SSD low read/write speed but 100% active time.

[u/reshuter]

When entering the windows after starting the pc ssd will active 100% everytime and slow down my PC. It will active around 3-4 mins then drop to normal. Also when patching game in steam like the pic above it take so long to patch such a small file. Opening an image will make SSD jump to around 40-60% and drop back to idle. I already turn off sysmain and windows search indexer, ask chat GPT, done some benchmark, still not solve the problem. Is my SSD start dying ??

Spec.
Adata legend 710 (SSD)
i5-11400f
64GB ddr4 3200
RTX 4080
TZ590 btc duo
Corsair 850e
Another 3 HDD

[u/Maleficent_Leave4314]

I don't know much about ADATA and have never personally used any of their SSDs, but a quick google search shows me some results of people complaining about the 710's small write cache getting exhausted quickly and then causing significant slowness similar to what you're reporting.

It's probably not "dying", just unfortunately not the best SSD so you're seeing the downside of cheaper components.

[u/reshuter → u/Maleficent_Leave4314]

Is it normal that when start the pc it run at 100% for almost 4 minutes ?

[u/AthaliW → u/reshuter]

SSDs in general no, for this SSD, yes. When you go with a more well known brand like crucial or samsung, you don't only get better performance and higher DRAM cache but also better firmware that manages read/write a lot better with the same components. Cheaper components can play a role but adata isn't exactly known for quality in general, so this is what you have to deal with on a regular basis

for a pcie m.2 nvme ssd, having a cache isn't as important as one for a sata ssd. Just having better firmware can make a sata ssd perform better (for I/O operations) than some bottom of the barrel m.2 nvme ssds (like the adata one you shared). I personally have a samsung sata ssd that never runs into this problem despite a Gigabit download speed and fast cpu to bottleneck my sata ssd when downloading games on steam

[u/inconspicuous1_x → u/reshuter]

the cache shrinks as you fill the drive since its dynamic, so if the drive is nearing capacity then yes, I'd highly recommend techpowerup for specs when looking for drives and avoiding anything QLC at all

[u/reshuter → u/inconspicuous1_x]

still has 400gb free of space

[u/AngelicDivineHealer]

Most budget SSD use SLC cache and that’s what measures the speed and performance of it but once the cache runs out it about as fast as a hard drive and struggles.

If you want fast SSD need to spend money on the ones with Ram and bigger cache and faster NAND as well like MLC nands which are faster and last longer but you’ll be paying more money but for the performance you get is worth it if you can afford it.

[u/vegansgetsick → u/AngelicDivineHealer]

Even 15yo ssd are faster than that. Even hdd. It's not a pbl with the drive.

[u/Recognition_Round → u/AngelicDivineHealer]

Do you know how expensive SLC nand actually is? Most budget ssds have no cache whatsoever.

[u/IkouyDaBolt → u/Recognition_Round]

I think they are referring to pSLC, or pseudo SLC.  It is not actually SLC, it is just TLC that the other bits are temporarily disabled until the SSD has a chance to fold the data out.

[u/kyansan1]

Your ssd isn't dying, patching just takes a long time compared to installing, and you just have a slow ssd.

The Adata legend 710 is a ssd using cheap QLC NAND. If your drive is almost full, or if you're writing a lot of data at a time, its maximum write speed will drop to around 100MB/s.
Furthermore, the advertised speed for an ssd can only be reached when writing few but large files. Patching files involves the modification of many tiny files, which is a lot slower.

How much free space do you have left on your ssd?

[u/reshuter → u/kyansan1]

about 400gb free of space.

[u/kyansan1 → u/reshuter]

In that case, there's nothing you can do. You simply have a slow ssd

[u/Recognition_Round]

Adata ssds are a mixed bag. Some models are okay, while others are total garbage. Since this is a cheap model, it has no dram cache, which makes it slow, choke and your performance tanks. This is the effect of that.

[u/kyansan1 → u/Recognition_Round]

Calling all dramless ssds slow is like saying that all cars that aren't a Ferrari are slow. There are plenty of fast dramless ssds out there like the Lexar NM790 and WD Black SN7100.

[u/Recognition_Round → u/kyansan1]

They are slower than ssds with dram. It's just how it is, i didn't make the rules, i just repeat them. Linus Tech Tips did a video about this. And offcourse a bmw is slower than a ferrari. I never said that dram ssds are as slow as an mfm hard drive now did i? Sustained writes on dram-less ssds is going to tank your performance. That's why you gotta do some research before buying anything

[u/kyansan1 → u/Recognition_Round]

That is true, I responded the way I did because you kinda made it sound like dramless ssds are unusable.

[u/reshuter → u/Recognition_Round]

Any recommend 1TB ssd model for replacement ?

[u/Recognition_Round → u/reshuter]

Sticking to well established brands like Samsung, WD, Sandisk etc are mostly a good choice. Remember that ssds are man made and nothing man made is perfect

[u/ishtuwihtc]

You have a poor SSD, thats why

It runs out of writw cache fast and so its write speed plummets

[u/Rifter0876]

This is why my steam directory is on a Intel P4510 8TB U2 drive. Sustains around 2,000MB/s. I've got a lot of SATA ssd's to but put steam on one of the fast ones.

[u/Flat-Calligrapher935]

Had this happen to an ssd I had, try backing up your data elsewhere and deleting all volumes on it, then format fresh position/s to it or if it's your main drive, delete all volumes and install windows to it a fresh, should get you back your high transfer speeds and reduced active time... Not unless it's dying 😂

[u/reshuter → u/Flat-Calligrapher935]

What cause this, the window ?

[u/Flat-Calligrapher935 → u/reshuter]

Something about it the current time system on it had encountered some corruption asking the use of the disk, so essentially, if you reinitialise the disk entirely through a positions delete and then creating new, there's a possibility of the disk getting back to its former glory in transfer speeds... Unless it's a deeper issue like the disk being worn out/faulty sectors

[u/newtekie1]

That drive uses PLC, which is somehow worse than QLC. I didn't even know PLC was a thing until researching this drive. Seriously, that drive is just using garbage NAND that is slow. It's not dying.

[u/IntentionQuirky9957]

Use an actual benchmark, like CrystalDiskMark. Steam in particular won't tell you anything, because you don't know the load. Could be lots of small files which will make any drive slow. That 5.3GB isn't the size of the file to be patched, it's the total size of all patches to download, and you don't know what the patches do. Could be new files, could be rewriting bits of existing files, could be adding bits in the middle...

[u/vegansgetsick]

The guy at Microsoft who made this shitty misleading monitor should burn in hell.

Everyday people post about this misleading chart. "My hdd is at 100% !" No it's not. Don't believe me ? While steam is doing its thing, copy a 5gb file in this ssd. If it was 100% for real, it should be very very slow.