Haswell Macbook air with a slow SSD!

[viespace]

Hi everyone, I just got my brand new mid-2013 13-inch Macbook air today, but when I test my disk speed with Blackmagic from the App store, it gives me a very low written speed(other people are showing around 700MB/S write?).
Is this something that I can take my machine to the Apple store and demand a switch?
Thanks for help!

 

[simsaladimbamba]

You can always try, but you will hardly notice a difference between the 300 to 700 MB/s write speeds in normal daily usage, unless your normal daily usage depends on writing dozens of GBs to your SSD on a daily basis from a source, that offers those 700 MB/s or 500 MB/s.

You could also try XBench and AJA System Test to see, if they show you the same results.

 

[viespace]

You can always try, but you will hardly notice a difference between the 300 to 700 MB/s write speeds in normal daily usage, unless your normal daily usage depends on writing dozens of GBs to your SSD on a daily basis from a source, that offers those 700 MB/s or 500 MB/s.

You could also try XBench and AJA System Test to see, if they show you the same results.

Thanks for the advice. I know I wouldn't notice the difference there, but it kind of makes me uncomfortable because one of the major features of the 2013 MBA is the big improvement of the disk speed. The speed that I have now is kind of the same as 2012 model.
I will try the software out and post the result.

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The result is the same.

 

[robvas]

317MB/s is a 'very low' write speed? LOL
Your results are comparable with what others are getting in benchmarks using the 128GB drive

http://blog.macsales.com/19008-performance-testing-not-all-2013-macbook-air-ssds-are-the-same

 

[dollystereo]

Indeed, this speed is really fast!
Enjoy your mac, stop running benchmarks.

 

[viespace]

317MB/s is a 'very low' write speed? LOL
Your results are comparable with what others are getting in benchmarks using the 128GB drive

http://blog.macsales.com/19008-performance-testing-not-all-2013-macbook-air-ssds-are-the-same

It is a low speed compare to 700mb/s. On WWDC, Apple mentioned clearly the ssd has a 40% performance increase than the previous version, but now I don't see that major increase.
Are you suggesting that all 128GB SSDs have the same 300MB-ish write speed?

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Indeed, this speed is really fast!
Enjoy your mac, stop running benchmarks.

Yes it is a very fast speed but this is not a impressive PCIe based SSD performance. I agree with you that I should enjoy my Mac, but it kind of bothers me having the idea that I might have a problem SSD.

 

[wressus]

It is a low speed compare to 700mb/s. On WWDC, Apple mentioned clearly the ssd has a 40% performance increase than the previous version, but now I don't see that major increase.
Are you suggesting that all 128GB SSDs have the same 300MB-ish write speed?

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Yes it is a very fast speed but this is not a impressive PCIe based SSD performance. I agree with you that I should enjoy my Mac, but it kind of bothers me having the idea that I might have a problem SSD.

Go back, return it and pay 200$ extra for the 256gb ssd and you will get 700mb/s write speed...

 

[Doublea6]

The 128 ssd gets around 300 like yours. The 256, and 512 get closer to 700. This is because they have more cells in the ssd resulting in better efficiency and then speed.

 

[BenTrovato]

The 40% was probably on the read speeds. As far as I knew, only the 256/512gb models were hitting the 700mb/s+ write speeds. The comments section in the link posted above gives a pretty good explanation as to why its faster on the higher capacity models.

 

[viespace]

Go back, return it and pay 200$ extra for the 256gb ssd and you will get 700mb/s write speed...

Ok, if all 128ssds have the same performance, I am ok with the current speed. I just thought that all ssds have the identical speed.

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The 128 ssd gets around 300 like yours. The 256, and 512 get closer to 700. This is because they have more cells in the ssd resulting in better efficiency and then speed.

Thanks, that helps.

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The 40% was probably on the read speeds. As far as I knew, only the 256/512gb models were hitting the 700mb/s+ write speeds. The comments section in the link posted above gives a pretty good explanation as to why its faster on the higher capacity models.

I get it. Thanks for the comment.

 

[Weaselboy]

Ok, if all 128ssds have the same performance, I am ok with the current speed. I just thought that all ssds have the identical speed.

2013 MBA 128GB owner here and I can confirm your speed is normal. The higher speeds you see reported by others are the 256GB models. This is common with all SSDs.

 

[scaredpoet]

Ok, if all 128ssds have the same performance, I am ok with the current speed. I just thought that all ssds have the identical speed.

No they don't, just like not all hard drives have the same speeds. The 128GB SSD, aside from using a different vendor and different controller, has a different NAND density than the larger 256GB and 512GB models. This affects write speeds, but as you've seen, read speeds are unaffected.

In real world usage, you're probably not going to see a disadvantage from this at all unless you're doing things that involve constantly writing massive amounts of data to the SSD. And constantly writing new data to an SSD is the surest way to kill it, so if that's your use-case, you definitely need to rethink your purchase or consider getting an external, conventional hard drive.

Just take comfort in the fact that A. All 128GB SSDs on the 2013 Mac Air do this, and B. If running performance tests is all the work you have for your MacBook Air, then it's already a non issue really.

 

[Boyd01]

I have been wondering about disk speeds myself so I just did this same test. I have a 2013 11" i7/8gb/512gb model.

 

[ItHurtsWhenIP]

Decided to try this out on my Samsung 256GB..not that I was worried, just curious I guess.

 

[Debian]

Guys,
I have MBA 2013 13 inch model with 128GB SSD, 8GB RAM, i5.
My friend bought 128GB SSD, with 4GB RAM, i5 and his SSD is much faster. I am getting like 250MB/s and his shows on BlackMagic 420MB/s (also tested on NovaBench). What a fail. IDK what to do, maybe return it? Hmm..

 

[coldjeanzzz]

The 128 SSD is always slower for write speeds

On the 2012 MBA the 128 gets around 220 mb/s while the bigger SSDs are double that. The read speeds are the same though

 

[Debian]

But I don't know why are these speeds so different with the same model and specs.

 

[Weaselboy]

Guys,
I have MBA 2013 13 inch model with 128GB SSD, 8GB RAM, i5.
My friend bought 128GB SSD, with 4GB RAM, i5 and his SSD is much faster. I am getting like 250MB/s and his shows on BlackMagic 420MB/s (also tested on NovaBench). What a fail. IDK what to do, maybe return it? Hmm..

Do you happen to have Filevault encryption turned on? That will slow your write speeds somewhat.

 

[Debian]

Do you happen to have Filevault encryption turned on? That will slow your write speeds somewhat.

No encryption turned on and no apps which can be slowing my disk running.
Here is my SSD model number APPLE SSD SD0128F. So it's SanDisk - But why? I thought they use samsung SSD's.

 

[Weaselboy]

No encryption turned on and no apps which can be slowing my disk running.
Here is my SSD model number APPLE SSD SD0128F. So it's SanDisk - But why? I thought they use samsung SSD's.

Apple uses many different brands like Sandisk, Samsung, and Toshiba.

 

[Debian]

Apple uses many different brands like Sandisk, Samsung, and Toshiba.

Everywhere when I read about SanDisk - they get same results. I am upset.

 

[NewbieCanada]

Do you happen to have Filevault encryption turned on? That will slow your write speeds somewhat.

I have Filevault turned on and am getting 380-420 write speeds. But my drive is a Samsung.

My 2012 rMBP is about 300 write and 450 read - so those who have a slower MBA can take comfort in knowing it's still faster than last year's rMBP at over twice the price.