OCZ Agility 3 Disappointing Performance

vipergrm

vipergrm

vipergrm

Associate
Joined
12 Mar 2007
Posts
282
Location
UK
Hi folks,

I recently upgraded my entire system including swapping out my Crucial 64GB Real C300 SSD to 120GB OCZ Agility 3. I noticed from specifications and reviews that the performance should be better on the Agility 3 with it's 500MB+ read/write speeds but sadly it is much worse.

I cloned the 64GB SSD to the new 120GB SSD and connected it to the exact same SATA cable and SATA III port as the original 64GB SSD was connected to and still there is a siginificant loss in performance. I took a screenshot of the Crucial 64GB SSD just before I took it out for comparison reasons and you can clearly see the performance difference...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7xco95bwllykp0u/Crcuial SSD Benchmark.png

https://www.dropbox.com/s/cdoui38keyl40hx/OCZ Agility 3.png

Has anyone else experienced similar issues and if so, were you able to fix it? Thanks!
 
Last edited:
Your images:





Assuming you have everything set up correctly (Intel SATA 3 port and AHCI mode) then you should see the full quoted speed by using the ATTO benchmark.

The SandForce based drives work best with compressible data.

I believe that's what ATTO uses and it's the benchmark OCZ use when quoting the maximum speeds.
 
Excellent. Thank you!

You are absolutely correct. SATA was set to IDE. I changed this to AHCI but then my machine doesn't boot. I get BSOD every time. Guess I might have to re-install Windows in this mode?
 
vipergrm said:
Excellent. Thank you!

You are absolutely correct. SATA was set to IDE. I changed this to AHCI but then my machine doesn't boot. I get BSOD every time. Guess I might have to re-install Windows in this mode?
Click to expand...

just download and run this file,reboot into bios set to ahci save/exit/boot into windows and thats it,no re install needed

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9741862
 
wazza300 said:
just download and run this file,reboot into bios set to ahci save/exit/boot into windows and thats it,no re install needed

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9741862
Click to expand...

Thanks for this Wazza! It's now botting in AHCI mode which is great :D

My Windows 7 score has gone from 7.2 to 7.7 however, the HD Tune test is still way short of even the C300. I'll run the other test you sent me and see how it goes. Cheers
 
Last edited:
Here is the screenshot (after I signed up to ImageShack - thanks). Still nowhere near the performance I was expecting and well less than half of the manufacturer's speed claims

attoocz.png


ocz30june20120052.png
 
Last edited:
In fact, here is a screenshot from a review I found:

imageviewv.png


I've upgraded to the latest firmware and also flashed a SATA speed fix. I'm going to send this back if I can't get it to improve. Seems pointless upgrading if in actual fact its a downgrade!
 
wazza300 said:
Are you on Intel SATA 3 ports? Those looklike SATA 2 speeds to me
Click to expand...

Yes they certainly do. I connected it to the exact same port as the C300 it replaced. I will double check that. It's the only logical reason why the speeds are mediocre. I could well have assumed that the 2 SATA III ports on my board are in actual fact SATA II. There is six ports in total - 4 black and 4 grey. I would have thought the grey ports are the SATA III ones? No?
 
on searching for your mb only found tht your mb has 2 sata3 connector which are the grey ones 2 nearest the atx power have you altered any of the bios settings regarding sata3
 
vipergrm said:
six ports in total - 4 black and 4 grey.
Click to expand...

Er thats 8 ;)

However yes, the grey ones are the Sata 3 ports.

Have you tried maybe installing the Intel RST drivers or even removing it and defaulting to msahci drivers to see if it makes a difference?

Also, try disconnecting the Agility 3 and clearing your motherboards bios, then hook up the Agility to the other grey port to definetly force redetection, the BIOS might be a bit confused and dropping the speed to SATA 2 speeds as default as those benches look exactly like how it is on Sata 2 controllers. Try another SATA cable to rule that out as well (unlikely, but you never know right?)

Failing that, it may be worth a shot at a clean windows install to rule out driver issues.
 
Justintime said:
Er thats 8 ;)

However yes, the grey ones are the Sata 3 ports.

Have you tried maybe installing the Intel RST drivers or even removing it and defaulting to msahci drivers to see if it makes a difference?

Also, try disconnecting the Agility 3 and clearing your motherboards bios, then hook up the Agility to the other grey port to definetly force redetection, the BIOS might be a bit confused and dropping the speed to SATA 2 speeds as default as those benches look exactly like how it is on Sata 2 controllers. Try another SATA cable to rule that out as well (unlikely, but you never know right?)

Failing that, it may be worth a shot at a clean windows install to rule out driver issues.
Click to expand...

Haha! Yes it is 6. 4+2 is 8 in my world :D

Yes I will try these things but what confuses me a little is that everything as remained the same since I had the Crucial 64GB C300 SSD apart from the driver obviously. Thanks for the suggestions
 
Last edited:
I've double checked the connection and it is definitely connected to a SATA III port. I did try another cable (not sure if it was SATA III) but this was pretty much the same. I also re-ran the Windows test and it has dropped to a 7.2 rating once again. I really have no idea why this is happening.

My only option left before replacement is re-installing Windows. This was a cloned install from the Crucial 64GB SSD so not sure if there is something there that could be causing the issue???

I should also note that I tried removing the Intel drivers and re-installing them but still no improvement!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom