FileVault2 Performance and Mountain Lion

My limited googling only revealed one performance review with a retina Macbook Pro and FileVault. With no reason to disbelieve the results, I decided to duplicate the test on my system see how my system performed.

Hardware Overview:

  Model Name: MacBook Pro

  Model Identifier: MacBookPro10,1

  Processor Name: Intel Core i7

  Processor Speed: 2.3 GHz

  Number of Processors: 1

  Total Number of Cores: 4

  L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

  L3 Cache: 6 MB

  Memory: 16 GB

  Boot ROM Version: MBP101.00EE.B00

  SMC Version (system): 2.3f32

The process of turning on FileVault2 took approximately 30 minutes. It might have been marginally faster if I wasn't listening to some totally awesome tunes while the encryption was taking place.

Before encryption I ran three separate tests using xbench.


Results 481.18
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.8 (12A269)
Physical RAM 16384 MB
Model MacBookPro10,1
Drive Type APPLE SSD SM256E
Disk Test 481.18
Sequential 308.32
Uncached Write 607.39 372.93 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 481.62 272.50 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 131.13 38.38 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 615.40 309.30 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 1095.31
Uncached Write 1287.58 136.31 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 729.81 233.64 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2249.33 15.94 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 942.98 174.98 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Results 488.09

Disk Test 488.09

Sequential 313.13

Uncached Write 688.26 422.58 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Write 484.65 274.21 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uncached Read 130.07 38.07 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Read 637.02 320.16 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Random 1106.13

Uncached Write 1343.20 142.19 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Write 721.33 230.93 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uncached Read 2238.27 15.86 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Read 962.83 178.66 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Results 478.31

Disk Test 478.31

Sequential 312.93

Uncached Write 683.54 419.68 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Write 484.75 274.27 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uncached Read 130.80 38.28 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Read 620.59 311.91 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Random 1014.41

Uncached Write 813.41 86.11 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Write 801.36 256.55 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uncached Read 2238.36 15.86 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Read 981.22 182.07 MB/sec [256K blocks]

After encryption I ran three more tests using xbench.


Results 411.73
Disk Test 411.73
Sequential 255.66
Uncached Write 611.05 375.18 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 469.03 265.38 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 96.60         28.27 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 655.54 329.47 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 1057.07
Uncached Write 1223.89 129.56 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 704.87 225.65 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 1779.88 12.61 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 1013.74 188.11 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Results 399.23

Disk Test 399.23

Sequential 249.39

Uncached Write 716.32 439.81 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Write 470.04 265.95 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uncached Read 90.77         26.56 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Read 667.28 335.37 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Random 1000.13

Uncached Write 831.56 88.03 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Write 788.53 252.44 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uncached Read 1764.84 12.51 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Read 1039.38 192.86 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Results 399.02

Disk Test 399.02

Sequential 248.14

Uncached Write 723.38 444.14 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Write 477.81 270.34 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uncached Read 89.98         26.33 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Read 653.42 328.41 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Random 1018.03

Uncached Write 853.36 90.34 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Write 796.68 255.05 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Uncached Read 1819.49 12.89 MB/sec [4K blocks]

Uncached Read 1049.85 194.81 MB/sec [256K blocks]

After seeing this, I'm going to stick the encrypted drive and go down the paranoid route by switching on "Mac App Store and identified developers" combined with FileVault and an excluding, non-responding firewall. The only thing I need to do now is to tattoo the unlock key inside my eyelid.

Australia Day 2012 - Moranbah

Today we had a BBQ lunch at the farm house (office) for our Australia day celebrations.

nom nom nom
Australia Day 2012 - Moranbah

Irony

Yesterday I thought about the irony of Steve Jobs passing and the anti-brigade who decried him as an evil capitalist. I found this to be a sad viewpoint. Steve helped to shape computing and software development in a way which is good for society in a similar way to Henry Ford who made the automobile accessible for nearly everyone who lived in his society.

I see the advent of the $1.00 application as being the on the same level as Ford, who made it some sort of policy to ensure that the workers who built cars could also afford to own one. The $1.00 application has/is helped/heling to empower those who live in less developed worlds to not only purchase the software, but, to also develop it and derive a decent income from it.

Software developers in wealthy countries are the only real losers. Unless these developers and their studios can sell a million $1.00 applications on a regular basis, they won't make enough money to survive and grow as businesses. This hands the advantage to the less wealthy who are intelligent enough to successfully develop software. All that is needed to make money developing software is a basic apple computer, ~US$100 make the software available on iTunes and access to the internet.

Nice one Steve.

RIP.