SSD performance dropoff as it fills up?

[DTBDFilms]

I read an article on OWC SSDs and how they maintain their performance even as the drive fills up. This was supposed to be in comparison to other SSDs (though it was mentioned in a SATA II article). Was wondering if this is something to expect for all other SSDs, if this is really a problem of the past (article was 2011), and basically if I could expect similar performance for other SSD makers as OWC.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Dereck47]

All SSDs need empty space on NAND chips in order use TRIM and Garbage Collection to maintain drive performance.

With current generation SSDs you probably won't notice any real-world performance slow down until your drive is over 90% filled with data.

 

[RetiredChief]

Summary from Link
Quote
For drives on the market today that don't already prioritize consistent IO, it is possible to deliver significant improvements in IO consistency through an increase in spare area. OCZ's Vector and Samsung's SSD 840 Pro both deliver much better IO consistency if you simply set aside 25% of the total NAND capacity as spare area. Consumer SSD prices are finally low enough where we're no longer forced to buy the minimum capacity for our needs. Whatever drive you end up buying, plan on using only about 75% of its capacity if you want a good balance between performance consistency and capacity.
End Quote
Ref: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6489/playing-with-op

 

[DTBDFilms]

Thanks you both for the help! I was looking at possibly getting a Crucial M4 though. Same rules y'all mentioned (i.e. 75-90% free and shouldn't have problems) apply?

 

[RetiredChief]

Yes. I love my M4's but their CG is not the best from what I remember.
Use it Mostly for My laptop and stuck one in my wifes desktop (on Intel Sata II port).
Myself, I'd probably not go to 10 % free - Think I would call 85% for max. All SSDs have a small amount of "reserved" so Probably a better amount for free would be 80 to 85 %. The best way to do that for a 128 Gig M4 is to limit the OS partition to say 95 to 100 gigs and leave the remained unused.

PS - If you alread have it partitioned and formated you can go into windows disk manager and shrink the partition down to that size.
If windows will not let you shrink the volume, it's probably because you have not disabled hibernation. Hibernation sticks a file at the end of the partition and it is not movable.

3 Things I do for all my systems with SSDs.
1) disable Hibernation. This reclaims (Saves) SSD space approx equal to ram. For a system with 8 gigs of Ram this could be up to 8 gigs saved ( 16 gigs of ram, saves upto 16 gigs.
2) Take controlof virtual memory (Page File). I always set Min and max to the same value (SSD or HDD). For Ram > than 6 gigs I set both Min and Max to 1024 mbs, for a 4 gig system, I'd try 1024, but may need to bump up to 2048 mb.
Windows will set swap file to approx 1.5 x Ram so for a 8 gig Ram system that is a wapping 12 Gigs of SSD space. So this will reclaim about 11 gigs! For HDDs it's not a space issue, but I do for other reason.
3) I disable restore points (Windows 7 back up for OS partition is great so I have NEVER need the restore points. Each restore point takes 300 mbs of disk space - JUST 10 restore points = 3 Gigs space. 10 Program installs = ten restore points. Over a couple of years you can well exceed 10 points. Alternative to disable is to just limit the amount of disk space allowed.

ALL three of these are very simple to do and a simple Google of the topic and you will find easy instructions.

 

[DTBDFilms]

Best answer selected by DTBDFilms.

 

[DTBDFilms]

Thanks y'all!!