Vertex 4 write speed slow

Soldato
Joined
28 Dec 2003
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The write speed on my Vertex 4 seems a bit on the slow side. Any ideas?

asssd.JPG
 
A couple of things to try.

1. Are you into the right sata ports on your board?
2. Is the drive running the latest firmware?
3. Is windows installed using the AHCI setting in the bios?
 
A couple of things to try.

1. Are you into the right sata ports on your board?
2. Is the drive running the latest firmware?
3. Is windows installed using the AHCI setting in the bios?

Yep, it's in the first 6Gbps port and Intel RST confirms it's running at this speed. It's on firmware 1.4 - I know there's a 1.5 but there shouldn't be much speed difference between them. Yep, on AHCI.

I read that performance drops once they get over 50% full.

Yeah I read that but it's only 35% full - fresh Windows install a few days ago.
 
Yep, it's in the first 6Gbps port and Intel RST confirms it's running at this speed. It's on firmware 1.4 - I know there's a 1.5 but there shouldn't be much speed difference between them. Yep, on AHCI.

I would update the firmware.

Firmware updates in the past have added 100mb/sec increases namely on the M4. Cant hurt can it?
 
Hi vertigo,

Some things:

- you should flash your V4 to the latest fw level (1.5); 1.5 does come with a useful performance boost

- I can assure you that there is no permanent performance drop when the drive gets to 50% full. Putting it simply - The V4 has two write modes, known as 'performance' and 'storage'. The drive stays in performance mode as long as there are performance blocks to write to. On a V4 128GB 50% of the blocks (LBA) are performance storage. If one writes continuously (without pause to let trim or GC functionality recover blocks) then the V4 is compelled to write to the slower storage space and it will also begin to move previously written data out of performance space to storage space (thereby freeing up performance space for fast writes to again occur). It is this switch of mode that causes the slow down. In real world use it is most unlikely for a user to slip out of performance mode. Indeed it is very difficult to force a V4 into storage mode unless you use a synthetic benchmark to force its invocation (such as, running a linear write test which writes to every available block on the drive without pause).

The amount of performance storage space available to write to at any time is a percentage of the freespace on the drive. OCZ hasn't disclosed what this percentage is (as they guard their IP closely) but from my own testing I think it is safe to assume that it does not fall below 40-50%. So, to put this into context - even when you reach 80Gb of your V4 being used, you'll be able to write at least 19-24GB of data in one go without slipping out of performance mode (subject to the drive having been given a few moments to recover from any prior write activity). The moving of data from performance space to storage space happens very quickly (a few minutes or less). So to all practical extents there is nothing to be concerned about.

i.m.o. the V4 is a cracking drive

- some basic tips for getting better results in AS SSD: let your drive rest for a few minutes between AS SSD runs; make sure you engage the high performance plan in windows; OC your CPU (returns diminish quickly beyond 4800MHz); disable speedstep and CPU power saving options ('Cstates')

Have fun.

Regds, JR
 
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OC your CPU (returns diminish quickly beyond 4800MHz); disable speedstep and CPU power saving options ('Cstates')

Why would cpu overclocking have any impact on SSD performance?

Why would disabling standard CPU power saving options have any impact on SSD performance?

I've never had one of these drives to play with (previous experience with other OCZ SSDs put me off their products on a permanent basis), but it isn't credible that these sorts of steps should be necessary.
 
overclocking a cpu has nothing to do with your ssd speeds.

flash the firmware and make sure your bios is the latest and you should see what you want to see
 
overclocking a cpu has nothing to do with your ssd speeds.

Hi cammy,

It surely does - particularly on the 4K's in AS SSD.

If you would like to see how high AS SSD results can go with the V4 have a quick look at this thread - http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?103718-AS-SSD-Olympics&highlight=as+ssd+olympics

When trying to set land speed records with AS SSD another key factor is disabling non-essential background services. The game is all about stopping any background activity that may distract the AS SSD run.

Regds, JR
 
I've never had one of these drives to play with (previous experience with other OCZ SSDs put me off their products on a permanent basis), but it isn't credible that these sorts of steps should be necessary.

Hi Bremen,

They are not necessary - they are only 'fixes' to be able to maximise benchmark results. I certainly don't run with the 'fixes' applied outside of playing benchmark games.

Sorry if I misled anybody.

Regds, JR
 
Hi cammy,

It surely does - particularly on the 4K's in AS SSD.

If you would like to see how high AS SSD results can go with the V4 have a quick look at this thread - http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?103718-AS-SSD-Olympics&highlight=as+ssd+olympics

When trying to set land speed records with AS SSD another key factor is disabling non-essential background services. The game is all about stopping any background activity that may distract the AS SSD run.

Regds, JR

Hi JR

what I ment was in this instance overclocking the cpu has nothing to do with it.
The OP's drive is way of the mark of what it can do and this is down to firmware and making sure he's running the latest bios for his board. Im sure of this because Ive had these issues in the past and this is what fixed it for me and im sure it will fix it for the OP.

cheers
ohhh and welcome to the forum mate ;)
 
Hi JR

what I ment was in this instance overclocking the cpu has nothing to do with it.
The OP's drive is way of the mark of what it can do and this is down to firmware and making sure he's running the latest bios for his board. Im sure of this because Ive had these issues in the past and this is what fixed it for me and im sure it will fix it for the OP.

cheers
ohhh and welcome to the forum mate ;)

Agreed and thank you for the welcome cammy.
 
Sounds like Windows has loaded the wrong driver for it or something - I had this issue on my Crucial M4 - when I reinstalled Windows the problem had gone!
 
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