OCZ Agility 3 Review 240GB

Performance Analysis

The first test we performed on the Agility 3 was AS SSD, which uses incompressible data. This presents a worst-case scenario for the Agility 3’s asynchronous NAND, as the drive can’t rely on the SandForce SF-2281 controller’s on-the-fly data compression.

Unfortunately, the Agility 3 struggled, managing a sequential read speed of only 213MB/sec – less than half its claimed read speed of 525MB/sec. Even the original Indilinx Barefoot drive controller of the original Vertex 120GB was faster than this. The Vertex 3, meanwhile, managed to top 500MB/sec in this test, making it more than twice as fast as the Agility 3, despite using the same drive controller.

The sequential write speed was slightly faster at 243MB/sec, but still short of the claimed 500MB/sec write speed. Again, cheaper SSDs such as Crucial’s M4 256GB were noticeably faster, posting a speed of 287MB/sec although the Vertex 3 matches the Agility 3 here with a write speed of 243MB/sec in the same test.


The Agility 3’s single-threaded 4KB random performance in AS SSD didn’t win it many prizes either – with a result of 19MB/sec in the random read test, it was barely any faster than a drive with a first-generation SandForce SF-1222 drive controller. The 4K random write speed result of 108MB/sec was much better, however, and was even slightly faster than the Vertex 3’s result of 100MB/sec.

Sadly, the Agility 3 returned to mediocrity with its 64-thread 4KB random performance – its read speed of 144MB/sec was bettered by the cheaper M4 and a long way behind the Vertex 3. The write speed of 209MB/sec was an improvement but still slightly slower than the M4, which managed 216MB/sec.

Our second test, the ATTO disk benchmark, uses highly compressible data and therefore favours the Agility 3’s SandForce controller. The difference was huge; in ATTO the Agility 3 managed a 1,024KB sequential read speed of 537MB/sec – just 10MB/sec less than the Vertex 3 in the same test. It also managed a 1,024KB sequential write speed of 511MB/sec, matching the Vertex 3.


However, the drive controller is doing all the work here, and ATTO’s perfectly compressible data isn’t representative of real-world use. When transferring a variety of video, game and software files to the drive, we saw a peak write speed of 220MB/sec. One area where the Agility 3 redeemed itself was in its TRIM performance. After we’d filled the drive with data, it lost almost none of its original performance, delivering speeds similar to those when the drive was empty.

Conclusion

Sadly, the OCZ Agility 3 240GB doesn’t deliver on its claim of offering similar performance to a Vertex 3 for much less cash. While it’s cheaper than the Vertex 3, its performance presents serious pitfalls, which are brought about by the use of asynchronous, rather than synchronous NAND. This was evident in a number of areas, and not just a select few.

Most damning is the fact that the Crucial M4 256GB, which is available for £263 now, was considerably faster in key tests; even a two-year-old first-generation Vertex 120GB proved faster in AS-SSD’s sequential read test. This isn’t what you want to hear when you’re about to splash out over £320 on a new SSD. The M4 256GB has a higher formatted capacity and is a much better all-rounder, while the Vertex 3 240GB remains the performance champ, leaving the Agility 3 240GB with little to recommend it.