OCZ Vertex 4 Review (256GB, 512GB)
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 4, 2012 9:00 AM ESTAnandTech Storage Bench 2011 - Light Workload
Our new light workload actually has more write operations than read operations. The split is as follows: 372,630 reads and 459,709 writes. The relatively close read/write ratio does better mimic a typical light workload (although even lighter workloads would be far more read centric).
The I/O breakdown is similar to the heavy workload at small IOs, however you'll notice that there are far fewer large IO transfers:
| AnandTech Storage Bench 2011 - Light Workload IO Breakdown | ||||
| IO Size | % of Total | |||
| 4KB | 27% | |||
| 16KB | 8% | |||
| 32KB | 6% | |||
| 64KB | 5% | |||
Our light workload is far more representative of a mainstream client workload (read heavy) and this is where the Vertex 4's sequential read performance hurts it the most. The Samsung SSD 830 ends up being considerably faster here. Once again, if we look at the breakdown of reads and writes we see why:
Read performance is around half of the best performers, while write speed is around 30% better. The combination results in competitive but not class-leading performance.If OCZ is able to deliver, at a minimum, Octane levels of read performance, the Vertex 4 should find itself much higher in the overall charts.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
127 Comments
View All Comments
gigahertz20 - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link
Yes, I would like to see if the newer firmware has fixed this as well as OCZ promised. I wish they would create an update for this review.yj100 - Monday, July 9, 2012 - link
I got a Vertex 4 512gb a week ago for my MacBook Pro and after 2 days it crashed. Only a gray screen with a spinning wheel would come up when trying to boot.Apparently this is common as OCZ have a forum thread dedicated to this. Apparently they have a firmware fix but it didn't help me.
I have a 256gb Vertex 4 for about a couple of months with no problems. For 512gb I'm going to stay away from the Vertex 4.
Zarathustra[h] - Wednesday, July 25, 2012 - link
As some other sites have tested, it seems like the Vertex 4 is a completely different drive with the newer 1.4 firmware, and 1.5 added even more performance.Has Anandtech considered revisiting this drive with a later firmware? I have much more faith in Anandtechs reviews on SSD's than others and would love to see this drive tested with the latest firmware.
Zoeff - Sunday, July 29, 2012 - link
I second this.The heavy/light storage bench is unique to Anandtech and feels much more representative of actual usage.
Salv0 - Wednesday, August 1, 2012 - link
+1Retest with the latest fw will be great!
teefatt - Monday, September 3, 2012 - link
To potential OCZ SSD buyers,I posted the above matters to OCZ forum and got no solution from them after many email in and out in a week time. They want me to write an email to HP for help. They even deleted my reply and make the post like I did not reply their request or reply their mail. Furthermore, they blocked my post. They wanted me to send them a personal email instead of on the public forum.
They moved my post to ForumOCZ Support ForumCompliments, Complaints, & SuggestionsVertex 4 512GB BSOD in RAID 0 setup.
or
http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread...
That's why I totally agree with the post here on the first page:
"It's still a drive from OCZ, a company that has repeatedly and blatantly used its customer base as unpaid beta testers, and lambasted them when they dared to complain about it. No thank you. The fastest drive in the world is of no use to me if it's causing my computer to BSOD constantly. I'll be spending my money and that of my many clients on drives with proven track records for reliability and excellent customer service, both sadly lacking in OCZ products."
I will walk away from this OCZ unreliable SSD. Luckily I am able to return the drives and asked for refund instead of following their steps to do the beta tester in a week time.
Think twice before you buy it.
Thanks you.
vwrafi - Saturday, September 29, 2012 - link
Hi. When the drive goes into the GC mode ( standard mode ), does it mean that the drive will start to read and write its internal data ? If so, does it mean that the write lifetime of the cells will reduce ( write lifetime of the disk will be reduced every time it reorganize itself ) ? And if so, can we switch off this or install firmware that do not shorten the write lifetime of the disk ?