Question SSD speeds dropped by about 50% in last month

lakawak

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I installed a Samsung 860 EVO SSD last fall and read the Crystal Disk Mark test and got 550 Read and 500 write. I checked it again a few months later and got the same. Then, I installed Samsung MAgician and decided to give the Rapid Mode a shot. I ran the test and got ridiculous numbers 2200 Read and 2060 Write. Now, I knew those didn't mean anything due to the Rapid Mode

Anyway, long story short, I just ran it again, and was getting in the low 200s for both. I then turned Rapid Mode off, restarted my computer, but with no change. Maybe about 250 and 220.

To be clear, my drive is fine. Both CrystalDiskInfo and SSD life are showing 100% Health for the drive, with just about 5 TB Written. Also, my disk is nowhere near being full, at just about 100 GB of the 460 GB total space being used. In fact, it was quite a bit more full the last time I tested with Rapid Mode off (and got the mid 500s) because I accidentally was using it for dumb purposes that was causing me to write over 4 TB (of that 5 TB that it is now) in about 5 months compared to less than 1 TB in the last 3 1/2 months.

Any suggestions on what could be causing this? I tried the test several times, using both CrystalDiskMark and Samsung Magician. Both got about the same mid 200s, which is barely higher than my old HDD is getting. Every time I did it after the first one, it was after a fresh restart with nothing else running. I have a bare bones startup, so there wasn't really anything much in the background, and whatever was would have been in my previous tests months ago as well.
 

lakawak

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I can't imagine that could cause that big a drop. Since the last time I got the 550 MB/s or so speed until now, I haven't put much on the drive. Maybe my used space went from 80-90 GB to 90-100 GB. And by that I mean, actually putting just 10-20 GB on it...not constantly putting things on, and deleting things with an eventual net gain of 10-20 GB. And since SSDs don't fragment as much as HDDs, it's hard to believe that any added fragmentation due to just 10-20 GB added could cause over a 50% drop
 

lakawak

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I forgot to mention that in between the last time I got the expected speeds and now, I did add an extra 16 GB of RAM to max my system out at 32 GB. (adding 2 8 GB sticks at different times) I don't see why that would DECREASE speeds, but since that is a hardware change since I last got the higher speeds, I thought I'd mention it in case someone knows something I don't know.

The RAM I added is the exact same brand and model RAM is what was already in my system, so there shouldn't be any compatibility issues. But that is definitely the only change in my computer
 
As the 860 is only a SATA drive, no way anyone is getting above 550 MB/sec without resorting to some sort of software solution for system RAM caching, etc...

I'd suggest skipping the RAPID mode...

Total writes will spike upward sharply during the periods that MS pushes out a 7 GB semi-annual update, etc.; based on my own 6 days per week usage pattern of 3-5 hours per day of casual surfing/gaming use, 9-10 TB per year of writes seems normal....
 

lakawak

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To address all the points made/suggestions above:

Yeah, I knew the Rapid Mode speeds are not legit. I just expected any subsequent tests to show that same inflated number. Or at least the original 550/500 numbers. Not a 60% dip in both. I did turn Rapid Mode off, and checked again, but the results were the same. Then again when I turned it back on, and still again when I turned it back off after trying some other stuff. I only tried it since I have 32 GB of RAM which is overkill for my needs. But when the RAM was so cheap on Amazon, I figured I'd max out my computer now before DDR3 RAM was even harder to find.

I definitely do a total shutdown at least every night, and it can't be anything related to Windows Updates, because I have worked very hard at "breaking" my Windows to prevent updates. As a result, I am still on Version 1803 which is what was available when I did the fresh install when I got the SSD drive in late September. I'd love to not have to break it, but since I have only Home, I can't defer updates without breaking it permanently.

I did check and Windows said the disk should be optimized, so I did, but that didn't help much. The Read speed went up slightly, but the Write speed is now even lower than 200. Like 175-180

I contacted Samsung so I'll see what they say. The only other thing I can think of that is different is I updated the firmware through Samsung Magician. I will be pretty pissed if the firmware update is the cause since they don't have way to revert back to previous versions. I think my Rapid Mode inflated reading was after the firmware update a couple months ago, but I'm not sure. It was the same night, but I don't know which I did first.
 

popatim

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200-250MB/s sounds like your Sata ports dropped to Sata2 speed. Can you check the bios and perhaps reset it after making note of any setting you changed so you can change them back after.

Don't trust windows to show you the real amount of space used. Use Windirstat, Treesize free, orSpacesniffer (run as admin) to check the drives used space.

Were you overclocked at all? Often filling all 4 ram slots will break overclocking and a bios reset to defaults will get things going again. You may have even dropped out of dual channel mode in your memory.