M.2 NVMe not achieving max speed.

[Mike.]

Hello,

 

Any advice on this would greatly appreciated.

I have read up on this matter as much as I can but my abilities with computers are limited to be honest.

 

I have a small MSI PC on which the Motherboard has one M.2 slot.

It came with a M.2 Sata drive which I changed for a M.2 NVMe successfully.

The M.2 NVMe drive claims a max speed of over 3000mbs.

With CrystalDiskMark my max speed was around 1700mbs on the top line for Read, therefore around half the claimed max speed for this NVMe.

 

With CrystalDiskInfo in the transfer mode section it states -

 

PCIe 2.0 x4  (as current mode)     PCIe 3.0 x4  (as supported mode)

 

NVM Express 1.3

 

It was mentioned to me that PCIe 2.0 x4 might be the problem causing the NVMe to not achieve its max speed and that I should change this to run on PCIe 3.0 x4

I cannot see anything in BIOS for that.

I have read something about the M.2 NVMe being put in to an adaptor and placed in a PCIe slot instead of the M.2 slot.

I'm sure this PC has just one PCIe and that has the graphics card in it.

The PC is very small and wouldn't take anything else inside anyway.

The motherboard has MSI B9181 on it, which I can't find much about.

 

I suppose I am asking that if CrsytalDiskInfo states PCIe 3.0 x4 is supported - will this board run the NMVe up to much higher than 1700mbs.

Also, how would I do that ie. make PCIe 3.0 x4 the "current mode" instead of PCIe 2.0 x4 ?

Will it not do so with the NVMe drive in the M.2 slot ?

 

Many thanks.

 

Mike.

 

[SavageNeo]

Just now, Mike. said:

It was mentioned to me that PCIe 2.0 x4 might be the problem causing the NVMe to not achieve its max speed and that I should change this to run on PCIe 3.0 x4

You have it on wrong slot, you have to put it in pci e 3.0 slot on your motherboard.

 

2 minutes ago, Mike. said:

I cannot see anything in BIOS for that.

You can not change it in your bios. If your mobo does not have more slots, it means that your motherboard only has pci e 2.0 slot. 

 

3 minutes ago, Mike. said:

I have read something about the M.2 NVMe being put in to an adaptor and placed in a PCIe slot instead of the M.2 slot

Could work, but since you have only one slot, it does not work,

[SavageNeo]

It can also be that your gpu adn m.2 slot divide their power. Some cheap and fairly old motherboards do that. Like in b450 strix-f where the bottom pci e express and pci e 3.0 slot divide their power.

[Radium_Angel]

15 minutes ago, Mike. said:

Also, how would I do that ie. make PCIe 3.0 x4 the "current mode" instead of PCIe 2.0 x4 ?

That's a physical limitation of the mobo. You can't change that.

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

The motherboard uses an H310 chipset, which only has PCIe 2.0 for expansion options. So it's a limitation of the motherboard.

 

But it doesn't really mater. Use cases where NVMe's bandwidth shines are rarely encountered in most people's use cases.

[SavageNeo]

Just now, Mira Yurizaki said:

Use cases where NVMe's bandwidth shines are rarely encountered in most people's use cases.

True dat! But still people are getting better results with pci e 3.0, not like the 3500 mb/s what they promise, but like 2700+.

 

If you bought expensive m.2ssd, you should upgrade to ryzen and buy motherboard what supports 3.0. Msi tomahawk max for example.

[Mike.]

Thanks SavageNeo, Radium_Angel & Mira Yurizaki for the replies.

 

I think you've confirmed what I suspected, that being it will have to run as it is.

 

I thought I would look into it now instead of finding out later it could have run at a higher level all along.

 

Regards, thanks again.

 

Mike.