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ja bbdcd43e01 docs(tech): add post-firmware benchmark and complete GXA7801Q update docs

- Post-update fio benchmark: random read +12.4%, write +15.9% IOPS
- Latency reduced 10-14% for random workloads
- SMART health unchanged: 0 media errors, 0 error log entries
- Firmware research status updated to complete
- Pre-benchmark checklist marked done

2026-04-02 15:10:54 +02:00

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NVMe Benchmark: Pre-Firmware Update (GXA7401Q)

Date: 2026-04-02 10:35 CET Device: Samsung PM9A1 (MZVL2512HCJQ-00B00), 512GB Serial: S675NF0R703667 Firmware: GXA7401Q (pre-update) OS: Manjaro Linux, kernel 6.12, KDE 6.5.6 NVMe slot: /dev/nvme0n1 (root drive)

SMART Health Data

Metric	Value
Critical Warning	0 (healthy)
Temperature	51°C (Sensor 2: 64°C)
Available Spare	100%
Available Spare Threshold	10%
Percentage Used	19%
Data Units Read	17.97 TB
Data Units Written	94.19 TB
Host Read Commands	683,328,216
Host Write Commands	1,651,377,088
Controller Busy Time	9,265 min
Power Cycles	884
Power On Hours	4,926 h (~205 days)
Unsafe Shutdowns	88
Media Errors	0
Error Log Entries	0

hdparm Results

Test	Throughput
Cached Reads	7,349.97 MB/sec
Buffered Disk Reads	741.99 MB/sec

fio Benchmarks (4K block, libaio, iodepth=32, 30s per test)

Sequential Read

Metric	Value
Bandwidth	1,554 MiB/s (1,630 MB/s)
IOPS	398,000
Avg Latency	80.16 µs
P99 Latency	128 µs
P99.9 Latency	186 µs

Sequential Write

Metric	Value
Bandwidth	1,305 MiB/s (1,368 MB/s)
IOPS	334,000
Avg Latency	95.53 µs
P99 Latency	163 µs
P99.9 Latency	255 µs

Random Read

Metric	Value
Bandwidth	1,409 MiB/s (1,477 MB/s)
IOPS	361,000
Avg Latency	88.42 µs
P99 Latency	141 µs
P99.9 Latency	200 µs

Random Write

Metric	Value
Bandwidth	1,135 MiB/s (1,190 MB/s)
IOPS	291,000
Avg Latency	109.78 µs
P99 Latency	190 µs
P99.9 Latency	334 µs

Random Read/Write (70/30)

Metric	Read	Write
Bandwidth	919 MiB/s (964 MB/s)	394 MiB/s (413 MB/s)
IOPS	235,000	101,000
Avg Latency	94.72 µs	95.05 µs
P99 Latency	149 µs	149 µs

Test Configuration

fio-3.41
Block size: 4096B
IO Engine: libaio
IO Depth: 32
Direct IO: yes
Runtime: 30s per test
File size: 1GiB
Directory: /tmp (on NVMe root drive)

Assessment

Drive health is good: 0 media errors, 0 error log entries, 100% spare
19% endurance used after ~205 days powered on (within normal range)
Sequential performance consistent with PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe expectations
Random IOPS strong for a client-grade TLC SSD
Temperature under load: 51-64°C (well within spec)

Firmware Update Applied

Date: 2026-04-02 10:51 CET

Key Discovery: Firmware Naming Convention

Suffix	Type	Model Suffix
`GXA***1Q`	Non-SED	`00B00` (our drive)
`GXA***2Q`	SED	`00B07`

Our drive (MZVL2512HCJQ-00B00) requires GXA7801Q, NOT GXA7802Q. The OVH mirror only hosts GXA7802Q (SED variant) which was rejected as "Invalid Firmware Image".

Correct Firmware Source

Repository: lolyinseo/samsung-nvme-firmware (GitHub, 199 stars)
File: PM9A1/ASUS/GXA7801Q/GXA7801Q_20221102.bin
Size: 2,097,152 bytes (2.0 MiB)
SHA256: 76ad2b0c35581cb71bd4c5a5fd358a15c4432aa38e9e983acc2349d2b24b5a11

Update Process (all succeeded)

# Step 1: Download to controller SRAM
sudo nvme fw-download --fw=/tmp/GXA7801Q.bin /dev/nvme0n1
# → Firmware download success

# Step 2: Install to slot 2 (preserve original in slot 1)
sudo nvme fw-commit -s 2 -a 0 /dev/nvme0
# → Success committing firmware action:0 slot:2

# Step 3: Activate slot 2
sudo nvme fw-commit -s 2 -a 2 /dev/nvme0
# → Success committing firmware action:2 slot:2

# Step 4: Reboot to apply
sudo reboot

Next Steps

Reboot system to activate GXA7801Q firmware
Verify firmware version with nvme list -> GXA7801Q confirmed
Re-run identical benchmarks post-update
Compare results in docs/tech/nvme-benchmark-post-gxa7801q.md

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