How To Improve SSD performance on Intel Series 4, 5, 965 Chipsets (JJB Tweak)

TWEAKS FOR IMPROVING SSD READ / WRITE SPEEDS​

After many hours and of trial and error testing of 'hidden' advanced processor power plan settings the following tweaks appear solve the poor SSD read / write speeds that have plagued most notebooks that use the PM55 & HM55 chipsets (most others chipsets show improvements also). These tweaks have been confirmed to work on the following SSD brands: Intel, Samsung, Corsair, Micron/Crucial (to be updated soon)

Credit goes out to the following for all their help and being Guinea pigs for testing: 'Phil', 'erig007', 'stamatisx', 'LOUSYGREATWALLGM', 'mfractal', 'tilleroftheearth', 'KolosoK', 'Sassen', 'eight35pm', 'eYe-I-aie', 'Dillio87', 'NotebookGrail' and others. PLEASE PASS SOME REP AROUND FOR ALL THEIR HELP AND TESTING OF THESE TWEAKS

WINDOWS 7 SSD R/W SPEED TWEAKS: STEP 1​

The first step in this process is to 'activate' certain 'hidden' processor power options so they show up in your 'Advanced Power Plan Settings'. This can be done manually in the registry editor (or by running some command lines HERE Thanks to 'mfractal' !). While these changes do not change any settings at this point there is very little risk, but

IT IS STRONGLY ADVISED TO MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR REGISTRY BEFORE YOU PROCEED***.​

1. Type " regedit " (without quotes) in the start menu 'search bar' and hit return.
   
2. Open my 'regedit' screen shot below and follow the 'path' highlighted at the bottom of the regedit screenshot (easiest if you can split screens side by side)
   
3. Start with the first highlighted line (after power settings) in the screenshots left column and click on it once in your regedit screen (so it highlights blue) and then double click on 'attributes' that appears on the right hand column and change the value to '0' and click OK. Do this for all 6 highighted items shown in my screenshot. NOTE: if any items already have a value of '0', leave them alone by clicking 'cancel' and move to the the next item. (see cross reference list below)
   
4. Once you have completed this for all items, open any 'Advanced Power Plan Setting' and click on 'Proceesor Power Management'. Verify that you now have all 6 new 'processor power management' options available.
   
5. You can now close regedit.

Regedit screen shot showing which attributes to change to "0". NOTE: full path to find these highlighted at bottom of image.
View attachment 55957 (click to enlarge)


Here is a cross reference list showing what these regedit 'keys' equate to in the power plan settings ( Thanks to LOUSYGREATWALLGM!)

• 06cadf0e-64ed-448a-8927-ce7bf90eb35d = Processor performance increase threshold
• 12a0ab44-fe28-4fa9-b3bd-4b64f44960a6 = Processor performance decrease threshold
• 40fbefc7-2e9d-4d25-a185-0cfd8574bac6 = Processor performance decrease policy
• 4b92d758-5a24-4851-a470-815d78aee119 = Processor idle demote threshold
• 7b224883-b3cc-4d79-819f-8374152cbe7c = Processor idle promote threshold
• 943c8cb6-6f93-4227-ad87-e9a3feec08d1 = Processor performance core parking overutilization threshold

Now go on to step 2 to adjust these new setting options:

WINDOWS 7 SSD R/W SPEED TWEAKS: STEP 2​

Note: I recommend that you record your default idle temps before applying the new settings to see how much heat the new settings add to your system at idle. It would also be good to have an idea of your max temps under load for comparison. You can always select the 'balanced' power plan at any time for comparison after these adjustments.

Now click on your battery icon and select 'more power options', on the next screen select the 'HIGH PERFORMANCE POWER PLAN', then 'CHANGE PLAN SETTING'. IMPORTANT: On your first time making these tweaks click on "Restore defualt settings for this plan" to ensure your starting out with all options at default. Now select 'advanced power settings' and confirm that the 'popup' shows 'High Performance - [Active]' at the top.

Double click 'Processor power management' and make the following adjustments:

PROCESSOR POWER SETTTING ADJUSTMENTS
(NOTE: Use the High performance power plan option and change the 'Plugged in' value ) *​

• Proc. performance increase threshold = 30%
• proc. perf. decrease threshold = 85%
• Proc. perf. decrease policy = Ideal
• Proc. idle demote threshold = 85%
• Proc. idle promote threshold = 95% **
• Minimum processor state = 0%
• Proc. performance core parking overutilization Threshold = 95% **
• System cooling policy (no change) = 'active'
• Maximum processor state (no change) = 100%

That's it for the settings. Now I would reboot (not required) and run CrystalDiscMark with the 5 / 50MB settings and see how your R/W speeds have changed. MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN THE HIGH PERFORMANCE POWER PLAN SETTING FOR TESTING.

If you wish to compare to your original 'factory' settings just switch to the 'balanced power plan' and run it again, you can run as many instances of crystaldiskmark as you want which makes side br side comparisons easy....

* = After you confirm the tweaks work on your system then you can change all the High Performance Power Plan "on battery" processor settings and get the same improvements when unplugged. All other 'on battery' settings (other than processor) can be adjusted to your preference to get the best battery life.

** = 95% is a conservative setting that gives good reults with minimal impact on heat and CPU idle wattage. If you want higher SSD performance at the expense of higher temps then try setting these to 99% for resonable but higher temps or 100% for max performance all the time at even higher temps (will vary by computer). For battery use I would stick with 95%.

*** = How to backup your registry;

1. Type regedit in start menu search box > return
   
2. Locate and click the key or subkey that you want to back up.
   
3. Click the File menu, and then click Export.
   
4. In the Save in box, select the location where you want to save the backup copy to, and then type a name for the backup file in the File name box.
   
5. Click Save.

Here are my results with these settings:

View attachment 55958 CDM results; before tweaks, after tweaks and under light CPU load.
click to enlarge

Note the first 2 runs are at full Idle (no other apps running). The tweaks used are with the 95% settings and you will see that at idle there is a big improvement over 'no tweaks'. More important is the 3rd run while playing iTunes music during the test run (adds a minimal CPU load of 1-4%) this shows even greater improvements in R/W speeds. This is why I settled on the two 95% settings, you get big improvements at idle AND full performance with very light CPU loads of ~2%. All with minimal impact on ide temps or battery life.

View attachment 55959 Temps and wattage at full idle after tweaks (68F room temp)
click to enlarge

Finally a big thank you to 'Phil' who started the 'Laptops w. Intel Series 5 chipset can not take full advantage of fast SSDs' thread which got us to this solution. If you would like to see results for other users and systems as well as info on how we got here and other potential solutions please check it out. Also please post your before and after results and basic system specs / CPU - chipset / SSD make and model

 

posting here as well as the original thread.

Here are my results from the changes recommended. My machine specs are in my sig. I'm using the default Windows chipset. I didn't get significant improvement in sequential Read, as my SSD is already maxed out at near 250MB/s, but did get a touch of improvement in the 4K regiion, which is nice.

 

As I posted on this page( bottom):

http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...can-not-take-full-advantage-fast-ssds-60.html

I got better results on the G73JH after I DISABLED CORE PARKING.

EDIT: Just increased Proc. performance core parking overutilization Threshold to 97%. Even better SSD scores. Not a lot of impact on the idle temperatures.

 

@anseio

Yoy should try upping the two 95% settings to 99 or 100% for max performance at idle. I explain in my instructions that the 95% setting is conservative in order to minimize heat and power.

Also try running your CDM run again (original tweaks) with just a small CPU load (play some music) it should improve your scores dramatically.

I saw your post in the other new thread, you should make sure that your Max Turbo Boost still works with that tweak, many have lost full Turbo speeds...

 

Read my above post to anseio, I have founf that with a minimal CPU load ~1-3% you will get full SSD speeds without having to raise the 95% settings.

Also when I disabled core parking the power draw and idle clock speeds went haywire, also you need to check if that affects full Turbo boost speeds.

 

Yeah, I've noticed that about the other tweak. I can get great 4k numbers OR I can have TurboBoost. Device Manager shows issues with each of the cores. Able to undo it. Already did once, just to make sure. Might just system restore and go back to the way things were before any tweaking since your tweaks, though good, didn't yield significant change and the other tweak has pros and cons equal to their significance.

 

I also found that lowering Proc. performance increase threshold to 5% helps the Write speed of the 4K test.

I don't seem to lose turbo boost or the height of the boost with those 2 little tweaks.

 

You may have missed my point on the previous post. You should get full SSD performance from my standard tweaks by just applying ANY small CPU load while running the CDM test.

Point is that in any real world use where you need / want max SSD speeds your going to have something loading the CPU.... Try running CDM again with my standard tweaks while playing some music, your scores should be much faster. Example; MS security essentials run a full scan 33 minutes faster with my tweaks than without even though the CDM score shows no big improvements when run at idle (at least on my system)

 

I did miss that. Will give them a try in a few hours, after I'm done seeing my next client.

 

Ok, I've done my playing around. Running CDM while iTunes was playing the in the background did yield better numbers, though 4k wasn't as good as when TurboBoost was gone. I decided to test these settings against a blu ray rip (.m2ts) that I had. Before making any changes I could get mostly smooth playback through VLC. After changes were made, the cores were going haywire and the playback would glitch rhythmically. This was impacted even after switching to Balanced Power asl well.

Smart me, for once, I had made a system image before trying any of these changes. I just finished restoring from my system image. Reinstalled TurboBoost Monitor and core activity is remarkably more stable. .m2ts playback was smooth and only the virtual cores were in use and hyperthreading. They were steady with no erratic behavior.

I did notice that the further the settings were pushed, the more TurboBoost was affected. Right now, TB spikes smoothly when I launch an app and the cores move up and down smoothly as well. Before I restored my system and was operating off of altered settings TB seemed jerky. Balanced mode yielded higher bursts and High Performance mode would cap at 1.73, then push beyond after too much upward pressure (the only way I can explain).

Thanks for your hard work in coming up with these settings. I wish they had worked more smoothly for me.

 

Can you confirm that this happened under JJB's suggested tweak alone (without stamatisx tweak)?

Can you tell us which application you used to monitor your TB?

 

Well, it's subjective now, as I monitored after I had tried and undid stamatisx's tweak. I removed his tweak by resetting the registry entries, uninstalling the hardware and allowing the CPU drivers to reinstall upon BSOD forced reboot. I did not think to monitor beforehand

I used the Intel Turbo Boost Technology Monitor gadget coupled with the Intel Core Series gadget from Orbmu2k. The monitor showed how smoothly boosting happened whereas the ICS gadget showed individual core activity.

 

I have tried JJB's changes and it has increased my Vertex 2 performance. Am getting 4k speeds of 31 read and 57 write. Just one question. For the Proc. perf. decrease policy = Ideal setting, ive noticed that there is a Rocket option as well as Ideal and Single. Ive noticed after reading through the posts that no one has mentioned it or tried it. Is there a reason why no one has tried it yet?
__________________

 

JJB and I actually tried it (Single vs Ideal). Take a look here why JJB chose to use Ideal over the Single. Link

 

Had a read of it but JJB does not mention the Rocket option at all. From what he wrote, he just compares the Single and Ideal options. He doesnt say anything about the Rocket option.

 

Good point. You can try the different setting and see if it will help your system performance perhaps?

Just a note, Rocket is used for Power Saver plan (default).

 

Actually I tried 'rocket' as my first option, the problem was it conflicted with the 'increase policy' of 'rocket' which is a key reason these tweaks improve your SSD speeds. The 'increase policy' is not included in the registry attribute changes because the tweak only works when that setting has 'rocket' selected (the default in H.P. power plan) so to simplify the adjustments I chose to keep the 'increase policy 'hidden' since there was no need to change it.

Basically having both the increase and decrease policy set at rocket caused the clocks at idle to jump around like crazy, and I got very unstable CDM scores. Rocket means to jump to the maximum state possible when a change (threshhold) is met, so you can imagine what happens to the clocks as they jump from max speed to min speed bypassing all the in between steps......

 

and because the cpu isn't doing anything while changing frequencies (i read it somewhere) which could means that more clock jump could lead to a worst performance. Maybe not the case here because we are changing more the amplitude than the frequency with the ideal/single options

another subject I found a windows dll which regroup most of the power management features
powrprof_dll

Windows 7 DLL File Information - powrprof.dll

 

oooooops haven't tried this.............

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 252.669 MB/s
Sequential Write : 111.466 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 194.825 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 110.832 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 20.507 MB/s [ 5006.7 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 54.595 MB/s [ 13328.9 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 158.862 MB/s [ 38784.7 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 100.854 MB/s [ 24622.5 IOPS]

Test : 100 MB [E: 48.6% (72.4/149.0 GB)] (x5)
Date : 2010/09/15 2:25:08
OS : Windows 7 Ultimate Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

 

does this tweak disable turbo? I'm really scared doing these tweaks i don't want to loose stuff..

 

I tried the other tweak. It was no good...
Caused the CPU in this m11x to stay at 1.8ghz constantly when normally its sitting at 800mhz idle to save power.

Does this tweak do the same thing ?

I don't want to lose battery life...

 

this is better from what i heard and shouldn't cause those problems.. my only issue is does turbo boost work?

 

Yes. Turbo Boost will still work with this tweak.

PS: Do not apply the other tweak with this one to avoid TB problem.

 

@sean473 & THS
Yes, Turbo boost still works perfectly on my i5 540M with this tweak. Battery life is barely impacted on my system, CPU idle is about 0.5W higher with the tweak. I have made a custom 'power saver' power plan with the tweak and all other settings for max power savings, so far it appears to be the same battery life as my non tweaked power saver settings

NOTE: If you don't like the 'tweaks' it is as simple as selecting the 'restore defaults for this power plan' and you will back to where you started with just the new options available in the power plan settings.

Obviously you have to try it on your specific system but so far there have been no serious issues posted with 'only' these tweaks ....

 

this tweak works better than the other one, in terms of benchmark (at least for my PM55+x25M) as well as battery life.

 

Thanks for the hard work JJB! My 4K reads are almost 50% faster, and everything else looks exactly the same.

 

Just for kicks try running CDM again with itunes playing in the backround, I think you will be pleasantly surprised ....

I assume you'll get the same increases as I do since we have the same base system.

PS: Most of us have been running CDM with the 3 x / 50MB setting to save on SSD wear and tear... result are very similar to 1000MB runs. If you get a general baseline at 50MB settings then thats all you need to use for all future runs.

 

iTunes? I refuse to let anything Apple on my machine. I'm giving up enough just letting Windows stay on here

I don't bench a lot, just to get a general idea. I usually use the 100MB test. I'm more interested in major swings, not a few MB up or down.

 

iTunes was just an example. Let me restate it by saying; Try running CDM while playing music from your favorite (non Apple) music player....

The point is to watch what happens to the CDM numbers when your running a light load on the CPU (~2 - 3%), I dialed in the settings to have the least impact on power / heat while still improving 4K numbers. Somehow by just applying a minimal load you get essentially full SSD performance accross the board. My thinking is that this setting is just right because almost anything your going to do that needs max R/W speeds will be loading the CPU at least that much.

Here is what I'm talking about; see the bottom of each CDM window for details of each run:

 

Look at the link below for my results with JJB´s tweak. Asus G73 with Corsair Force 80 SSD disk. It would be nice to see the scores from someone who also uses the G73. And yes, the Turbo Boost works as intended with this tweak. The benchmark to the right is the tweaked one, the other is stock.

Imageshack - tweaked.jpg

 

This is good news. Just one more thing.. do u have power4gear installed as it might affect the settings? I'll do it over thw weekend.. its quite long and i'm in a lazy mood now

 

Nops, i havent got power4gear installed.

 

can u try it with power4gear? If its works , i'll jump on the bandwagon

 

This tweak yields the same results at the other one for me, but without the odd side-effects.

Stamatisx Tweak:


JJB Tweak:

 

Nice scores bud

Btw, did you notice any improvement on real world usage?

 

No, all that really changed were my 4K scores; but they weren't very bad initially. I just found it odd that they were so much higher in "Safe Mode". Now the scores are the same in "Safe Mode" and after booting regularly.

Prior to the tweaks:

 

You seem hesitant to try the tweaks out. I know the instructions look a bit complicated, but that is likely due to my adding to much information I think. The whole process takes about 5 minutes and if it doesn't work all you have to do is simply click 'restore plan defaults' for the 'high performance power plan' and all is back to normal except you'll have the 6 new options listed in the advanced power plan settings. They can be removed if they are a problem for you by just reversing step 1 by changing the attributes back to '1' for the six lines....

 

Just try it allready

 

sean473,

Works no problem with P4G on my U30Jc (just make sure you modify the correct power profile).

 

I have been using the jjb tweak all the way since it has settled down without any problem so far

 

ok good thing. I'll do it for my power4gear high performance.. i'll do it tomorrow... i'm too tired today and i need to game

 

Not sure what your 'power4gear power plan' has done (if anything) to all the 'hidden' settings. If you don't have an option (or it's greyed out) to reset that power plan defaults you may want to creat a new power plan (if you can use power4gear on a second plan. Then apply my tweaks to the 'new' power for gear plan to do your testing. If all goes well then no issue, if not you can just switch back to your original P4G plan and reset (or delete) the new one with my tweaks.

As an example, after I knew all was working with my tweaks in the high perf plan I created a custom plan with the 'power saver' plan as a starting point and then added my tweaks, I now have full SSD performance while getting maximum battery life by selecting this plan on battery. You should be able to creat a custon 'high performance' one with power4gear and my tweaks the same way....

 

ok i've just done it and hardly much improvement..

4K read went from 13 to 17
4K write went from 16 to 26..

Messing around somemore.

 

13 to 19 now at 100% for 4K read and 16 to 31 at 4k write. What is the normal? I've set those 2 settings to 100%... i thought C300 could do better for 4K.

 

If you want really more speed
add to the jjb tweaks
a clean install of windows 64k cluster size
and the windows appearance features set to minimum (after a while you get used to the old school style of windows basic appearance)
I'm just amazed by the boost when I start a program, open firefox or anything like this it usually takes less than 1 sec to open anything (except big apps) and no lag when scrolling down

As tested under passmark, the hd5870 is really bad for what is in 2d

 

after a restart and 2 5 100mb runs, i got the below 2 results. Its an improvement but can anything be done to make it better? And i'm not going to do 2D or a clean install anytime..

I got in 4K 22MB/s read and 36MB/s write.. can it go higher?

 

See what happens if you play music while running CDM. Also if you could run CDM at 3 x 50MB just so you are running the same as most of the other users for comparison.

Did you do the tweaks to the default high performance power plan settings ?

Edit: Just saw your added CDM images, I really don't know what the 4K specs are for your drive as I only have intels in my machines.... What are the max 4K random speed specs for your drive ?

 

under stamatisx thread TANWare improved the 4k results by 10MB/s just overclocking the X9100 from 2.6Ghz to 3.7Ghz which tend to prove than even with the same ssd, the cpu matter when looking at 4k results

 

i'll try while playing some music.. I can OC CPU but don't want to due to it being a new machine.. and the tweaks are on power4gear high performance plan. Does anyone have 128GB C300 benchmarks for 4K? And JJB , the max which the drive has in my machine is shown by those 2 images.