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OCZ has announced a new firmware update that boosts performance of fourth-generation Vertex drives by up to 110% in certain situations. The update (v1.4RC) increases 128KB sequential reads from 535MB/s to 550MB/s on 128GB, 256GB and 512GB Vertex 4s, while 128KB sequential writes have increased from 200MB/s to 420MB/s, 380MB/s to 465MB/s. No gains are touted for 4KB random reads and writes.
| Vertex 4 128GB | Vertex 4 256GB | Vertex 4 512GB | |
| Sequential Read | 535MB/s (550MB/s) | 535MB/s (550MB/s) | 535MB/s (550MB/s) |
| Sequential Write | 200MB/s (420MB/s) | 380MB/s (465MB/s) | 475MB/s (no gain) |
| Random Read IOPS | 90,000 | 90,000 | 95,000 |
| Random Write IOPS | 85,000 | 85,000 | 85,000 |
| Max IOPS | 120,000 | 120,000 | 120,000 |
With the improvements, OCZ says mainstream users of the 128GB model can now enjoy the 512GB version's enterprise-grade performance. The company isn't particularly candid about what knobs it turned, saying only that the faster rates were achieved via "proprietary algorithms which orchestrate the sequence of physical NAND programming operations to ensure that each NAND device is optimally utilized."
Storage Review has retested the Vertex 4 to demonstrate the firmware's changes. The site's real-world benchmarks (latter half of the article) show notable gains in various StorageMark workloads, bumping productivity performance from 168MB/s to 192MB/s while read-heavy game tests jumped from 228MB/s to 368MB/s. Power consumption has also been reduced by a smidgen during reads and writes.
Despite those improvements, you may want to wait until the final version is released in the coming weeks as Storage Review experienced stability issues. We don't see v1.4RC listed publicly, but a fixed version (v.1.14RC) should appear very soon considering the site has already received the revision (and is working on a fresh round of tests). If you aren't afraid of the release candidate status, you can download the new RC firmware from our driver section.
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User Comments: 3
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I get 270mbs sequentiel reads and 260mbs sequential writes with a vertex 3 on sata 2 not 3 so this had to be fixed
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OCZ = Stability Issues.
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I get 270mbs sequentiel reads and 260mbs sequential writes with a vertex 3 on sata 2 not 3 so this had to be fixed
I got nearly the same on my vertex3 aswell. Also SATAII :P
OCZ = Stability Issues.Dude, there were some with the sandforce 2281 controller and they fixed it with a firmware update and that's it.
Besides, it's not like they created sandforce themselves, like Samsung has their own controllers.
OCZ is a reliable company, I'm just basing on my xp with them.
They really support a product a they sell and their customer support is also good.
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