Samsung 840 Pro. Firmware Update?

Kasey · Jul 1, 2014

So I decided to do a benchmark to see if I should update my firmware for my SSD. My Read speeds are off the charts. However, Write speeds are good for an SSD but definitely trailing by a lot. Should I update Firmware?

If at some point I sounded ignorant in this post. It is because I am ignorant of this situation. I basically searched online if Firmware updates were necessary found some topics and the conclusion was "if it's not broke, don't fix it." Many were using ATTO as to see if update was necessary (idk why since updates are usually bug fixes and not performance upgrades but thought I'd try). My speeds were normal but I haven't seen such a gap between read and write yet :G. Just thought I'd dodge those "why you doing this instead of "this"" questions by explaining the situation

EarthDog · Jul 1, 2014

I take it you are using some sort of caching on that disk? Those read speeds are indicative of such performance. Normally, that drive wouldn't hit more than 550MB in reads and you are at 3,4xxMB reads...impossible on a single drive that is 'normally aspirated'.

As you noted, firmware can help performance if something is lacking, but normally, it isn't a performance thing, but more for fixes...

Kasey · Jul 1, 2014

EarthDog said:
I take it you are using some sort of caching on that disk? Those read speeds are indicative of such performance. Normally, that drive wouldn't hit more than 550MB in reads and you are at 3,4xxMB reads...impossible on a single drive that is 'normally aspirated'.

As you noted, firmware can help performance if something is lacking, but normally, it isn't a performance thing, but more for fixes...

You're write. I thought i turned off cache when I first installed the drive for the initial set-up, but it seems I was mistaken

EarthDog · Jul 1, 2014

Right(correct).

Also, your writes do seem a bit low.

Kasey · Jul 1, 2014

Well.. this is awkward... Turned of cache - restarted computer - Results were ridiculous

edit/ restarted and ran it again. same results.. I broke something

EarthDog · Jul 1, 2014

Umm, its still on... or something is messed up...

Did you reboot the PC?

Kasey · Jul 2, 2014

EarthDog said:
Umm, its still on... or something is messed up...

Did you reboot the PC?

restarted computer twice. confirmed cache was off. something definitely messed up. Anyways, I think speeds are little slow because I have it set up for more reliability than I do for Performance. (unless those settings in Magician don't really effect the benchmark).

agentbad · Jul 3, 2014

Those speeds aren't wrong my friend you just have rapid mode enabled.

Samsung 840 Evo w/rapid mode enabled:

My Samsung Magician benchmark specs are even crazier. Download the new Samsung Magician v4.4 and rapid mode 1.1 can use up to 4gbs of ram. Stupid fast!

Spawn-Inc · Jul 8, 2014

agentbad said:
Those speeds aren't wrong my friend you just have rapid mode enabled.

Samsung 840 Evo w/rapid mode enabled:

My Samsung Magician benchmark specs are even crazier. Download the new Samsung Magician v4.4 and rapid mode 1.1 can use up to 4gbs of ram. Stupid fast!

outside of the benchmark, does it make a difference in everyday use?

deathman20 · Jul 8, 2014

Its got to use the ram for storage space til it can write. That could be a issue if a sudden power down situation. I know the SSD's typically have caps enough to finish writing what is in cache to the drive at least.

Also I do have write back - cache enabled on all my drives. It does help with performance, at least it did on earlier drives. No rapid thing that was mentioned above. I get around 550MB/sec for Read and 530MB/sec Writes

agentbad · Jul 9, 2014

Spawn-Inc said:
outside of the benchmark, does it make a difference in everyday use?

I run an x58 mobo so I'm stuck on sata II ports if I want to use trim. With rapid mode enabled I do get a speed boost but since it's only using 1gb of ram it's nothing crazy though load times in games are pretty awesome. Now samsung just released a new version of magician that let's you allocate up to 4gb of ram to use in rapid mode which should boost performance even more. I'm going to test it out soon and let you know how it goes.

Spawn-Inc · Jul 9, 2014

agentbad said:
I run an x58 mobo so I'm stuck on sata II ports if I want to use trim. With rapid mode enabled I do get a speed boost but since it's only using 1gb of ram it's nothing crazy though load times in games are pretty awesome. Now samsung just released a new version of magician that let's you allocate up to 4gb of ram to use in rapid mode which should boost performance even more. I'm going to test it out soon and let you know how it goes.

hmm, if it works good then it would certainly make having 16gb or more ram in a system. although as deathman mentioned, what happens when the power goes out.

Farwalker2u · Jul 20, 2014

Kasey,
I also got similar results using ATTO to benchmark my Samsung 840 PRO 256GB SSD.
I have Magician OS optimization set for maximum performance and have RAPID mode on. My system has 16 GB of RAM some of which is being used by the RAPID mode to produce the numbers over 550 MB/s.

IAmMoen · Aug 28, 2014

So I got interesting results today when I did this. Read and write both get awfully high and then read drops like a stone. But good gracious those numbers are huge. Granted numbers in a benchmark only give a tiny glimpse into what the actual real world usability situation is.

deathman20 · Aug 28, 2014

Weird man. That is some funky results.

If the computer is on a UPS and having this enabled I'd be all over it. Or my work laptop, but I use alot of my 16GB that I have currently.

Samsung 840 Pro. Firmware Update?

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