Impressive. I wonder if the Phison Laptop Idle Wake-Up time is inherent to their design or if that's something they can tune with newer firmware.
Other than monitoring a drive's power consumption, is there a good way to tell if a drive is actually utilizing ASPM? I don't mean "check to make sure ASPM is enabled in BIOS/UEFI", but rather that the drive is actually entering the low power states.
I have a Toshiba XG4 that I've been messing around with. In some of my systems it idles at ~70C (hot to the touch) and in others it idles at ~45C. I'd assume that in the hot systems, there's no Power Management happening -- and I'd like to see if there's something I can look at in the OS that tells me "no Power Management is happening". Likewise, on the cooler idling systems I'd be curious to see what level of ASPM is being achieved.
It might be possible to check some link status registers to figure out what state is actually being used on the drive's side of the PCIe link. But a lot of the time it's hard to query a drive's sleep state without waking it up.
I don't have an XG4, but as the TLC counterpart to the XG3/RD400 I should be getting around to re-testing that controller's idle behavior soon. My previous measurements have shown it to be tied for the highest active idle among M.2 drives, and second only to Phison E7 for desktop idle on the Skylake system with semi-broken ASPM. (https://www.anandtech.com/bench/SSD18/2453 and https://www.anandtech.com/bench/SSD18/2424)
It's an In-Win case. It seems to be the standard cheap desktop case that Intel's demo depot uses. I have two of them from the systems that they provided for Optane Memory reviews.
My local (otherwise good) PC store uses a variant of them and they're nasty. Everything is sharp, the panels don't go back on without a lot of "convincing" due to the weird way the tabs on the side panels lock in to those open rectangles in the channel it presses on to, and they barely retain their 90-degree corners. Not recommended. Whenever I can, I pay to upgrade to... well, basically anything else.
The case definitely feels like a design from 15 years ago, save for the front panel USB 3.0 ports. Not something I'd ever buy, but it works fine for sitting on a shelf in the rack.
I think this is great, but even this is going to fall short of battery life testing. I know, I know its unrealistic to expect battery life testing for every SSD.
The 970 Pro in TH testing is not the top SSD despite the fast transition and low idle power.
Even Notebookcheck testing shows a significant disparity between power measurement tests and actual battery life tests.
One aspect of power management that I'm not currently measuring because of how hard it is to automate is the time taken to drop down to low-power states during idle. That can vary widely between drives, and also between NVMe drivers since the OS sets policy for the drive using the NVMe APST feature.
If a system is properly configured for maximum battery life, then most NVMe SSDs will be getting down below 10mW, and the difference between 2mW and 5mW idle is not going to measurably affect battery life; that's far below the noise threshold for a test like MobileMark. Any real differences in battery life will be due to a combination of load power efficiency and energy consumed in the process of entering and leaving idle.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
13 Comments
Back to Article
MrCommunistGen - Thursday, May 9, 2019 - link
Impressive. I wonder if the Phison Laptop Idle Wake-Up time is inherent to their design or if that's something they can tune with newer firmware.Other than monitoring a drive's power consumption, is there a good way to tell if a drive is actually utilizing ASPM? I don't mean "check to make sure ASPM is enabled in BIOS/UEFI", but rather that the drive is actually entering the low power states.
I have a Toshiba XG4 that I've been messing around with. In some of my systems it idles at ~70C (hot to the touch) and in others it idles at ~45C. I'd assume that in the hot systems, there's no Power Management happening -- and I'd like to see if there's something I can look at in the OS that tells me "no Power Management is happening". Likewise, on the cooler idling systems I'd be curious to see what level of ASPM is being achieved.
Billy Tallis - Thursday, May 9, 2019 - link
It might be possible to check some link status registers to figure out what state is actually being used on the drive's side of the PCIe link. But a lot of the time it's hard to query a drive's sleep state without waking it up.I don't have an XG4, but as the TLC counterpart to the XG3/RD400 I should be getting around to re-testing that controller's idle behavior soon. My previous measurements have shown it to be tied for the highest active idle among M.2 drives, and second only to Phison E7 for desktop idle on the Skylake system with semi-broken ASPM. (https://www.anandtech.com/bench/SSD18/2453 and https://www.anandtech.com/bench/SSD18/2424)
FreckledTrout - Thursday, May 9, 2019 - link
Thats a nice setup. In the PC photo whats the yellow discs at the bottom left hand of the photo?James5mith - Thursday, May 9, 2019 - link
They are push pins to hold drives in place in the drive cage.Can't remember which case manufacturer uses them.
Billy Tallis - Thursday, May 9, 2019 - link
It's an In-Win case. It seems to be the standard cheap desktop case that Intel's demo depot uses. I have two of them from the systems that they provided for Optane Memory reviews.FreckledTrout - Thursday, May 9, 2019 - link
Thanks. I don't play with cheap cases so never saw anything like that before. :)evilspoons - Thursday, May 9, 2019 - link
My local (otherwise good) PC store uses a variant of them and they're nasty. Everything is sharp, the panels don't go back on without a lot of "convincing" due to the weird way the tabs on the side panels lock in to those open rectangles in the channel it presses on to, and they barely retain their 90-degree corners. Not recommended. Whenever I can, I pay to upgrade to... well, basically anything else.Billy Tallis - Thursday, May 9, 2019 - link
The case definitely feels like a design from 15 years ago, save for the front panel USB 3.0 ports. Not something I'd ever buy, but it works fine for sitting on a shelf in the rack.IntelUser2000 - Thursday, May 9, 2019 - link
I think this is great, but even this is going to fall short of battery life testing. I know, I know its unrealistic to expect battery life testing for every SSD.The 970 Pro in TH testing is not the top SSD despite the fast transition and low idle power.
Even Notebookcheck testing shows a significant disparity between power measurement tests and actual battery life tests.
IntelUser2000 - Thursday, May 9, 2019 - link
I want to add power measurement has its uses, in Desktop and Server environments where its always plugged in.Billy Tallis - Thursday, May 9, 2019 - link
One aspect of power management that I'm not currently measuring because of how hard it is to automate is the time taken to drop down to low-power states during idle. That can vary widely between drives, and also between NVMe drivers since the OS sets policy for the drive using the NVMe APST feature.If a system is properly configured for maximum battery life, then most NVMe SSDs will be getting down below 10mW, and the difference between 2mW and 5mW idle is not going to measurably affect battery life; that's far below the noise threshold for a test like MobileMark. Any real differences in battery life will be due to a combination of load power efficiency and energy consumed in the process of entering and leaving idle.
evilspoons - Thursday, May 9, 2019 - link
HD power? Only a 1080p power supply? I need my PSUs to be at least 4K! I miss the 80s where everything was TURBO.Lord of the Bored - Friday, May 10, 2019 - link
Well, Cyber- made a comeback, maybe TURBO will too.