Western Digital’s new firmware has solved the problem of performance degradation of the black disk SN850 connected to the X570 chipset

Some time ago, we reported that the performance of the Western Digital WD_BLACK SN850 on the non-direct M.2 slot of the X570 motherboard is abnormal, which has a very large gap compared to the direct connection M.2 slot. Generally speaking, the performance difference will not exceed 10% at most. However, when WD_BLACK SN850 is connected to an indirect M.2 slot, even almost half of the performance loss occurs in individual writing items, which is definitely abnormal.

After the problem occurred, Western Digital conducted related investigations and found that the cause was the write performance degradation caused by the configuration of the payload size (MPS) as 128 bytes. Because this parameter determines the maximum transaction layer data packet (TLP) that enters the PCIe controller. Its low value will weaken the performance of relatively high-performance products, and can only be forced to run at a low value, resulting in a huge performance loss. Western Digital also stated that it will provide a new firmware download on July 21, 2021, to solve this problem.

Image: computerbase

According to the feedback on the ComputerBase forum, Western Digital seems to have fixed this problem. The latest firmware is 613200WD. Compared with the previous 613000WD, the performance is much normal. Even if there is a performance loss, it is within a reasonable range. Western Digital did not explain what changes will be made to the new version of the 613200WD firmware. If WD_BLACK SN850 users need to update the firmware, it can only be obtained through Western Digital’s Dashboard software at this stage. If some users do not receive the message prompting to update, just uninstall and reinstall the software.