Low IOPS and 4k qd32 speeds on 840 pro

Asp · Apr 6, 2013

Sorry if my english seems bad :c

I just bought a samsung 840 pro (256gb) as my first ssd ever and I did a fresh install of windows 8 on it.

But, the benchmarks i did show slower performance than the others i saw on the internet, for example, i'm getting 30k - 36k in random reads IOPS (with the samsung magician) and like 150 - 160 mb/s on 4k QD32 reads (crystaldiskmark software), sequential looks fine. I did these tets with ~65% of free space on the disk and windows 8 pro x64.

I have it installed on SATA6G_0 (sata III), AHCI mode. My motherboard is a sabertooth 990fx r2.0 and the controller for the sata ports is amd (i have the amd driver for ahci (i did these tests on the ms controller and same results).

I have a secondary disk (hdd) for storage on SATA6G_1, but it shouldn't matter.

I didn't found any solutions and i know that in everyday use the benchmark shouldn't matter, but i still wanna know what's happening.

photonboy · Apr 6, 2013

Two points:
1) Benchmark results vary between programs. Make sure you compare the SAME benchmark tool.

2) Not all SATA controllers are the same. You may have more than one choice. Often the INTEL one is best.

Asp · Apr 6, 2013

I tested on various programs, the results are the same, always lower than the benchmarks on the internet (i know the environments can change the result, but 36k IOPS is way lower than 90k)

If i have an AMD controller (it says in the motherboard manual), should i install the AMD drivers?, can i install drivers from another manufacturer?.

popatim · Apr 7, 2013

did you install windows to the ssd with the HDD still connected?

photonboy · Apr 7, 2013

Asp :

My Crystalmark v3.0.2 results (1000MB sample, run once)
Seq read: 530.5
4K read: 34.46
4K QD32 read-> 388.1

4K write-> 85.99

*This is on a Samsung Pro 256MB SSD under Windows 8, on an Asus Z77 motherboard.

photonboy · Apr 7, 2013

UPDATE:

I somehow missed the fact that you have the Sabertooth motherboard (funnily, I also have a Sabertooth but the Z77). So you have the AMD SB950 controller.

*You should be getting close to my results. Not necessarily as good (unsure) but definitely better than reported.

The ONLY software you must insure that's installed for SATA is the "chipset" software:
"AMD Chipset Driver V8.973 (8.0.877.0) for Windows XP/Vista/7 32bit & 64bit.(WHQL)" (under the Support->Windows 8 section for your motherboard).

Let's redo the CHECKLIST:
1) SSD connected to one of the six SATA6 (brown) connections
2) AHCI in the BIOS
3) CHIPSET software installed from motherboard support site
4) update the BIOS (if needed)

**OTHER**
I found a benchmark with the Samsung 840 Pro using your SB950 chipset. It's done with AS SSD so you can find that and run the benchmark to see how it compares.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1190026/official-samsung-ssd830-840-owners-club/1340

My guess at this point is that you're getting the proper results but that the AMD SATA controller is inferior to a modern Intel version. You didn't mention the MAXIMUM speed (seq read) but if that's above 400MB/s then it's likely that your performance is proper for your chipset.

The difference between the latest SATA controllers from different companies tends to be more similar performance for the larger files (seq read) but a higher difference between the smaller files due to inefficiencies in the design leading to delays that add up with a large number of small files. That's why 4K scores can vary significantly between controllers.

I don't have much more advice though as I am unsure what to expect from AMD's SB950 SATA rev 3 (6 gbps) controllers.

photonboy · Apr 7, 2013

AS SSD benchmark

I ran a benchmark to compare to the link in the above comment. Strangely, I got a higher score but my 4K was lower (and Access Times higher)For example, my 4K read was only 25.13 but my total score ended up being 1078. (It's uncertain if an SSD firmware update would change the score, though the SATA controller differences definitely do affect things).

If your TOTAL SCORE in AS SSD is lower than 800 you probably have an issue somewhere.

(The TOTAL SCORE is also misleading. The 4K score is more important than the Seq score as it indicates how well small file transfers perform and that's what tends to limit performance)

*Samsung Magician management (won't affect your current performance):
1) update the firmware
(I had to use the CD or USB boot method for this to work).

2) apply overprovisioning
(recommended. It basically blocks of the free space you normally shouldn't use anyway. Rather than remembering to leave 20% of the space free it blocks this off so you can still use almost 100% of the remaining usable space with no performance issues.)

Asp · Apr 8, 2013

Thanks for all the responses!

popatim :

No, i disconected every sata port when i installed Windows 8 on the ssd.

1) SSD connected to one of the six SATA6 (brown) connections
2) AHCI in the BIOS
3) CHIPSET software installed from motherboard support site
4) update the BIOS (if needed)

Everything set except for the chipset software from asus site, im downloading it.

I updated the firmware via samsung magician, the benchmarks didn't change.

Here i post all the benchmarks i runned, all of them in windows 8 x64.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/825/44699523.png

Edit:
A question, the processor can bottleneck the ssd?, because mine is a little outdated (AMD Phenom x4 965, clocked at 3,68 GHz), my board is AM3+ but i the phenom i have installed on it is AM3.

photonboy · Apr 9, 2013

Some of your AS SSD scores are quite similar to those in the link I sent above somewhere with the same SSD and chipset though the overall score is lower than expected.

I wouldn't expect your CPU to make a big difference.

*The bottom line is that your SSD is still very fast. In real-world usage you'd hardly notice a difference even if your SSD was 3x faster. If the CHIPSET drive update doesn't improve things there's little else you can do.

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Low IOPS and 4k qd32 speeds on 840 pro

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