My SSD had a huge decrease in 4K Q32T1 Read and Write values after only two years. Why?

[andy82anandtech]

I have 2 x Samsung 850 Pro SSDs in Raid 0 and I performed the test with CrystalDiskMark 5.2.1. These are the old values of the test which I did two years ago:
https://i.postimg.cc/4dKbCR08/old-crystal-disk-mark-values.jpg

These are the new values of the test which I ran today:
https://i.postimg.cc/02GG1ftq/new-crystal-disk-mark-values.jpg

I used exactly the same PC with same motherboard and same SATA ports' connections. I secure erased both SSDs with Samsung Magician today before running the new test. Both tests were done with a fresh Windows 10 installation same build. I reapeated the new test many times but the results were similar (even using newer versions of CrystalDiskMark). The test shows a huge decrease in 4K Q32T1 Read and Write values after only two years of SSD usage.

Old 4K Q32T1 Read and Write values were: 447 MB/s (Read) and 399 MB/s (Write)
New 4K Q32T1 Read and Write values are: 290 MB/s (Read) and 251 MB/s (Write)

Other values (i.e. Seq Q32T1, Seq, 4K) are pretty much the same. The only performance decrease was in 4K Q32T1 values. The secure erase was not able to restore the excellent factory perfomance of 4K Q32T1 values. Why? Is it possible to restore the performance of those values by using other methods? Are those values showing a severe degradation of my SSD?

 

[IntelUser2000]

I can only think of Meltdown/Spectre patches affecting performance.
https://www.techspot.com/article/1556-meltdown-and-spectre-cpu-performance-windows/page3.html

Queue Depth 32 is very high, so I don't think it'll be too relevant to you. Sequentials are important for file transfers, and 4K low QD is for responsiveness. Try QD8 on tests next time.

 

[andy82anandtech]

Thanks for your reply IntelUser2000. My CPU is a very old i7-3820. The mobo is a X79 Dell-Alienware model for the Aurora R4 system. I have never updated the BIOS for the meltdown and spectre issue (latest BIOS update I did was in 2013). Also, both CrystalDiskMark tests I performed were done with a fresh Windows 10 installation (I don't think the automatic updates were able to install any security patch in a small amount of time which could affect the system performance). Another thing I don't understand is why the secure erase of the SSD (which I did via Samsung Magician) was not able to restore the SSD performance in the 4K Q32T1 values.

 

[MajinCry]

You don't update the BIOS, Windows has updates for them. Also, there's been a huge number of other exploits released that drain performance on Intel platforms. Try running InSpectre to disable the Meltdown and Spectre fixes to see if performance improves.

 

[andy82anandtech]

I don't think it could be relevant because as I said I ran the test with a fresh Windows 10 installation, no update done, it's a 2015 ISO build 10240 version 1507 (July 29, 2015 ) see this screenshot

https://i.postimg.cc/MTCLQLm3/winver.jpg

the Win 10 version where I ran the test has no update for the Meltdown and Spectre issues. So it's unlikely that could be the reason for the bad performance in 4K Q32T1 values

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I don't think it could be relevant because as I said I ran the test with a fresh Windows 10 installation, no update done, it's a 2015 ISO build 10240 version 1507 (July 29, 2015 ) see this screenshot

https://i.postimg.cc/MTCLQLm3/winver.jpg

the Win 10 version where I ran the test has no update for the Meltdown and Spectre issues. So it's unlikely that could be the reason for the bad performance in 4K Q32T1 values

(Some of) the updates patch microcode and can't be (completely) reverted just by downgrading. Check out that InSpectre utility and see what it says.

Although even with the performance hit, your CPU should still be able to mostly load a couple SSDs.

Have you made any other modifications to the system since initial benchmarking? (Different RAM, disabled or enabled caching, tweaking a BIOS setting that may have impacted RAID performance, etc.)

How are your case/drive temperatures? (The controllers will throttle at certain temps.)

Try different SATA cables.

There's a lot of variables.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Oh, also, test the drives individually. Might be one's just going bad.

 

[andy82anandtech]

No modifications at all: same RAM, no BIOS setting tweaking, case temp is low and stable, tried different SATA cables but the same issue persisted.

Then, another weird thing happened last night. I left my PC turned on for work and when I woke up today I found that the system updated automatically to Win10 version 1903. I tried to run the CrystalDiskMark test and this is what happened:

https://i.postimg.cc/bwJ6bmWg/4kq32t1-win1903.jpg

the 4K Q32T1 Read and Write values decreased even more: 245 MB/s (Read) and 210 MB/s (Write). Moreover, the GUI of CrystalDiskMark mysteriously changed as you can see from the screenshot. What do you think about that?

 

[john3850]

I just had windows update me to version 1903 and rechecked my ssd and nvme speeds which are still the same as the last version.
Clean up your drives from that install 30+Gb from the old install.

 

[andy82anandtech]

Do you mean deleting this folder or a different procedure?

https://i.postimg.cc/TY6Vysxz/win-folder.jpg

 

[john3850]

Just delete the old install files in windows folder.