[EN] OCZ Vertex 4 speed

[henning]

Hi,

based on the recommondations I bought a OCZ Vertex 4 with 128 GB for my system. So far so good, installation went smooth with Desperado and the system is running well. Everything nice and the owner was happy until Devil ;-) asked me to do some checks  to compare his Vertex 3 with the Vertex 4

hdparm -Tt --direct /dev/sdX = Result
His Vertex 3 delivers ~ 480 MB/s

I'm stuck with the following

Timing O_Direct cached reads : 498  MB in 2 sec = 248.51 MB/sec
Timing O_Direct disk reads : 1044 MB in 3 sec =347.92 MB/sec

The board is a Asus P8z68 V-Pro , the SSD is connected to one SATA6 port
When setting up the disk I followed the remarks on the wiki. There is only one partition on it.

Anybody with a clue what is going wrong here ?
Any further details needed ?

Code: [Select]


/dev/sda:

ATA device, with non-removable media
        Model Number:       OCZ-VERTEX4                            
        Serial Number:      OCZ-JW4ME492INDP21VC
        Firmware Revision:  1.3    
        Transport:          Serial, ATA8-AST, SATA 1.0a, SATA II Extensions, SATA Rev 2.5, SATA Rev 2.6, SATA Rev 3.0
Standards:
        Supported: 9 8 7 6
        Likely used: 9
Configuration:
        Logical         max     current
        cylinders       16383   0
        heads           16      0
        sectors/track   63      0
        --
        LBA    user addressable sectors:  250069680
        LBA48  user addressable sectors:  250069680
        Logical  Sector size:                   512 bytes
        Physical Sector size:                   512 bytes
        Logical Sector-0 offset:                  0 bytes
        device size with M = 1024*1024:      122104 MBytes
        device size with M = 1000*1000:      128035 MBytes (128 GB)
        cache/buffer size  = unknown
        Nominal Media Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
Capabilities:
        LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
        Queue depth: 32
        Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard, no device specific minimum
        R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16  Current = 16
        DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
             Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
        PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
             Cycle time: no flow control=120ns  IORDY flow control=120ns



tks
Henning

[ayla]

Hi henning,

Motherboard: Asus P8Z68 LE, Vertex 3, SATA6 port

SATA mode in Bios set to "IDE-kompatible":

/dev/sda:
 Timing O_DIRECT cached reads:   498 MB in  2.00 seconds = 248.57 MB/sec
 Timing O_DIRECT disk reads: 1136 MB in  3.00 seconds = 378.15 MB/sec

with SATA mode set to AHCI:

Timing O_DIRECT cached reads: 924 MB in 2.00 seconds = 461.40 MB/sec
Timing O_DIRECT disk reads: 1402 MB in 3.00 seconds = 466.88 MB/sec

hth
ayla

EDIT: Warning -an Windows XP test system won't boot here in AHCI mode, it needs IDE.

[henning]

Hi,

I changed the Sata port from port 2 to port 1 , port 2 stays mty.
Cable replaced , result is the same.
Whilst googeling I found following page :https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSD_Benchmarking#OCZ-VERTEX_4_120_gb

and the results are quite different. Where they report
Quote
# hdparm -Tt /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   16950 MB in  2.00 seconds = 8486.21 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads: 722 MB in  3.01 seconds = 240.09 MB/sec
Unquote
With my setup I achieve ~ 12000-13000 MB/sec for the first  and about 270 MB/sec for the second read.

So, what is the actual difference in testing with the "--direct" option ?

And yes I noted that they tested the performance with max speeds of 5.0 GB/s due to the PCI card. But still.

Tks for some enlightenmend  :idea:

Henning

[devil]

Did you enable AHCI in the BIOS?

from hdparm manpage:

Code: [Select]

--direct
              Use  the kernel´s "O_DIRECT" flag when performing a -t timing test.  This bypasses the page cache, causing the reads to go directly from the drive into hdparm's buffers, using so-called "raw" I/O.  In many cases, this can produce results that appear much faster than the usual page cache method,  giving a better indication of raw device and driver performance.

greetz
devil

[henning]

Moin,

yes, AHCI is enabled in the Bios. Really strange.
Maybe I switch it off and see what happens ;-)

Tks
Henning

[henning]

Moin,

small update : checked on the OCZ Forum and have been advised as follows :
Quote
The results aren't unusual for FW 1.3. Firmware 1.4 changed the max speeds of the 128GB Vertex 4 significantly. Additionally, the specified speeds are based on ATTO results. You really should update to the current release for optimum performance.
Unquote

Means : firmware upgrade and reinstallation :-(

Tks
Henning

[dieres]

Are you shure you have to reinstall ? I don't think so.

[devil]

It depends, some firmware upgrades for OCZ drives are destructive upgrades. The one for the Vertex 4 is such an upgrade. I wrote something on it in german:
http://www.pc-magazin.de/news/ocz-beschleunigt-vertex-4-mit-neuer-firmware-1278937,6510.html

greetz
devil

[DeepDayze]

Flashing hard drive/SSD firmware is risky business so it is always good to back up everything before doing this

[henning]

Hi,

I updated in the meantime the SSD to Firmware 1.4.1. it was destructive, but since the system was kind of fresh no big deal.

The results are as follows

hdparm -Tt --direct /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing O_DIRECT cached reads:   804 MB in  2.00 seconds = 401.21 MB/sec
 Timing O_DIRECT disk reads: 1294 MB in  3.00 seconds = 430.91 MB/sec

and

hdparm -Tt /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 Timing cached reads:   26552 MB in  2.00 seconds = 13294.27 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads: 1196 MB in  3.00 seconds = 398.66 MB/sec

That looks much better  

Tks
Henning