970 Evo Running slow on Asus Z97-AR

[mervyn.moon]

Hi Guys

So I've been out of the game for about 10 years. Recently built myself a machine (specs at the end)
I've now just installed a Samsung 970 Evo 250gb NVME onto my Asus Z97-AR board. Im only getting about 850 W/R speed.
I've checked all the forums and I've checked my manufacturers website. As far as i can tell i have a M2 Socket 3 which I assume runs at PCIe 3 x 4 or PCIe 2 x 4. I have done the following:

Installed latest samsung drivers
Installed Magician and checked the firmware
Installed latest MOBO drivers
Re-seated the M2 card 3 times
Enabled AHCI Mode and changed the Settings to M2 in the BIOS
Unplugged my Nvidia GT970 and benchmarked the M2 card
Moved sata cables into different ports to ensure no conflicts

Below are screenshots , Magician says my EVO is running on PCI Gen 2

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uFz2f0AMFiRWwVr3mmfgjrFC7sGcVm4W/view?usp=sharing

Thanks in advance

ASUS Z97-AR
32 GB RAM (16gb Hyper x 1866 + 16Gb Ballistix X 1600)
I5 4690k
GTX 970 4gb
Corsair VX550W PSU
Samsung 850 EVO boot drive
Samsung 970 EVO M" scratch drive
WD 2tb Sata Drive

 

[USAFRet]

Asus Z97-AR

which I assume runs at PCIe 3 x 4 or PCIe 2 x 4

Unlikely. It is almost certainly only capable of x2. Cutting the speed of the NVMe drive significantly.

It was rare for boards of that vintage to provide full performance with NVMe drives.
What you're getting now is all it will give.

 

[karenjoly]

Your reported data rate 850 MB/s combines R&W. If you separate the rates out, then the read speed is perhaps 1.3 GB/s ? Maximum rate @ 2x4 is 2 GB/s . So your drive is performing as expected.

 

[mervyn.moon]

Your reported data rate 850 MB/s combines R&W. If you separate the rates out, then the read speed is perhaps 1.3 GB/s ? Maximum rate @ 2x4 is 2 GB/s . So your drive is performing as expected.

Hi, no its roughly 850mb read and 850mb write speed , for some reason the screenshots didn't attach. I think what USAfret is saying might be true, I had suspected that but surely i should be getting more than 850mb/s?

 

[USAFRet]

Your reported data rate 850 MB/s combines R&W. If you separate the rates out, then the read speed is perhaps 1.3 GB/s ? Maximum rate @ 2x4 is 2 GB/s . So your drive is performing as expected.

Hi, no its roughly 850mb read and 850mb write speed , for some reason the screenshots didn't attach. I think what USAfret is saying might be true, I had suspected that but surely i should be getting more than 850mb/s?

Given that Magician is reporting it as "PCI Gen 2 x 2 "...that's what it is.
This is why I haven't bothered with an NVMe drive with my current ASRock Z97 board. I has the same level of m.2 port, and can't use one of those to its fullest extent.
Not enough gain to make the price deficit worthwhile, vs SATA III SSD's.

 

[Calvin7]

Asus website provides little information on the M.2 storage.

Z-97 motherboard use PCIe 2.0 x 2 for a maximum speed of up to 10 Gb/sec. This is well short of up to 32 Gb/sec for a PCIe 3.0 x 4 connection.

With the use of a PCIe x 4 adapter you can double speed to PCIe 2.0 x 4 or up to 20 Gb/sec.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815287036&Tpk=N82E16815287036

 

[mervyn.moon]

Asus website provides little information on the M.2 storage.

Z-97 motherboard use PCIe 2.0 x 2 for a maximum speed of up to 10 Gb/sec. This is well short of up to 32 Gb/sec for a PCIe 3.0 x 4 connection.

With the use of a PCIe x 4 adapter you can double speed to PCIe 2.0 x 4 or up to 20 Gb/sec.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815287036&Tpk=N82E16815287036

Thanks that's really helpful and handy guys

 

[mervyn.moon]

Your reported data rate 850 MB/s combines R&W. If you separate the rates out, then the read speed is perhaps 1.3 GB/s ? Maximum rate @ 2x4 is 2 GB/s . So your drive is performing as expected.

Hi, no its roughly 850mb read and 850mb write speed , for some reason the screenshots didn't attach. I think what USAfret is saying might be true, I had suspected that but surely i should be getting more than 850mb/s?

Given that Magician is reporting it as "PCI Gen 2 x 2 "...that's what it is.
This is why I haven't bothered with an NVMe drive with my current ASRock Z97 board. I has the same level of m.2 port, and can't use one of those to its fullest extent.
Not enough gain to make the price deficit worthwhile, vs SATA III SSD's.

Thanks that's really helpful and handy guys