New OCZ Vertex 4 Firmware Update 1.5 Beta Enhances Performance

[btarunr]

Nearly two months after releasing Firmware Update 1.4RC for its Vertex 4 series solid state drives (SSDs), OCZ released yet another firmware update, which pushes sequential speeds further up. The new firmware update version 1.5 beta increases maximum read speed on the 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB variants of Vertex 4 to 560 MB/s (up from 550 MB/s), while maximum write speeds are increased by 6.5% on average. The 256 GB variant sees the highest write performance increase, by around 10%. The update can be applied using OCZ Toolbox.



Source: Expreview

[Bjorn_Of_Iceland]

just went better than force gt, very nice for its price point the vertex is.

[RejZoR]

We can assume that Crucial will release a firmware for Crucial M4 around the same time OCZ will. It's often like this...

[faramir]

Why beta ? On OCZ forums staff stated that "1.5 beta" has bugfixes in addition to speed enhancements compared to previous version. Why call it "beta" then if it's supposedly better than the odler version ? Why treat your customers as lab rats ?

[RejZoR]

BETA just means it has gone through basic testing but is still not yet ready for mass public release.
Prototypes, Pre-releases and Alphas are stuff that is not tested much and most should stay away from them.

[imitation]

Have they fixed the 'feature' where write performance drops below 80MB/s when more than 50% of the SSD's space is used?

[Jurassic1024]

Originally Posted by faramir

Why beta ? On OCZ forums staff stated that "1.5 beta" has bugfixes in addition to speed enhancements compared to previous version. Why call it "beta" then if it's supposedly better than the odler version ? Why treat your customers as lab rats ?

Because it's not final. And no one said you have to use it, because unlike lab rats, you have a choice.

[fullinfusion]

Thank you OCZ! 1.5 is working nicely and keepem updates coming!

[cedrac18]

Originally Posted by imitation

Have they fixed the 'feature' where write performance drops below 80MB/s when more than 50% of the SSD's space is used?

Does that happen on the Vertex 4 or the older ones?

[Sinzia]

Beta can also mean that if it fucks the drive, they're not liable. I just don't like how the vertex 4's seem to have a new firmware every 2 months.

[Abbysion]

Originally Posted by imitation
Have they fixed the 'feature' where write performance drops below 80MB/s when more than 50% of the SSD's space is used?

Is this an issue on the 256GB model too? I read somewhere (don't remeber exactly where) that this issue was only present on the lower capacities. The 256GB SKU does not suffer such a severe performance degradation. Am I correct?

[cedrac18]

Originally Posted by Abbysion

Is this an issue on the 256GB model too? I read somewhere (don't remeber exactly where) that this issue was only present on the lower capacities. The 256GB SKU does not suffer such a severe performance degradation. Am I correct?

I don't have that issue on my 90GB Agility 2 and i am using 50GB right now. The benchmarks show that it is not as fast as when i bought it but using it i couldn't tell the difference.

[Abbysion]

Originally Posted by cedrac18

I don't have that issue on my 90GB Agility 2 and i am using 50GB right now. The benchmarks show that it is not as fast as when i bought it but using it i couldn't tell the difference.

The performance drop is present on the Vertex 4 128GB, not sure if other capacities are affected (I read not). The Agility 2 is Sandforce based, this issue is unrelated to those controllers as far as I know.

[largon]

Originally Posted by imitation

Have they fixed the 'feature' where write performance drops below 80MB/s when more than 50% of the SSD's space is used?

Too bad HDD manufacturers haven't fixed that on their products, either, and they've been out there for several decades.

[imitation]

Originally Posted by Abbysion

The performance drop is present on the Vertex 4 128GB, not sure if other capacities are affected (I read not). The Agility 2 is Sandforce based, this issue is unrelated to those controllers as far as I know.

This is specifically related to the Vertex 4's 1.4 firmware and therefore is not an issue on earlier drives. While the VTX4 was performing at 170MB/s over the whole drive before (f/w <1.4), it now reaches much higher numbers, but only when less than half-full.

Originally Posted by Abbysion

Is this an issue on the 256GB model too? I read somewhere (don't remeber exactly where) that this issue was only present on the lower capacities. The 256GB SKU does not suffer such a severe performance degradation. Am I correct?

I tried to find reviews testing the 256GB model for this, but couldn't find any. Maybe there is someone on TPU that could test the new firmware with HDtune.

Originally Posted by largon

Too bad HDD manufacturers haven't fixed that on their products, either, and they've been out there for several decades.

[RejZoR]

Originally Posted by imitation

Have they fixed the 'feature' where write performance drops below 80MB/s when more than 50% of the SSD's space is used?

Was this a Marvell Controller issue or just Vertex 4 (since Vertex 4 is using a modified Marvell controller)?

[Prima.Vera]

Just one question for SSD guys in here. That means for every firmware update you need to do a full system restore??!??

[imitation]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

Was this a Marvell Controller issue or just Vertex 4 (since Vertex 4 is using a modified Marvell controller)?

This is very specific to the Vertex's 1.4 firmware and does not affect any other SSDs using Marvel's controllers.
Tom's did a nice re-review on this: OCZ Vertex 4 128 GB: Testing Write Performance With Firmware 1.4

Originally Posted by Prima.Vera

Just one question for SSD guys in here. That means for every firmware update you need to do a full system restore??!??

That depends. Most updates will try to preserve your data, but it is always a good idea to have a backup at hand in case something goes wrong.