I recently built a Demonstration PC to show my customers the speed of the latest Intel Sandy Bridge CPU, Windows 7 and SSD's.
The specs are:
Gigabyte H67MA-D2H
Intel Core i5 2300
2x2GB Kingston DDR3-1333MHZ
OCZ 60G Vertex II E Series SSD
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64
I noticed the SSD was not performing like it should (below) and could not work out why.
So I set about working it out for myself and found the problem.
I found the same problem on a new PC I built over the weekend using the new B3 mobo with the fixed chipset so that is not the problem.
Fault Finding Log:
Loaded optimized bios defaults
changed bios to AHCI
Installed Win 7 HP x64 SP1 to 1TB WD Black WD1002FAEX on SATA III Deleting all partitions first.
Installed Lan Driver
Turned off UAC
Secure erased SSD with OCZ toolbox v2.33
initialised, partitioned and quick formatted SSD
Ran ATTO v2.46
As you can see the performance is back so it isn't a hardware problem or a Windows problem or an SP1 problem!
Installed latest Intel INF 9.2.0.1025
No great change.
Installed Latest Intel HD Family GFX driver 15.21.12.64.2321
Bingo!!! That certainly looks like the problem. Who would have guessed a graphics driver could do that!
More Testing:
Secure erased SSD with OCZ toolbox v2.33
initialised, partitioned and quick formatted SSD
Removed WD black Drive used for above.
Installed Win 7 HP x64 SP1 to SSD with HD 5450 GFX card in place
Installed Lan Driver
Turned off UAC
Installed latest Intel INF 9.2.0.1025
Rebooted
Ran ATTO v2.46
Large Write Performance was down 27%!
This is with no Intel or ATI GFX driver installed
Took the ATI card out
Large Write Performance is back up to about 266000
So there is no way to have normal SSD write performance and any sort of 3D performance at the same time.
I tested a setting in the Bios called Onboard VGA, it has two options 1) Enable if no ext PEG 2) Always Enable. With the GFX card in but no drivers installed I get good SSD performance with 2) Always Enable and bad performance with 1) Enable if no ext PEG.
You would think having both enabled would use more bandwidth so it may not be a bandwidth issue.
Next test:
I took the GFX card out leaving the bios option on Always Enabled and installed the Intel GFX driver. SSD performance went bad again. So still no way of having 3D and SSD speed.
Built another PC with a GA-P67A-UD3-B3 mobo instead of a H67.
I've just finished building it and find I can not get normal write performace at all!
All the options that would make the write performance normal on the H67 mobo are absent on the P67 even without 3D performance.
To summarise I have three different mobos with three different 60GB OCZ SSD's all showing a 27% loss of large write performance.
I have opened a ticket with Gigabyte. Their response was.
"Dear Sir,
Thank you for your kindly mail and inquiry. About the issue you mentioned, we do not guarantee all 3rd party H/W monitor/benchmark utilities will work properly with our motherboard because most of the S/W does not know our H/W design and impossible optimize their S/W for our motherboard. However, if you still think it is a driver issue, we suggest you to try to use other utility and see how it works. You could also contact with the Intel Chipset driver vendor for further help directly. Sorry if there is any inconvenience.
At last, if you still have any further question to this issue or suggestion about our products/service, please do not hesitate to contact with us. If you have any issue different from original, make sure you issue a new form in order to get proper assistance and it may be response faster as well. We will try our best to help you resolve the problem ASAP.
Best Regards,
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY"
Sure.. ATTO is lying! But only sometimes.
Also tried disableing USB 3 with no change.
Tried drivers from gigabyte site and latest from Intel site - no change.
The specs are:
Gigabyte H67MA-D2H
Intel Core i5 2300
2x2GB Kingston DDR3-1333MHZ
OCZ 60G Vertex II E Series SSD
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64
I noticed the SSD was not performing like it should (below) and could not work out why.
So I set about working it out for myself and found the problem.
I found the same problem on a new PC I built over the weekend using the new B3 mobo with the fixed chipset so that is not the problem.
Fault Finding Log:
Loaded optimized bios defaults
changed bios to AHCI
Installed Win 7 HP x64 SP1 to 1TB WD Black WD1002FAEX on SATA III Deleting all partitions first.
Installed Lan Driver
Turned off UAC
Secure erased SSD with OCZ toolbox v2.33
initialised, partitioned and quick formatted SSD
Ran ATTO v2.46
As you can see the performance is back so it isn't a hardware problem or a Windows problem or an SP1 problem!
Installed latest Intel INF 9.2.0.1025
No great change.
Installed Latest Intel HD Family GFX driver 15.21.12.64.2321
Bingo!!! That certainly looks like the problem. Who would have guessed a graphics driver could do that!
More Testing:
Secure erased SSD with OCZ toolbox v2.33
initialised, partitioned and quick formatted SSD
Removed WD black Drive used for above.
Installed Win 7 HP x64 SP1 to SSD with HD 5450 GFX card in place
Installed Lan Driver
Turned off UAC
Installed latest Intel INF 9.2.0.1025
Rebooted
Ran ATTO v2.46
Large Write Performance was down 27%!
This is with no Intel or ATI GFX driver installed
Took the ATI card out
Large Write Performance is back up to about 266000
So there is no way to have normal SSD write performance and any sort of 3D performance at the same time.
I tested a setting in the Bios called Onboard VGA, it has two options 1) Enable if no ext PEG 2) Always Enable. With the GFX card in but no drivers installed I get good SSD performance with 2) Always Enable and bad performance with 1) Enable if no ext PEG.
You would think having both enabled would use more bandwidth so it may not be a bandwidth issue.
Next test:
I took the GFX card out leaving the bios option on Always Enabled and installed the Intel GFX driver. SSD performance went bad again. So still no way of having 3D and SSD speed.
Built another PC with a GA-P67A-UD3-B3 mobo instead of a H67.
I've just finished building it and find I can not get normal write performace at all!
All the options that would make the write performance normal on the H67 mobo are absent on the P67 even without 3D performance.
To summarise I have three different mobos with three different 60GB OCZ SSD's all showing a 27% loss of large write performance.
I have opened a ticket with Gigabyte. Their response was.
"Dear Sir,
Thank you for your kindly mail and inquiry. About the issue you mentioned, we do not guarantee all 3rd party H/W monitor/benchmark utilities will work properly with our motherboard because most of the S/W does not know our H/W design and impossible optimize their S/W for our motherboard. However, if you still think it is a driver issue, we suggest you to try to use other utility and see how it works. You could also contact with the Intel Chipset driver vendor for further help directly. Sorry if there is any inconvenience.
At last, if you still have any further question to this issue or suggestion about our products/service, please do not hesitate to contact with us. If you have any issue different from original, make sure you issue a new form in order to get proper assistance and it may be response faster as well. We will try our best to help you resolve the problem ASAP.
Best Regards,
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY"
Sure.. ATTO is lying! But only sometimes.
Also tried disableing USB 3 with no change.
Tried drivers from gigabyte site and latest from Intel site - no change.
