The end of SSD slowdowns?

Microsoft is solving the problem of slowing down NVMe SSDs caused by BitLocker with a new hardware acceleration technology. The new solution promises to double data transfer speeds and reduce processor load by 70 %.

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For years, enabling BitLocker protection in Windows was considered a necessary evil, causing a noticeable drop in disk performance. Since encryption was mostly software-based, the central processing unit (CPU) had to do a lot of extra work every time data was read or written. This caused bottlenecks, which were especially noticeable with the latest NVMe SSDs, where speeds were reduced by almost half in some cases.

Microsoft has now announced a radical change: the introduction of hardware-accelerated BitLocker. Instead of the processor “thinking” about encryption, this task will be performed on dedicated controllers within the new processor architectures. The first to take full advantage of this are the upcoming Intel “Panther Lake” chips (Core Ultra Series 3). According to initial measurements, sequential read performance can increase from 1630 MB/s to more than 3740 MB/s, which is more than a hundred percent improvement.

In addition to the raw speed, the new technology will also bring better battery life to laptops. Since the processor will no longer overheat while decrypting data in the background, power consumption will be reduced by about 70 percent. This is great news for gamers and video editors who need every ounce of power for their primary work.

Despite the technological advances, experts warn that no protection is foolproof. Even with hardware-accelerated encryption, the fact remains that 100% security does not exist. There are always risks at the hardware level or advanced methods of hacking into memory. However, for the average user, this upgrade will mean that they will finally get the security they want without sacrificing the speed of the hardware they paid a lot of money for. If your device is only 1.5 or 2 centimeters thick (about 0.6 to 0.8 inches), the difference in heating and speed with the new system will be more than obvious.

To transition to this new era, you will need Windows 11 version 24H2 or later and compatible hardware. With this step, Microsoft is clearly sending a message that the era of compromises between security and speed is coming to an end, although caution in managing digital identities remains your first line of defense.