SAMSUNG 950 PRO read speed issue

[calarahil]

So I received my 950 Pro today and I was going through benchmarks to notice that my reads were waaaaay off and I'm at a blank as to what may be causing it. Below are my current specs. If anyone has experience with this or an idea of what I should attempt let me know

 

Intel i7 4790k

Noctua NH-D15

ASUS Z97 MAXIMUS VII HERO (updated and supporting NVME)

Kingston Fury 16 GB 1866 memory 

ASUS Geforce GTX980

ASUS Essence STX Sound Card

Samsung 830 Pro 256 GB

Samsung 950 Pro 256 GB

WD 1TB Black HDD

Fractal Define R4

Windows 10 Professional

 

 

[Altecice]

My guess would be that it has something to do with your M.2 slot not running at PCI 3.0 X4 speeds (they are not very clear about what speed your M.2 runs at) so bottlenecking the SSD... I did note this little bit of info on your motherboards specification;

 

 

 

*1: The PCIe 2.0 x16 slot (PCIEX4_3) shares bandwith with PCIe 2.0 x1 and M.2 slot. The default setting is Auto Mode, which automatically optimizes the system bandwidth. If you install a PCIe 2.0 x4 device, the system will automatically detect and disable PCIe 2.0 x1 and M.2 slot.
*2: The PCIe 2.0 x1 slots (PCIEX1_1/2/3) will be disabled when PCIe 2.0 x16 slot (PCIEX4_3 ) operates under x4 speed or M.2 mode.

[calarahil]

My guess would be that it has something to do with your M.2 slot not running at PCI 3.0 X4 speeds (they are not very clear about what speed your M.2 runs at) so bottlenecking the SSD... I did note this little bit of info on your motherboards specification;

 

I noticed this as well I find it odd though because it yields all the smaller PCI-E slots useless you would have to use a x16/x8 slot to use a addon card. Kind of bs if this is what is keeping me from it. Maybe its only modern x99 and z170 boards that are getting the full bandwidth. 

[Altecice]

I noticed this as well I find it odd though because it yields all the smaller PCI-E slots useless you would have to use a x16/x8 slot to use a addon card. Kind of bs if this is what is keeping me from it. Maybe its only modern x99 and z170 boards that are getting the full bandwidth. 

 

Hmm yes, it seems as if our boards share M.2 bandwidth with the PCI lanes. So having (for example) two 980ti's in SLI would take away alot of lanes and your m.2 would go into PCI2.0 x4 mode, a bit silly IMO. 

 

"Maybe its only modern x99 and z170 boards that are getting the full bandwidth"

I think you have hit the nail on the head here.... abit of a cheat/false advertising IMO. Although you notice that X99 does not have a lot of PCI-E lanes either and some manufacturers have to put in PLX chips to multiplex the PCI lanes out to give you enough lanes.

[calarahil]

Hmm yes, it seems as if our boards share M.2 bandwidth with the PCI lanes. So having (for example) two 980ti's in SLI would take away alot of lanes and your m.2 would go into PCI2.0 x4 mode, a bit silly IMO. 

 

"Maybe its only modern x99 and z170 boards that are getting the full bandwidth"

I think you have hit the nail on the head here.... abit of a cheat/false advertising IMO. Although you notice that X99 does not have a lot of PCI-E lanes either and some manufacturers have to put in PLX chips to multiplex the SSD lanes out to give you enough lanes.

 

I've been doing a little bit of research and people are buying PCI-E 4x cards with m.2 and putting the cards on 4x PCI-E to get the correct speeds. 

 

http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1164&title=samsung-950-pro-on-asrock-z97-pro4

 

just curious if I did this though if I could boot from it. 

[Altecice]

I've been doing a little bit of research and people are buying PCI-E 4x cards with m.2 and putting the cards on 4x PCI-E to get the correct speeds. 

 

http://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1164&title=samsung-950-pro-on-asrock-z97-pro4

 

just curious if I did this though if I could boot from it. 

 

Ahhh well that may be a dirty solution for you then 

I would note that the ATTO benchmark on that post is not accurate. With a total length of 256mb writes you will be only using the SSD's cache and not touching true performance. (16kb - 64mb are all the exact same)

[calarahil]

Ahhh well that may be a dirty solution for you then 

I would note that the ATTO benchmark on that post is not accurate. With a total length of 256mb writes you will be only using the SSD's cache and not touching true performance. (16kb - 64mb are all the exact same)

 

If you were me would you buy a cheap addon card to force those read speeds?

 

I'll probably just purchase this one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=12K-017B-00001

[Altecice]

If you were me would you buy a cheap addon card to force those read speeds?

 

I'll probably just purchase this one

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=12K-017B-00001

 

I dont know enough about NVMe and how it works to say that would work but this part "The SATA - M2 SSD adapter " would make me think its not running NVMe but SATA.

[calarahil]

I dont know enough about NVMe and how it works to say that would work but this part "The SATA - M2 SSD adapter " would make me think its not running NVMe but SATA.

 

Well, what I can say about NVME is this its a new protocol that bumps AHCI to the curb. So with that said as I understand it the card is only really there to provide the bandwidth of the 4x lane. ASUS actually was going to put out a add-on for peoples motherboards but I haven't been able to find it on sale. I'll report back on this thread and let you know what happens. 

 

NVME also as I know it runs off PCI-E only so I think my chances are pretty good at this point

 

https://www.asus.com/Motherboard-Accessories/HYPER_M2_X4_MINI_CARD/

[Altecice]

Well, what I can say about NVME is this its a new protocol that bumps AHCI to the curb. So with that said as I understand it the card is only really there to provide the bandwidth of the 4x lane. ASUS actually was going to put out a add-on for peoples motherboards but I haven't been able to find it on sale. I'll report back on this thread and let you know what happens. 

 

NVME also as I know it runs off PCI-E only so I think my chances are pretty good at this point

 

https://www.asus.com/Motherboard-Accessories/HYPER_M2_X4_MINI_CARD/

 

I would say its worth a shot then!

 

• NVM Express SSD support available with the ASUS Hyper Kit* (*Sold separately)
• https://www.asus.com/Motherboard-Accessories/Hyper_Kit/

[calarahil]

 

I would say its worth a shot then!

 

• NVM Express SSD support available with the ASUS Hyper Kit* (*Sold separately)
• https://www.asus.com/Motherboard-Accessories/Hyper_Kit/

 

 

 

Finally got the dang PCI-Express Card. Okay so this baby works oh does it ever. I had to end up using the PCI-Express full slot to achieve the speeds making my graphics card run at 8x but providing my ssd the full bandwidth it was hungry for. Dem Read speeds