this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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Tested: Windows 11 Pro's On-By-Default Encryption Slows SSDs Up to 45%::Windows 11 Pro defaults to BitLocker being turned on, using software encryption. We've tested the Samsung 990 Pro with hardware encryption to show how the various modes impact performance, and how muc

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[–] seaQueue@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do we have comparable numbers for LUKS to contrast this with?

[–] Still@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

idk about the drive from the article but I get about 1GiB/s random reads with Luks on my wd sn 750 1tb and about 2 GiB/s without

sequential is almost identical

[–] BombOmOm@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I wonder how this compares to Veracrypt doing the same thing.

[–] popemichael@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 1 year ago

That is a life changing program up there with 7zip, gimp, and notepad++

Its hard to find a better paid replacement

[–] PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I mean, Veracrypt takes a while to mount a vault, because it basically has to dig through all the layers of encryption. Veracrypt is great for a lot of things, but speed isn’t the main consideration when you’re dealing with encryption.

[–] vividspecter@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

We're not talking about mount times here, but read/write speeds. They might be slow too, but that's a different issue.

[–] Send_me_nude_girls@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

I'm no expert but as far as I know the mounting takes time, but once it's done, you got to deal with a bit added CPU time, but the read/write stays largely the same.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 11 points 1 year ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


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.

While we have results for higher queue depths, note that the QD1 numbers are far more meaningful in the real world, as this is the most common type of file access in typical operating system environments... and that's where software BitLocker impacted performance the most.

Lower latency delivers snappier performance in day-to-day use, and it's the primary reason the industry at large has moved from slow rotating hard drives to faster SSDs.

Given that this extra layer of latency, albeit at varying degrees, will also be added to slower types of SSDs, like QLC or low-tier drives, this could have a much bigger real-world impact in some systems.

Windows 11 disk caching might be a factor there, but QD256 is basically fantasy land for storage workloads (remember, low queue depths are the most common), so we don't put too much weight on it.

There's a curious "bump" with the 990 Pro that we've noted before on the read speeds, but write performance shows a smoother line with the software BitLocker trailing up until the 256KiB block size.


The original article contains 2,953 words, the summary contains 212 words. Saved 93%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (9 children)

How bad do Macs slow down with encryption? Or can you even turn it off? They do have a dedicated chip, and section of chip, to handle encryption.

[–] kalleboo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They don't slow down with encryption to any real degree.

Even before Apple added their dedicated T or M chips, they used the AES instruction set in Intel CPUs for hardware acceleration and the performance impact was within the margin of error (3%) https://archive.techarp.com/showarticle0037.html?artno=877&pgno=1

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[–] pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I turned this off as soon as I setup the PC, there's zero need for this on desktops. Once again, Microsoft's making a stupid move.

[–] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Also, is always encrypting drives even a good or desirable thing for most users?

I don't know the details, but what if someone forgets the password, or some PC components get broken, but they still want their data put of there?

Disk encryption is something that should be a choice, opt-in.

[–] serratur@lemmy.wtf 1 points 1 year ago

but what if someone forgets the password, or some PC components get broken, but they still want their data put of there?

That is why backup of your data is a necessity regardless of encryption or not.

[–] Spotlight7573@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I'd argue it's similar to the debate over whether HTTPS is needed for most sites (it is and there's little excuse not to at this point). It also matches what is expected from other devices like phones that are encrypted by default now.

As for data loss: for Home users at least, a recovery key is backed up to the user's Microsoft account.

[–] OrangeCorvus@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What method would be the best to encrypt a Windows 11 Pro workstation? I had my PC at home but now I got an office so I have to rely on its security that it won't be broken into.

I am a one man band and I work in video production. If someone would steal my PC/Synology NAS, they would access to my videos and all the invoices/client details. If I would use Bitlocker, I guess I would expect a lot lower performance when editing.

[–] Spotlight7573@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

BitLocker can be configured to use the encryption provided by the SSD, so you can still use it, you just need to make sure that the SSD model you have supports it and doesn't have any flaws/insecurities in its implementation.

I'm not sure what options are available for that NAS though.

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