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    MS AHCI vs AMD SATA driver

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by yalcin19, Jul 14, 2011.

  1. yalcin19

    yalcin19 Notebook Consultant

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    Given the CDM results below, which driver do you think is performing better
    in real life usage?
    1.MS AHCI
    2.AMD SATA
     

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  2. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    When using the 50MB setting (at any 'x' setting...) you are simply testing the cache of the SSD.

    Try a higher setting to get a more accurate result.

    I am guessing that the MSAHCI driver will 'bench' better, but the AMD SATA driver will be faster/smoother overall though in real world use.

    Try each for a week and see if you notice a difference in your usage.

    No matter what 'feels' faster though: note that only the MSAHCI driver will pass the TRIM command to the SSD - assuming this is Win7...

    Good luck.
     
  3. sugarkang

    sugarkang Notebook Evangelist

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    Use the AMD driver. You'll get a hang at the windows logo screen upon boot if you use MSAHCI
     
  4. yalcin19

    yalcin19 Notebook Consultant

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    To be honest I have tried each for months and experienced not a major difference at all. that being said I am not a thorough bencher.
    I agree AMD SATA feels better (my gut feelings though, they are beyond the range of my senses).

    New AMD SATA drivers pass the TRIM smooth. No performance degradation over months of usage.
     
  5. yalcin19

    yalcin19 Notebook Consultant

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    You must be right about the lag b/w boot and win logo screen. I have to check that interval. Thanks
     
  6. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    Ah! Good to know that AMD drivers are TRIM enabled.

    What version are these?
     
  7. yalcin19

    yalcin19 Notebook Consultant

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    I am using the latest 1.2.1.296 right now came with 11.6 amd.
    But it has been more than 6 months TRIM supported with previous AMD drivers.
     
  8. tilleroftheearth

    tilleroftheearth Wisdom listens quietly...

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    6 Months? Wow - I thought only MSAHCI 1.0 and Intel 10.1008 and higher drivers were TRIM enabled. Thanks again.

    Do you know of any comparisons to Intel RST v10.6 on (semi-comparible) systems?
     
  9. yalcin19

    yalcin19 Notebook Consultant

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    No sorry. But reading and seeing some benches around I have a feeling that SSDs with IRST perform the best.
     
  10. T1mur

    T1mur Notebook Guru

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    The MSAHCI driver uses LPM Slumber with the "Balanced" and "Power Saver" power-profiles. So make sure to use the "High Performance" profile for benchmarking.

    And even then I suspect that all those benchmark applications are seriously flawed in their measurement, because they react *very* susceptible to CPU C-states and sometimes deviate in very strange ways from each other.
     
  11. yalcin19

    yalcin19 Notebook Consultant

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    True 10char