FileVault 2 performance on platter drives

[Objectivist-C]

I'm curious as to whether anyone has seen (or done) benchmarks on FileVault 2 performance on platter-based HDDs. The SSD-based scores in the AnandTech review show a ~25% drop in throughput, but I'm thinking the slower speed of a hard drive might push the bottleneck somewhere else and result in a different performance profile.

Anyone?

 

[maflynn]

Read anandtech's review. They have benchmarks on using FileVault2

 

[Objectivist-C]

Read anandtech's review. They have benchmarks on using FileVault2

You mean the review I specifically mentioned in my post?

 

[Steve's Barber]

Funny I stumbled onto this. I also read the reviews and kept wondering why was FileVault only tested on an SSD?

I'm setting up a small 100GB FV partition as I write this. 2 hours into a 4 hour encryption cycle. Thought I'd see for myself on a 5400rpm drive.

 

[quangdiggity]

Google's first hit:

If you are a SSD user, the loss in performance will probably be much more noticeable in day-to-day usage. This is because SSDs outperform spinning disks by tens of times in random read tasks, which in turn places a heavier burden on your CPU to decrypt greater rates of data.

http://maxcho.com/2011/07/filevault-2-benchmarks/

Clearly, the right answer is that it depends on the relative speeds of your storage and CPU. An SSD is fast enough that you may have to wait for the CPU. If your HDD is slow enough you might not have to wait for the CPU.

 

[CyBeRino]

Funny I stumbled onto this. I also read the reviews and kept wondering why was FileVault only tested on an SSD?

Because spinning rust drives are too slow to be impacted by this. Current CPUs (the only thing Lion will run on) are capable of encrypting in excess of 100MB/sec of data. No current magnetic drive can keep up with the CPUs.

 

[Steve's Barber]

Because spinning rust drives are too slow to be impacted by this. Current CPUs (the only thing Lion will run on) are capable of encrypting in excess of 100MB/sec of data. No current magnetic drive can keep up with the CPUs.

Excellent explanation. Thanks.

Explains why my freshly FileVaulted partition performs well. (5400 rpm drive).