Hi to everbody,
i have encounterd a strange performance behavior after testing several storage drivers. My mainboard is a asrock z77 pro3 and i am using a samsung 840 pro 256 gb as main system storage which is connected to the first sata3 port and a second hdd 2 tb which is connected to the second sata3 port. The bios is up to date, i have flashed it a few weeks ago to get the micro-code update.
I have set the ssd and the hdd in bios as hot-plug, selected ahci and disabled the aggresive link powermanagement.
"Write Caching" options of the SSD from within the Device Manager are checked, also for the hdd.
System is running with high performance (Win7 Energy Options)
A few days ago i decided to install different storage drivers to figure out which one has the best performance for my system. I started with the rapid storage driver 11.7.0.1013 (just the pure driver via devicemanager), than 12.9.0.1001 with software, changed than to the rapid storage driver 11.7.4.1001 (just the pure driver again) and after this tests i choosed the driver 12.8.0.1016 (with software).
Usually i got a benchmark result of min. 1100 points overall (using the as-ssd-benchmark) but now i get a max. result of 950 points. I tested in safe-mode in windows.
Than i went back to the version 11.7.0.1013 with just the pure driver, but the benchmark result was again just 950.
Actually i am using the version 13.1.0.1058 without software, the systems performance feels very good, fast, no stuttering or anything else. But after running as-ssd-benchmark i got again just a result of under 1.000.
Has anybody an idea what could caused the performance drop? Thanks for any suggestions.
@Eisenhauer :
Since your on-board Intel SATA Controller is running in AHCI mode, you should never install any Intel RST Software.
If you had installed the Intel RST Software nevertheless, you should not change the Intel RST driver before you had uninstalled the Intel RST Software and rebooted thereafter. Otherwise you will get a bad not-matching Intel RST driver/software mixture.
Hi Dieter,
well, i know that i should not install the software-bundle delivered with the driver, but in one special case i did that, because i wanted to see what information i get when i install the 12.x driver family. The reason for my decision was the added tabb called "performance" which was included in the 12.x driver family. And when i did that, i recogniced that there is/was a difference between my bios settings and the software. It was the option "aggressive link power management" which i had disabled in my bios settings, but the software shows me the option to disable it - means: it was active. I disabled the option in the software and checked my bios-settings again. From that point everthing was ok, the system felt fast, no problems. But i don´t like services running in the backround, so i disabled the service "intel rapid storage" in windows and also disabled the intel rapid storage icon which would be loaded after booting into windows.
Than, a few day later, i benchmarked my system again and from that time on i get ca. 100 points less in the benchmarks.
That was the reason why i got back to the version 11.7.0.1013 and uninstalled the software of the 12.x version before i installed the 11.x driver.
Maybe i am not installing the drivers correcly.
When i am testing the different drivers, i go to the device-manager and choose "uninstall this driver", after this, i reboot. When rebooting, i go in my bios and select the IDE mode, save this, and go direcly after rebooting in the bios and select ahci again. I do this because i have read this procedure would intall the generic windows ahci driver. Then i let windows boot to the desktop, two times, so all devices are installed - for exampel the cd rom etc. Then i got back into the device-manager and install the driver i am going to test - but without the software.
Is that procedure wrong? Have i done any damage to my system when i do installing/uninstalling drivers that way? If not, what could be the reason for the loose of points in the benchmarks and is there any possibilty to correct a "bad" installation? Actually the system is running fine, the 13.x driver is installed (without software). But i got less points and that is a thing where i believe that i have done something wrong.
Best regards,
Eisenhauer
@Eisenhauer : You should never use the “uninstall driver” option, if you want to replace a storage driver by another one. Otherwise the OS may not be bootable thereafter (the real installation of the new driver happens at the end of the next reboot procedure with the result, that the desired new storage driver is not yet available for the boot sector while rebooting).
Windows saves all previously in-use third party driver files within the C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository folder to be able to re-use them if desired by the user or in an emergency case.
Big advantage for the user, who wants to find out the best storage driver for his/her specific system: There is no need to re-install any of the previously used driver, if a new comparison should be done. Simple way: Right-click onto the related Controller, choose the option “Update driver” and click onto “Browse my computer…” and then “Let me pick…”. There are the compatible Controller names listed, which belong to all previously installed drivers. After having highlighted the desired Controller name and clicked onto the “Continue” button you will get the related driver automaticly installed.
Edit: It is absolutely normal, that the user gets the best benchmark numbers with a brandnew SSD after having done a fresh OS installation and followed the advices to boost the system performance (see start post of >this< thread). The more you test, the lower are the results.
Hello again,
i am very thankfull for your time and information.
Understanding your latest post i don´t have to uninstall the previous drives, just clicking "updating" in the devicemanager and let them installing that way. Ok, till that time i though that is is necessary to do an unstallation of any previous driver to avoid any problems - like collisions with rests of drives installed before or anything else like that.
So, actually everthing is ok, thanks alot again. And by the way, your forum is al real instition for everyone who want more information and help about things like…but you know what i want to say 
Have a good time and to say in our languange: "frohe Weihnachten und n´guten Rutsch"
Greetings
Chris
If I don’t install the RST drivers and just use Win10’s default AHCI drivers… I loose half of my speed… 50% slower my SSDS become…
@ChaosDMNS Welcome to the Win-RAID Forum!
If a user with an Intel chipset system looses half of the speed by using the Win10 in-box MS AHCI driver (instead of an Intel RST AHCI driver), he/she has done something wrong. Please post the related benchmark results.
Have you ever done a look into the start of >this< thread? I recommend to follow the advices and repeat your tests.
Enjoy the Forum!
Dieter (alias Fernando)