![]() Next, we have CrystalDiskMark 8, a synthetic storage performance test. ![]() But let's check the numbers that we do have for the Samsung 990 Pro. We also can't speak to precisely how BitLocker will impact other SSDs, with or without hardware OPAL encryption support. We ran a slightly limited suite of tests than what we use for our SSD reviews, and because the testing required a clean Windows 11 Pro install, results aren't 100% directly comparable to our normal SSD benchmarks. Regardless, the impact is surprising even with our high-end processor, and we suspect laptops, which is what a lot of businesses running Windows 11 Pro will be using, will be hit much harder. ![]() The Core i9-12900K is no slouch when it comes to performance, and while it's no longer the fastest chip around, it's fast enough that software-based BitLocker encryption wasn't as massive of a problem as you would see with lesser CPUs that don't have as much processing power. In retrospect, while the results we'll show do indicate a potentially significant loss of performance - random IO was hit particularly hard sequential IO, not so much - part of that is likely due to our high-end desktop PC. This resulted in about 30TB worth of written data for each of the test scenarios. The SSD is 4TB, so we ran 1MiB writes for four hours straight to ensure all the flash had been touched. Our testbed had a Core i9-12900K with 32GB of DDR4 memory, our standard storage test PC.Īfter installing Windows 11, we also ran a sustained write workload using Iometer to condition the drive, thus assuring repeatable results. We tested with a Samsung 990 Pro 4TB, using the latest release of Windows 11 Pro (22H2, all patched with the latest updates). If you have software BitLocker enabled, you may want to change your settings (more on that below). While the software encryption increased latency and decreased transfer rates, hardware encryption and no encryption at all were basically tied. To find out just how much software BitLocker impacts performance, we ran a series of tests with three scenarios: unencrypted (no BitLocker), software BitLocker (the Windows 11 Pro default), and with hardware BitLocker (OPAL) enabled. Windows 11 Home doesn't support BitLocker so you won't have encryption enabled there. (You can circumvent this with tools like Rufus, if you want, though that's obviously not an official solution as it allows users to bypass the Microsoft's intent.) If you bought a prebuilt PC with Windows 11 Pro, there's a good chance software BitLocker is enabled on it right now. ![]() While many SSDs come with hardware-based encryption, which does all the processing directly on the drive, Windows 11 Pro force-enables the software version of BitLocker during installation, without providing a clear way to opt out. According to our tests, random writes and reads - which affect the overall performance of your PC - get hurt the most, but even large sequential transfers are affected. Unfortunately, a default setting in Windows 11 Pro, having its software BitLocker encryption enabled, could rob as much as 45 percent of the speed from your SSD as it forces your processor to encrypt and decrypt everything. There are few things more frustrating than paying for high-speed PC components and then leaving performance on the table because software slows your system down. ![]()
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