Quoting Anthony, reply 21
I know the older OCZ ssd's had lots of complaints of failures, that's why I was kind of nervous about getting the Vertex 4, but with a 5 year warranty it looked like they were finally backing the product with some level of confidence. The Vertex 4 is insane in terms of speed. Like yrag said, I only had to use it to know it was insane in terms of speed. 
End of Anthony's quote

I dont know but i keep away from OCZ since they started banning people from the board because they asked questions regarding product failures and bugs. I certainly dont know how things are handled nowadays by OCZ.
But just to compare :
OCZ Agillity 4 Series 2,5 SSD, SATA 6G-256GB vs ADATA Premier Pro SP9000 Series 2,5 SSD, SATA 6G 256GB

OCZ:  read 420 MB/s write max 410 MB/s
IOPS (4KB Random Read): 48.000
IOPS (4KB Random Write): 85.000
Price : 174,90 EUR 3 year warranty

ADATA: read 555 MB/s write 530 MB/s
IOPS: max. 90.000 (4K Random Write) 
Price :  179,90 EUR 3 year warranty

I dont know but with 5 euros difference i would go for the fast one, why do i write this just to know why people are so into OCZ they barely get sold here as far as iam told ( Shop ). I know OCZ sold pretty well when SSD´s came to the market and OCZ was marketing their products at conventions. 

 
 

 

Reply #24 Top

I bought OCZ for price reasons, they were on sale...lol.

 

My laptop has a Samsung 840 series. I like it.

Reply #25 Top

Quoting RedneckDude, reply 24
I bought OCZ for price reasons, they were on sale...lol.

 

My laptop has a Samsung 840 series. I like it.
End of RedneckDude's quote
i still need to test one of those... only have the older series 830 and i liked them im still using it in my home rig