Samsung RAPID Mode

Dirk Diggler · 16 Jan 2014 at 13:15

Just discovered this in Samsung Magician. I did benchmarks before and after.

Before...

And, after...

Results seem wow as speeds appear to be improved dramatically, but strangely sequential write speed dropped. :confused:

Any thoughts?

Dervious · 16 Jan 2014 at 14:27

String said:
Any thoughts?

Does your PC seem any faster ?

Thought not.

BTW. What is your SSD connected to ? The "before RAPID" read speed seems a bit low. Is it a SATA II port ?

Dirk Diggler · 16 Jan 2014 at 14:55

Dervious said:
Does your PC seem any faster ?

Thought not.

BTW. What is your SSD connected to ? The "before RAPID" read speed seems a bit low. Is it a SATA II port ?

No, it's SATA 3. Gigabyte Z87x-OC Mobo. What should the speed be?

Dervious · 16 Jan 2014 at 21:36

Closer to the stated maximum - 530 MB/s.

Dervious · 16 Jan 2014 at 21:38

Usual advice applies.......

Check you`ve got it plugged into a Sata 3 port (usually coloured white).

Make sure you have Intel RST drivers installed.

Dirk Diggler · 16 Jan 2014 at 21:43

My sata ports are black, but pretty sure my Mobo only has sata 3. I'll check for that driver.

I'm assuming that this rapid mode is best disabled?

photoshop · 16 Jan 2014 at 21:47

See: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18572543

"...rapid mode uses 1GB of ram as a cache for the ssd which gives a very nice speed boost. Should not affect the lifespan of the SSD. As long as you can spare the Ram - I would enable it and leave it enabled, as a boost in speed is always welcome."

Dirk Diggler · 16 Jan 2014 at 21:50

photoshop said:
See: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18572543

"...rapid mode uses 1GB of ram as a cache for the ssd which gives a very nice speed boost. Should not affect the lifespan of the SSD. As long as you can spare the Ram - I would enable it and leave it enabled, as a boost in speed is always welcome."

Ok. I've got 8gb so I think I can spare it. Thanks for the link.

Havana_UK · 16 Jan 2014 at 21:53

String said:
My sata ports are black, but pretty sure my Mobo only has sata 3. I'll check for that driver.

I'm assuming that this rapid mode is best disabled?

On my Z87X-UD3H the Marvell ports are grey, and these don't offer the same data transfer speeds at the Intel ones. I think (since you have only the 6 SATA ports on the Z87X-OC) that they're all controlled by the Intel chipset, but as others have said make sure you've got the Intel RST drivers installed.

Here's what I get with 250GB 840 EVO:

photoshop · 16 Jan 2014 at 21:53

Some more info direct from Samsung:

RAPID mode is paired exclusively with Samsung 840 EVO SSDs and available as a feature of the accompanying Samsung
SSD Magician Software Toolset (version 4.2 and later).
When enabled, RAPID mode is inserted as a filter driver in the Windows storage stack. The driver actively monitors all
storage-related activity between and among the operating system, user applications and the SSD. The RAPID technology
analyzes system traffic and leverages spare system resources (DRAM and CPU) to deliver read acceleration through
intelligent caching of hot data and write optimization through tight coordination with the SSD.

My RAM usage as gone up since i enabled it so i've just ordered another 8Gb.
Before enabling rapid mode windows would use around 1.7Gb and now its around 3.0Gb.

Dirk Diggler · 17 Jan 2014 at 10:55

I've resolved the speed issues. According to Samsung Magician my drive was optimised as HDD, so I told it to optimise for best performance. Now hitting the upper level of the speed gauges.

I've decided to leave RAPID mode disabled as I think I'll wait until I have more RAM, plus my system is fast as it is.

Thanks for all the advice.

Dervious · 17 Jan 2014 at 11:27

I wouldn't advise buying more RAM because you want to enable RAPID mode.

I disabled RAPID mode on my system about a month or two ago. Can't say that I've notice any difference.

Minstadave · 17 Jan 2014 at 11:44

Rapid mode is a waste of time tbh, not noticed any improvements since it was enabled on my 840 Pro.

Dirk Diggler · 17 Jan 2014 at 11:50

Dervious said:
I wouldn't advise buying more RAM because you want to enable RAPID mode.

I disabled RAPID mode on my system about a month or two ago. Can't say that I've notice any difference.

Yea, what I mean is if I ever buy more ram for any reason I might consider enabling it. As has been mentioned by yourself and others, the only performance increase it seems to provide is in disc benchmarks. Can't say I noticed any real world improvement while it was enabled.

photoshop · 17 Jan 2014 at 13:00

I've noticed an speed increase when using Photoshop and Sound forge. I don't know if it just caches or puts the files in memory but the editing process is a lot snappier

Idleman · 19 Jan 2014 at 07:18

I am always puzzled as to why my 4K read and write speeds are always lower than other comparisons.

Before Rapid

With Rapid

Dervious · 19 Jan 2014 at 10:36

Idleman said:
I am always puzzled as to why my 4K read and write speeds are always lower than other comparisons.

Whenever I`ve benchmarked my drive, I get similar results. My 4K results seem lower than many others.

TBH, I don't worry about it much, as my system seems fast.

Idleman · 19 Jan 2014 at 10:47

Just out of curiosity, what Optimized setting in Magician are you using?
I have mine in Advanced, but can`t see much difference between any of them, tbh.

Dirk Diggler · 19 Jan 2014 at 11:33

Idleman said:
Just out of curiosity, what Optimized setting in Magician are you using?
I have mine in Advanced, but can`t see much difference between any of them, tbh.

If I have it set for high performance it improves benchmark results. As far as anything else, it all seems the same to me regardless of settings.

Dervious · 19 Jan 2014 at 12:06

String said:
If I have it set for high performance it improves benchmark results. As far as anything else, it all seems the same to me regardless of settings.

Same here.

RAPID disabled, maximum performance, over provisioning enabled.

Oh, and latest RST drivers.