Slow NVMe performance on DIMM2 slot. Slower than laptop.

[ROGFanboy]

Same problem here. I have a Samsung 960 EVO 500GB installed under the chipset cooler. So I'm NOT using the Dimm.2 expansion card.

What the performance SHOULD BE:


What my performance currently is (and what you are experiencing as well):


As you can see, the 4K scores are significantly lower than they should be.

My suggestion: should we install the Samsung NVM Express Driver 2.2? Windows already says that the best drivers are installed though.

CPU: 1950X
Mobo: This one of course
RAM: 2x G.Skill Trident Z RGB F4-3200C16Q-32GTZR @ 2800Mhz

Let's fix this! Thanks

[relm56]

Your EVO seems to be the boot/OS drive (C:\) Then it would be normal for it not to achieve it's maximum performance since it it serving as the OS drive and will never achieve its peak performance because of it.

Anyone wanting the nvme max performance must use it as a standalone drive unrelated to OS and make sure it is cooled appropriately in order to avoid thermal throttling.

It is the boot drive yes. I'd expect some overhead due to that but compared to theirs, I'm getting 35% less on the 4k Q32T1 portion, seems more of a difference than it should be.

Maybe it is throttling however - I'll check temps.

[Korth]

What the performance SHOULD BE:

Again, different hardware provides different results. That benchmark was run on a 1TB Samsung 960 NVMe and an ASRock Z270 Extreme4 motherboard. Not an ASUS X399 Zenith Extreme motherboard. Different chipset, different architecture, different design, different implementation, different priorities, different performances, different tradeoffs, different bottlenecks.

Also remember that CrystalDiskMark is a synthetic measure. It's not profoundly meaningful (accurate) in itself, it's only meaningful as a reference comparable to other measures.

[ROGFanboy]

Again, different hardware provides different results. That benchmark was run on a 1TB Samsung 960 NVMe and an ASRock Z270 Extreme4 motherboard. Not an ASUS X399 Zenith Extreme motherboard. Different chipset, different architecture, different design, different implementation, different priorities, different performances, different tradeoffs, different bottlenecks.

Also remember that CrystalDiskMark is a synthetic measure. It's not profoundly meaningful (accurate) in itself, it's only meaningful as a reference comparable to other measures.

So you're telling me that a 600 euro motherboard cuts NVMe performance in half? With all due respect, but that makes absolutely no sense at all. I expect nothing but top performance, especially from a chip and motherboard like this. I am willing to compromise some performance, sure, but not over 50%. Outrageous.

Is there any other way I can truly test the performance of my 960 Evo? I figured CrystalDiskMark is a solid indication, but if you say it's not, then it's probably a good idea to test it in a different way?

Thanks!

EDIT: I installed Samsung NVM Express Driver 2.2 and got a performance improvement. Still not even remotely close to what it's supposed to be.



EDIT 2: Sorry! The performance increase was probably just a coincidence. The default Windows drivers are still installed somehow.



I am completely lost here.

[Ljugtomten]

So you're telling me that a 600 euro motherboard cuts NVMe performance in half? With all due respect, but that makes absolutely no sense at all. I expect nothing but top performance, especially from a chip and motherboard like this. I am willing to compromise some performance, sure, but not over 50%. Outrageous.

Is there any other way I can truly test the performance of my 960 Evo? I figured CrystalDiskMark is a solid indication, but if you say it's not, then it's probably a good idea to test it in a different way?

Thanks!

EDIT: I installed Samsung NVM Express Driver 2.2 and got a performance improvement. Still not even remotely close to what it's supposed to be.



EDIT 2: Sorry! The performance increase was probably just a coincidence. The default Windows drivers are still installed somehow.



I am completely lost here.

Have a look in Device Manager in the category for Storage Controllers and not the individual disks and you should see "Samsung NVMe Controller".
It is listed twice for me, have a 960 Pro and a 960 Evo.

[ROGFanboy]

Have a look in Device Manager in the category for Storage Controllers and not the individual disks and you should see "Samsung NVMe Controller".
It is listed twice for me, have a 960 Pro and a 960 Evo.

You're right, it's there. Explains the small performance gains. Thanks! Unfortunately the problem is still not fixed. Maybe it's something that ASUS has to patch with an update?

[relm56]

In my case it seems to be due to throttling. The 960 evo is hitting upwards of 80 C when I run CrystalDiskMark. I'll try adding a fan there and see how it performs then.

[Gogoltron]

i got the same problem with asus prime X399 and Samsung 960 EVO 1000GB very slow. And all computer on windows 10 seems to be very slow
the cpu is a RYZEN 1950X with 32gb
please help
thank you

f

[dejanh]

I'm going to necro this thread because I have been struggling and ignoring NVMe random 4k read and write issues for years, and have finally had it. I have two Samsung 980 Pros 512GB each and a single 970 Pro Plus 2TB drive and I am getting ridiculously low random 4k R/W at QD32. Like when I say ridiculous, I mean I get 90% lower performance than spec. My 2TB 970 Evo Plus running connected to the motherboard slot directly (not the DIMM.2 card) gets 360k IOPS random read, and only 20k IOPS random write. Even my ROG X13 Flow laptop smokes this using the no-name drive it comes with. The write IOPS on the laptop are literally 5x better.

It does not matter if the drive is OS drive or storage drive, and it does not matter whether Samsung NVMe driver is installed or not. The performance is essentially the same abysmal performance. I am so fed up with this that I am about to make a trip to the store to buy a new Ryzen machine instead of the Threadripper 2950x setup I currently have just to prove the point that something is really messed up with this chipset and NVMe. Has anyone been able to figure this out? Note I am now running Windows 11, I used to run Windows 10, and it doesn't matter whether it is a fresh install or not. Performance is abysmal either way. The 2950x is running on a Zenith Extreme Alpha board, running the latest UEFI/BIOS.