OCZ Vertex 4 (256GB)

When OCZ acquired Indilinx last year it wasn?t a question of if the latter?s controllers would replace those in the former?s solid-state drives (SSDs), it was a question of when. We got the first part of that answer with the Octane series, which was released in November. Now we?re seeing the beginning of the second part, with Indilinx hardware showing up in an existing OCZ series. Vertex 4 drives, like this 256GB model (available for $349 list) demonstrate both the benefits and drawbacks of the two companies? marriage: You?re getting a product that is faster in some ways than its immediate predecessor (in this case our Editors? Choice winner, the 256GB Vertex 3, but not all. The 256GB Vertex 4 is a top-notch SSD, just not a definitive winner across the board.

The Vertex 4 uses Indilinx?s Everest 2 controller, which of course takes advantage of the newer 6Gbps SATA III data transfer seen in the Vertex 3 and Octane drives, but utilizes a new architecture that affects performance in other ways as well. OCZ rates the Vertex 4?s maximum sequential read speed as 535MBps?below the 550MBps at which it pegged the Vertex 3. But the Vertex 4 compensates?with drastically improved random speeds: 90,000 IOPS for reads and?85,000 for writes, in both cases?at 4KB (versus 40,000 and 60,000 respectively for the Vertex 3).?Formatting the drive gives you just over 238GB of usable space, meaning you end up paying about $1.47 per gigabyte.

Additional features?on the Vertex 4?include the presence of Ndurance 2.0, a suite of NAND management features that offer reduced write amplification without compression, advanced multilevel ECC, and adaptive Redundant NAND Array technology. The Vertex 4 is also equipped with automatic encryption (with support for AES-256) and an advanced ECC engine up to 128 bits per kilobyte). In case all that isn?t enough, OCZ also protects the drive with a five-year warranty?two more years than you got with the Vertex 3.

Does any of?this translate to performance? The Vertex 4 makes some noticeable strides in some areas. In our evaluation, it made a major jump in the AS SSD Benchmark sequential write test, rating 338.7MBps compared with the Vertex 3?s 277.7MBps, which is impressive enough. But it zoomed ahead even further with the same program?s 4KB read test with 64 threads: an astonishing 321.4MBps versus 182.5MBps. (When that test switched to writes, it was still better, but by a smaller margin: 259.3MBps versus 229.8MBps.) We also saw nice jumps in CrystalDiskMark?s 4KB read test at a queue depth of 32 (268.7MBps versus 208MBps for the Vertex 3), and in SiSoftware Sandra?s buffered write (349.9MBps versus 291.3MBps), sequential write (346MBps versus 284.6MBps), and random write (346.3MBps versus 280.5MBps) trials.

In other situations, however, not so much. The maximum sequential write speed of the drive tops out at 380MBps?considerably below the 520MBps rating of a Vertex 3 at the same capacity. This showed up in our testing, as well: The AS SSD sequential read test was a throwdown in favor of the Vertex 3 (515.3MBps versus 402.9MBps), as were many of the elements of CrystalDiskMark (with 512KB writes being the biggest exception not yet mentioned), and every part of Futuremark PCMark 7?s secondary storage test. Raw reads were faster with the Vertex 3, too, as measured with Sandra?s Physical Disks module (535.7MBps versus 422.1MBps), as were buffered reads and sequential reads.

But as OCZ touts the Vertex 4?s random capabilities, it?s only right to look at that?and they are indeed noteworthy. It registered upwards of 82,000 IOPS on the AS SSD 4KB read test with 64 threads (compared with just under 47,000 for the Vertex 3) and 25,723 on the 512-byte random write test?versus 4,574 for the Vertex 3. (That?s higher than we?ve seen on any other SSDs yet, including those of the former champ in this regard, the Samsung SSD 830 Series, which managed 22,690.) It also?turned in a higher?Random Write?rating in Sandra (346.33MBps) than any?other drive in this class we've seen.?A quick run with the AS SSD Benchmark's compression test showed that the Vertex 4's controller is in line with?other?Indilinx models and?maintained consistent read and write speeds with data at every level of compression, especially compared with the more erratic Vertex 3 in this regard.

What all this means is that the 256GB OCZ Vertex 4 may indeed be the fastest SSD for you?depending on what you do. The drive is optimized for random performance, which is most likely to speed up everyday computing. And if you traffic regularly heavy (and heavily threaded) workloads, particularly when it comes to writing, you?ll see some excellent performance regardless of how compressed your data is.? But if these descriptions don?t match how you use your computer, and if sequential read speeds factor more into your regular routine, the picture is murkier. Across our benchmark suite, the Editors? Choice Vertex 3 was more balanced; we didn?t see miraculous speeds in every instance with the Vertex 4, so we can?t promise you will. Either way, you?re getting a darn good drive?just not necessarily a great one.

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