SSD performance Windows 7 vs Windows 10

[Coup27]

I decided to give Windows 10 another go yesterday with a clean install on a freshly secure erased SSD and despite the usual reasons for wanting to stick with 7 I just felt the OS wasn't as fast as a clean install of Windows 7.

I ran the CDM benchmark and the random 4k reads were 29MB/s. I thought this to be quite low so I repeated it a few times and it fluctuated between 29 and 33. Still not brilliant.

I cloned my previous W7 install onto the same SSD and with the same chipset and RST drives installed I ran CDM again and got 38MB/s, a ~30% increase. I ran the 4k test a couple more times and consistently the W7 score was more than W10.

Has anybody else experienced anything similar? I want to move to Windows 10 but I can't let go of 7. It works so well and I have complete control on how it looks and works. Windows 10 is trying to shove a smartphone on my desktop and lock me out of how it works (updates, start menu) and I just can't accept that on my computer!

 

[jhansman]

All I can tell you is that after a clean install of Win10 on my 850 EVO, (in RAPID mode) my system has never been peppier. Win 7 never was this quick, clean install or otherwise.

FWIW, my 4k reads are around 58-60 MB/s, consistently on AS SSD Benchmark. You didn't mention what drive you are running, so perhaps it is a factor. As for Win10, I doubt I could ever go back to 7. I still have to use 7 at work and it feels like a dinosaur by comparison.

 

[Coup27]

I'm also referring to an 850 EVO. Do you disable RAPID before running a benchmark? If not, those 4k reads aren't actual figures as they're being inflated by the RAPID feature.

I just looked back at a screenshot I kept of my 840 EVO with RAPID enabled and that benched 80mb/s on 4k read.

 

[LTC8K6]

Win10 is quicker than 7, imo.

You can get rid of the start menu live icons, and just have the plain start menu, so don't let the icons bother you.

 

[therealnickdanger]

My experience with Windows 10 so far has not proven to be noticeably faster than Windows 7, so I haven't upgraded more than a handful of machines. I know that according to some benchmarks, Windows 8 and Windows 10 both have better SSD support and performance out of the box, but it seems like diminishing returns more than profound gains.

That said, I don't think anything is faster than a clean install of Windows 7, be it SSD or HDD. Unfortunately, once you start installing updates, Windows 7 slows down a lot. I recently did clean installs of Windows 7 SP1 Pro on nine Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad machines (including the regular suite of AV, Office, etc.) and even with old 500GB HDDs and only 4GB RAM, they all felt snappier than my 3570KOC+SSD+32GB RAM. After installing updates and rebooting a couple times, the performance advantage all but disappeared.

Likewise, Windows 10 felt really snappy at first as well, but that feeling fell away after repeated updates as well.

I think I'm going to do a barebones Windows 7 install and completely turn off all updates. If it gets infected, I'll just wipe it.

 

[XavierMace]

they all felt snappier than my 3570KOC+SSD+32GB RAM.

Then you're doing something very wrong.

 

[BlueWeasel]

I'm also referring to an 850 EVO. Do you disable RAPID before running a benchmark? If not, those 4k reads aren't actual figures as they're being inflated by the RAPID feature.

I just looked back at a screenshot I kept of my 840 EVO with RAPID enabled and that benched 80mb/s on 4k read.

Just for reference, my 850 EVO hits 48mb/s on 4k reads with RAPID disabled.

 

[pauldun170]

I decided to give Windows 10 another go yesterday with a clean install on a freshly secure erased SSD and despite the usual reasons for wanting to stick with 7 I just felt the OS wasn't as fast as a clean install of Windows 7.

I ran the CDM benchmark and the random 4k reads were 29MB/s. I thought this to be quite low so I repeated it a few times and it fluctuated between 29 and 33. Still not brilliant.

I cloned my previous W7 install onto the same SSD and with the same chipset and RST drives installed I ran CDM again and got 38MB/s, a ~30% increase. I ran the 4k test a couple more times and consistently the W7 score was more than W10.

Has anybody else experienced anything similar? I want to move to Windows 10 but I can't let go of 7. It works so well and I have complete control on how it looks and works. Windows 10 is trying to shove a smartphone on my desktop and lock me out of how it works (updates, start menu) and I just can't accept that on my computer!

After you went to Win10, did you update all the drivers? Chipset\Sata\Sound\ etc tec tec

 

[therealnickdanger]

Then you're doing something very wrong.

In context, obviously I didn't mean that those old computers are actually faster or better. When the OS isn't bogged down with all the updates, patches, registry bloat, applications, and files, it is more responsive. I thought this was common knowledge.

 

[Coup27]

Just for reference, my 850 EVO hits 48mb/s on 4k reads with RAPID disabled.

What setup is this? Also what benchmark program?

After you went to Win10, did you update all the drivers? Chipset\Sata\Sound\ etc tec tec

Of course.

 

[BlueWeasel]

What setup is this? Also what benchmark program?

2600K at 4.8ghz
EVO 850 256GB
Win 10 Pro

Benchmark used was CrystalDisk Mark.

 

[Coup27]

I don't know how you're hitting those numbers unless your higher clocked CPU and twice as much RAM are assisting in any way. After messing around with W10 for a while I secure erased my 850 EVO and did a clean install of W7. With all the latest drivers the most I can get is 42MB/s. My system boots in around 15 seconds and feels blazing fast so I'm happy with it really.

Either it's something to do with how the SSD works or how CDM works but I can always get a much higher 4k read score when I test only the 4k and don't press all. When I did all earlier I got low 30's. Immediately after I did just the 4k and got low 40's.