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On release of the Samsung 840 EVO SSD earlier this year, Samsung introduced a new ‘caching’ technology called RAPID Mode, a technology that could increase Samsung EVO SSD transfer speeds up to 1.2GB/s with absolutely AMAZING low 4K random write speeds as well. RAPID Mode could be enabled through the free download of Samsung’s SSD Magician and the initial release was disappointing to many 840 Pro SSD owners as RAPID was only compatible with the Samsung 840 EVO SSD. Our review of the 840 EVO was very impressive with RAPID Mode benchmark results as high as 1.1GB/s and transfer speed testing of ISO, program and game files in under 3 seconds.
Earlier this morning, Samsung released information of their new 1TB 840 EVO mSATA SSD, an SSD with many firsts such as it being the first mSATA SSD that Samsung has made available to the consumer, the first capable of 1TB in storage, and the first capable of over 1GB/s speeds through RAPID Mode.
Hidden away in this ‘Samsung Tomorrow‘ posting, was this line confirming that Samsung RAPID Mode is fully compatible with the 840 Pro SSD lineup, “Samsung also applied Samsung Magician 4.3 and the RAPID mode on its previous 840 Pro SSD line-up”. We quickly downloaded the latest release of Samsung Magician software and checked out it’s compatibility:
Fortunately, our main system is running Samsung 840 Pro SSDs for both the main and backup drive so we started the new version of Samsung Magician software and immediately learned that the SSD firmware was out of date. Seamless firmware updates followed as well as the activation of RAPID mode on our Samsung 840 Pro 512GB SSD that we had reviewed some time ago.
This was followed by some rather impressive testing with both Crystal DiskMark and AS SSD:
These are impressive numbers by any standards and we should mention that they are similar to our other Test Bench, a system which has been running the original Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSD since it’s review several months ago.
Even through AS SSD which is the workhorse of SSD synthetic testing, the Samsung 840 Pro SSD in RAPID Mode displayed excellent performance The only hitch we experience was the second result shown here in our Copy bench testing:
To ensure the compatibility of the Samsung 840 Pro SSD with RAPID, our main system will remain as it is and any pertinent changes will be appended to this report. If you would like to see a number of opinions and further benchmark results, check out this thread over at Overclock.
Excellent find = thanks. I ran the upgrade and my 840 Pro is flying! I thought the upgrade would require a firmware update for the drive, but this was not the case. Apparently it just installs an auto-start module called samsungrapidapp.exe.
Thanks again for the heads up.
Hmmm. I could swear that RAPID mode did not need any startup software installed, just a firmware update. Are they trying to use a TurboWrite/RAPID hybrid app to boost the performance??? Something seems a bit off here.
I had to look it up: RAPID is software, uses system RAM to boost performance (requires Windows), TurboWrite uses the SLC part of the SSD to buffer writes (not sure if the 840 Pro has it). https://reviews.cnet.com/hard-drives/samsung-840-evo-750gb/4505-3186_7-35823851-2.html
People need to keep in mind that this performance boost has a price…..increased risk. If you get a bluescreen or hardware fault your SSD data is very likely corrupted and will need restored from its last backup. No supercaps or UPS can help you in this case.
Well that is the main question for which there seems to be much disagreement – what IS the risk of losing data on an EVO drive IF there is a BlueScreen or sudden loss of power?
So bad linux not supported 🙁
If you are using RAPID then the ‘RAM cache’ that is created on your computer simply disappears when the system bluescreens or faults. This will leave the SSD in an ‘unknown’ state. DIrectories and files will be corrupted. This is why SAS controller boards offer battery backups for the RAM cache on the controller. If you computer fails the data is preserved and is flushed back to the SSDs when the system is corrected.
It’s definitely a software install since I don’t get the same thing on my Mac using the Samsung 840 Evo there..
Excellent news for the holidays. When the original testing was done on the EVO in July was there any indication that the RAPID mode would actually enhance the SSD lifespan by reducing NAND page writes? Does the caching actually consolidate the random IOs and update the NAND less frequently?
Now imagine a server that can be filled with these 1TB SSD’s, and setup in a redundant cloud storage. How would the big companies of the Storage world compete?
This will be my next drive! I have always liked these for speed and reliability. And, unlike my Vector, Samsung is not going out of business 🙂
Just got mine…Best timing ever!!!!
dont work on TrueCrypted disks…
no shit, sherlock. what are you trying to hide anyway, hmmmmmmmmm?
Pedos derive the largest benefit from Larry page lecturing the public about how the government shouldn’t spy on citizens. Thanks, ed s.
Goddamnit! Any word if this would be available for Mac or Linux users? I hate to do RAID 0 config in order to achieve this speed boost.
Sorry….not at this time…
I am getting massive speeds boosts of late 🙂
It when from 1200 MB to 5000 MB I get the same results in Samsung Magician. I think it might have been a firmware update either my Asus M6F motherboard or Magician firmware.
https://f.cl.ly/items/3U162m443H1o0f0K2s0l/SSD%20speedson%20rapid%202.JPG
Been using Rapid mode on my 500GB drive for about 6 months without issue.