Force GT 240 GB - Howto Verify Drive is Working

I just installed a Corsair Force GT 240GiB SSD (latest firmware, 1.3.3), and it's certainly a very fast drive. However, one game I am playing (Saint's Row The Third) is having very odd issues with streaming in the world. The game had no issues on my previous SSD, a 1st generation 500GiB drive.

 

I've redownloaded the game, verified my local cache through Steam (it's a Steam game), checked S.M.A.R.T for errors and benchmarked with CrystalDiskMark . Everything seems fine, but the game still has inexplicable issues. My rig itself is error free, running IntelBurnTest at maximum with Xtreme Test Mode and eVGA Artifact Tester. I am running Windows 7 (non-SP1), using the Microsoft-supplied ATA drivers on an X58 chipset.

 

These issues are without a doubt 100% related to the new SSD. My question is what is the best way to verify that my drive is working? I've already used CrystalDiskMark, and I see this ATTO program is popular, but I'm more concerned about something truly verifying the sanity of my drive.

 

To further describe the game's issues, Saints Row The Third is an open world game, so the world streams in by first loading low detail and collision-less areas, followed by loading the fully detailed, collision-enabled area. With this SSD, I am randomly streaming in only the low details versions, having no collision, low quality textures / no cars / pedestrians and sound spatialization issues.

 

Here's an overview image of my S.M.A.R.T and CPU/Mobo.

 

http://www.spidflisk.com/tmp/CorsairSSDOverview1.png

 

http://www.spidflisk.com/tmp/CorsairSSDOverview2.png

 

Thanks,

Dresk

What do you mean by odd streaming and corrupted chuck loading?

Saints Row The Third is an open world game, so the world streams in by first loading low detail and collision-less areas, followed by loading the fully detailed, collision-enabled area. With this SSD, I am randomly streaming in only the low details versions, having no collision, low quality textures / no cars / pedestrians and sound spatialization issues.

 

I have pondered if the threaded streamer is somehow not expecting to have the results returned at such a fast speed, though I am not too inclined to believe that due to the game working perfectly on an SSD previously.

To me, it sounds like a game/driver issue. Try re-installing your graphic card drivers and DirectX.

It's not a driver issue, or any other non-SSD hardware issue. The game was working perfectly, literally 2 hours before I installed the Corsair SSD and moved my Steam directory over to it (that includes Saints Row The Third). As for DirectX, it's not a DirectX issue, very much for the same reason. Keep in mind that I didn't change anything on the system, aside from introducing and using the new Corsair SSD.

 

I must reiterate that I KNOW it's an *issue* with the Corsair SSD. Whether or not my SSD is to blame is another question entirely - as I said, it might be the game's threaded loader having issues with the near instant turnaround times with the SSD. It seems less likely that that is the issue however, since I was already using it with an SSD.

Your System Specs in the drop down menu seems to be outdated - people can give you better help when those specs are correct.

 

You stated that you are using a mobo with X58 Chipset. From CDI screenshot your SSD seems to be working in SATA3 mode. This will lead me to the conclusion, that your drive is connected to the Marvell Controller.

 

1. This controller is connected via PCI-e 1x which will result in a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 500 MB/s.

2. This controller is known to be buggy, there is a widespread issue resulting in lags and temporarily freezings.

 

Connect your SSD to a native Intel SATA2 port and see if it gets better.

Why are you using non-SP1 O.o?

 

Microsoft often releases 'Recommended updates' that say "... you can achieve better performance and responsiveness in various scenarios."

 

Maybe the update resolving your issue is in SP1.

 

Of course I have absolutely no idea about this, it just strikes me as odd that an enthusiast like yourself who has prolly done everything hunt down every little instability and squeezed out every little drop of performance, but haven't updated the most important piece of software on your computer.

 

But yeah. It's a medium for storing data. If it doesn't do what it's designed to do (namely, deliver data fast), try it in another PC and test if with the various testing utilities and of course the game you'd like to have working. If it's the same behavior, it's faulty.

 

I do however agree with madnisman, that the Marvell solution is less than optimal, and I'm willing to bet that if you move your new disk to the Intel ports, the problem goes away.

madnisman,

 

I've actually disabled the Marvell controller through my BIOS. The SSD is running under SATA II mode on the Intel SATA controller. I really never use anything on my chipset that isn't Intel. I apologize for not having updated PC Specs; I've updated them now.

 

I will be updating to Windows 7 SP1 very soon. I am building an i7-3960x rig, where I'll be freshly installing SP1 onto that.

 

Any other suggestions if it's not my Intel SATA controller?

Have you tried switching SATA cable? Installing IRST software?

...

1. This controller is connected via PCI-e 1x which will result in a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 500 MB/s...

 

Sorry to nitpick, but just to be accurate regarding the Mavell chipset/controller:

 

Yes it is connected to one PCI-E lane, which has a maximum bandwidth of 5Gb/s (five Giga-bits per second, 'b' = bits, 'B' = bytes.)

 

A true SATA 6Gb/s SATA controller (the new Intel's, possibly the AMD's) is capable of a maximum speed of ~500 MB/s (Mega-Bytes per second.)

 

Since the Marvell is limited to 5Gb/s, it cannot perform at a 500 MB/s rate. The best it can possibly do is ~400 MB/s read speeds, and usually gives ~375 MB/s.

I've tried another SATA cable, that didn't seem to do anything.

 

I think at this point it's safe to say that the game itself might be bugged with ultra fast SSDs, since other games are running just fine. With that being said, I would still like to know if anyone can analyze my S.M.A.R.T data or provide me with an effective way of determining drive sanity.

According to this thread, SMART data isn't reliable at all for SSDs. AFAIK there is no way to determine drive sanity, you can check performance with ATTO to see if there are any discrepancies.

 

@parsec: No problem, I will nitpick as well! SATA3 with 6 Gb/s = 768 MB/s, taking 25% overhead into account (8b10b) will give 576 MB/s. In fact, my Force 3 can read up to 550 MB/s, that's near the theoretical maximum. According to this press release, PCIe 2.0 supports 5 GT/s, this results in 500 MB/s for each lane, taking 25% overhead (8b10b) into account during conversion. But this does not explain why Marvell controller is limited to ~400 MB/s. Am I missing something?

First time for everything - I've created a symlink (on Windows!) using mklink /D , pointing Saints Row to my non-SSD drive. So far, testing reveals quicker load times in many scenarios, and none of the previous bugs. I will continue to test and report my final findings. I'm thinking we can probably chuck this up to the game not running correctly on SSDs due to their threaded loader.

Honestly, if the game didn't have problems with your previous SSD, why would it have problems with a marginally faster SSD (where, roughly, only the available bandwidth has improved).

 

I'm leaning towards compatibility issues here.

 

Also, isn't it normally the junction thingy which is used (/J)?

I'm leaning towards compatibility issues here.

 

Well, this might be true - especially for the Marvell controller which is known to be buggy and seems to produce lags and temporarily freezes. But as I understand the SSD is now connected to Intel SATA2 controller, it would surprise me if there is a compatibility issue with this controller.

 

@Dresk: What was you previous SSD, SATA2 model?

madnisman,

 

The SSD it was on previous is the O.. Colossus (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002L7ARGC/ref=wms_ohs_product) .

 

I played the game for 3 hours with no issues using a symlink to my non-SSD . No other games have had any issues with my new drive, though admittedly more testing should be done.

 

I am definitely still not thinking compatibility. Can anyone suggest an aggressive benchmark that will detect errors? I'm contemplating writing my own for the time being.