A Closer Look at Samsung RAPID

Have you heard of RAPID? That is the question you need to be asking yourself if you have purchased a Samsung SSD recently. Aside from the speedy little SSD you get in the package, Samsung has a cool trick up their sleeve and it goes by the name of RAPID, or Real-time Accelerated Processing of I/O Data.  What is it? And, does it work?

The idea is simple, accomplishing it is another story.  The idea, in a nutshell, is this; use your system’s resources (CPU and DRAM) to increase read acceleration through caching hot data.  Now even though this sounds like a RAM drive, and it is in some ways… it can increase the performance of your system, in certain scenarios, dramatically…

When enabled, RAPID mode is inserted as a filter driver in the Windows storage stack. The driver actively monitors and analyzes system traffic and leverages spare system resources (DRAM and CPU) to deliver read acceleration through intelligent caching of hot data and write  optimization through tight coordination with the SSD.

• Read/Write Cache.  RAPID mode uses system DRAM as a cache of “hot data” based on frequency, recency, file type, etc, such that subsequent requests can be served directly from DRAM, rather than going to the SSD.
• Write Optimization.  System write requests are processed for optimized performance with Samsung EVO SSD.
• File Awareness.  RAPID mode may exclude certain files from caching based on a variety of factors, including file type, file size, etc. This prevents unnecessary data from polluting the cache.
• Persistent Cache.  RAPID mode maintains cache map across system reboot to maintain consistent high-performance operation.
• Cache Compression.  RAPID mode dynamically compresses and de-compresses cache contents to dramatically improve cache efficiency. Optimized for Samsung EVO. RAPID Mode was co-developed and optimized for the Samsung MEX controller.

RAPID is included in the Samsung Magician software.  I set out to see if it was all fluff, beyond 4K benchmarks, and worked as well in real world computing as it does in benchmarks.

To figure all this out, I installed our recently reviewed Samsung EVO in my less than impressive laptop.  The machine is by no means exceptional and was purchased for less than $500 (M5-583P-6428).