Windows 11 feature slows down SSDs on PCs by nearly 50%

According to Techspot , the BitLocker encryption feature in Windows 11 Pro is designed to protect data and ensure that only authorized individuals can access it, but it comes with the potential for high performance drain. To find out how much of an impact it can have, Tom's Hardware recently conducted a test in three scenarios: unencrypted (no BitLocker), software-assisted BitLocker (Windows 11 Pro's default), and hardware-based BitLocker.

BitLocker may be enabled by default depending on your version of Windows.

The team tested on a system equipped with a 4 TB Samsung 990 Pro SSD running Windows 11 Pro (22H2, with all patches installed) paired with an Intel Core i9-12900K CPU and 32 GB DDR4 RAM.

In PCMark 10's storage benchmark, the software-enabled BitLocker configuration resulted in speeds that were 20 percent slower than the hardware-based, non-encrypted variant. Similar slowdowns were observed in Crystal Disk Mark's random read test, and in the random write test, Tom's Hardware saw a whopping 45 percent drop in performance. In DiskBench's 50GB copy transfer test, the software-enabled BitLocker setup was 11 percent slower.

To check the SSD encryption status on your PC, launch an elevated command prompt (run CMD as administrator) and type in the command: management-bde -status, which will bring up a screen. Here, you'll need to look at the Conversion Status and Encryption Method. The Conversion Status will indicate whether the PC has encryption enabled, while the Encryption Method will indicate whether it's hardware or software encryption. If the method says "XTS-AES" then it's BitLocker software, while if it says Hardware Encryption then it's hardware encryption.

If you get a message saying your drives are “Fully Decrypted” and “Protection Off,” your PC isn’t using BitLocker. That’s probably fine for a home PC, but on a laptop that’s more vulnerable to theft, you may want to enable it.

In short, if your PC is running Windows 10 Pro then BitLocker may not be enabled, if you are using Windows 11 Home then it will not be enabled, and if you are using Windows 11 Pro then double check as it may already be enabled.

It's also worth noting that the performance drop will vary depending on the SSD and CPU in use, with numbers potentially higher or lower.

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