[SOLVED] Does Samsung have drivers for the PM981A SSD NVME M.2?

[D0M1N13]

Hello Everyone,

I recently bought a new laptop with the Samsung PM981a SSD NVME M.2. I feel that the drive isn't fast, especially for this SSD and I don't see Samsung NVME driver in my Device Manager. I read online that the Samsung NVME driver is necessary to boost the performance of the drive. When I go to Samsung's website, there is no driver for the PM981a, at least I cannot find it. Anybody can help me to locate the driver for the PM981a SSD? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

[Mod Edit] removed color. can't see text in dark mode.

 

[rgd1101]

there samsung magician software. but I don't think it work on OEM drive

what is your system spec?

 

[USAFRet]

Any driver for that would come from the laptop manufacturer.

Running a benchmark with CrystalDiskMark, what do you get?

 

[D0M1N13]

there samsung magician software. but I don't think it work on OEM drive

what is your system spec?

Screen parameters

17.3 inch screen,
1920 x 1080 pixels Matte LED matrix type,
IPS Image refresh rate 300 Hz

Processor

Intel® Core ™ i7 10gen 10875H processor
The clock frequency is 2.3 - 5.1 GHz Processor core count 8 16MB CACHE cache

RAM

32 GB RAM memory
RAM type DDR4 2666 MHz

Graphics Card

NVidia® GeForce RTX2080 SUPER graphics card model 8 GB graphics card memory

 

[D0M1N13]

Any driver for that would come from the laptop manufacturer.

Running a benchmark with CrystalDiskMark, what do you get?

I benchmarked two of my SSD's - the Samsung 860 PRO SATA III and the Samsung PM981A NVMe M.2 and honestly I didn't find that the PM981A which is a NVMe M.2 v3.0 SSD was all that faster compared to the SATA III SSD. There is definitely something wrong with this picture or it's false advertising. Either way, I don't feel it at all when I run things like Lightroom, Photoshop, browsing, opening up apps and other things.
I am attaching two screenshots of the two SSD's benchmarks. Have a look.

 

[USAFRet]

Those numbers are just about right.

And what you're experiencing about "not a lot faster" is exactly the way it works.

In my typical use with Adobe Lightroom, I can tell zero difference between an 860EVO, 850 EVO (SATA III), or Intel 660p (NVMe).
Not just "feel", but actual timed tests.

NVMe drive benefit is seen mainly in transferring large blocks of sequential data.
For most use cases, the difference in solid state drives is not that much.

The main benefit of solid state is the near zero access time compared to spinning drives.

 

[D0M1N13]

Those numbers are just about right.

And what you're experiencing about "not a lot faster" is exactly the way it works.

In my typical use with Adobe Lightroom, I can tell zero difference between an 860EVO, 850 EVO (SATA III), or Intel 660p (NVMe).
Not just "feel", but actual timed tests.

NVMe drive benefit is seen mainly in transferring large blocks of sequential data.
For most use cases, the difference in solid state drives is not that much.

The main benefit of solid state is the near zero access time compared to spinning drives.

Thanks for the info. I think my expectations were "too high". So in reality, there is not much difference in speed except for transferring large blocks of sequential data. Cool.

One more question: How do I give you a thanks or like here?

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for the info. I think my expectations were "too high". So in reality, there is not much difference in speed except for transferring large blocks of sequential data. Cool.

One more question: How do I give you a thanks or like here?

NVMe drives are nearing (but not quite there yet) price parity with SATA III drives.

With a whole new system, there is little reason to NOT get an NVMe drive.
But moving from an existing SATA III SSD to NVMe...not a great increase.



Click on the Trophy looking icon to the left of the post that helped you the most.

 

[D0M1N13]

NVMe drives are nearing (but not quite there yet) price parity with SATA III drives.

With a whole new system, there is little reason to NOT get an NVMe drive.
But moving from an existing SATA III SSD to NVMe...not a great increase.



Click on the Trophy looking icon to the left of the post that helped you the most.

Just one more question. I was talking with my friend and he got the Gigabyte Aorus GP-ASM2NE6100TTTD and his speeds are no where near mine. He also noted that his Gigabytes performance is currently being capped by the fact that his motherboard only has PCI-E 3, not 4. So how is this possible that his speeds are so high and mine are not? I am attaching a picture of his benchmark.

 

[USAFRet]

Does he have the same system, same drive, etc, etc?

 

[D0M1N13]

Does he have the same system, same drive, etc, etc?

He has Windows 10, yes, different drive - he has the Gigabyte NVME while I have the Samsung NVME.

 

[USAFRet]

He has Windows 10, yes, different drive - he has the Gigabyte NVME while I have the Samsung NVME.

Different drives, different performance.

But apart from looking at that benchmark number, you'll not see ANY difference in a blind test.

 

[D0M1N13]

Different drives, different performance.

But apart from looking at that benchmark number, you'll not see ANY difference in a blind test.

That is true.
I also did a benchmark on userbenchmark.com and this is what I got: