Fixing WD SN850 response times for Mario Emulators
The power-saving mode on this drive is a complete joke. Every time I launch the emulator, I have to wait for the hardware to wake up. System logs showed it takes 5-7 seconds to return to full speed from low power, which is unacceptable for emulation. I tried updating the drivers, but the black screen actually got 3 seconds longer—I was ready to throw the drive out. I took a drastic approach and forced all NVMe power states to 0 in the registry. Boot time plummeted from 20 seconds to 6 seconds. The only downside was a 6℃ increase in idle temps, but I fixed that by adjusting my front fan curves to keep it at 44-48℃. Peak reads are now a rock-steady 6.6GB/s. After exporting the registry keys and testing on another rig, the wake-up lag is totally dead. Fans are humming at 1400-1600RPM.
