[SOLVED] Gigabyte GA-990FX slow speeds with PNY 1TB NVMe

[Spacedude-321]

Hi, I am new to this but you all seem to know a lot so I thought I would reach out and see if you all knew the answer to this. I have the Gigabyte motherboard that claims M.2 speeds up to 20Gbps but when I installed my new PNY 1TB NVMe M.2 I am only getting 900Mbps not the 3,200 - 3,500Mbps that the drive is capable of getting. For reference I have a VisionTek Radeon (900574) 1GB DDR3 graphics card installed in the PCIe x 16 slot right above the M.2 slot. Also, my processor is AMD FX 8350 and I am running Windows 10. Any ideas?

 

[USAFRet]

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-990FX-Gaming-rev-10#ov
"PCIe Gen2 x4 M.2 Connectors "

That will give MUCH slower speed than the Gen 3 x 4 SSD can potentially do.

 

[Spacedude-321]

I am sorry but I don't understand. I've been to the site and have the manual and it says up to 20Gbps. So why am I only getting 900Mbps (double SATA)?

 

[USAFRet]

I am sorry but I don't understand. I've been to the site and have the manual and it says up to 20Gbps. So why am I only getting 900Mbps (double SATA)?

Because of the Gen 2 interface.

PCIe Gen 3 Vs. PCIe Gen 2: What is the difference? Specifications

PCIe Gen 3 Vs. PCIe Gen 2: What's the difference? Read along to know more about the new high-speed Point to Point serial bus interface.

www.faceofit.com

 

[USAFRet]

Given the right interface, that drive is capable of 3,500 MB/s.
MegaBytes.

That 20Gb/s is gigabits.
bits vs Bytes.

 

[Spacedude-321]

I read the article and it helped me a little bit and I also now understand the difference between 20Gb/s (2,500Mbps). However, I am still confused why I am only getting 900Mbps when the board claims I could get up to 2,500Mbps. Since I have a newer and faster Gen 3.0 NVMe why would I get the 2,500Mbps? Why would they advertise that you can get that speed if you can't?

 

[USAFRet]

Which specific PNY drive?
How are you testing this 900MBs? What tool is showing you this?

 

[Spacedude-321]

PNY CS3030 XLR8 1 TB NVMe PCIe Gen 3x4. I used benchmark testing UserBenchmark: PC Speed Test Tool - Compare Your PC

 

[USAFRet]

Use a dedicated drive testing tool, not UBM.

CrystalDiskMark, for instance.

 

[Spacedude-321]

I just ran the test using CrystalDiskMark and it came in at 1571.91 Read and 1462.73 Write which is still way below the 2,500Mbps. Just out of curiosity would it be faster if I bought an adapter and put it in the PCIe x16 slot and move my graphics card to a different slot?

 

[USAFRet]

I just ran the test using CrystalDiskMark and it came in at 1571.91 Read and 1462.73 Write which is still way below the 2,500Mbps. Just out of curiosity would it be faster if I bought an adapter and put it in the PCIe x16 slot and move my graphics card to a different slot?

Which is about exactly what it should be.
About 1/2 the theoretical 3,500/3,000.

PCIe 2.0 gives 1/2 that of 3.0.

Moving your GPU to a different slot will reduce GPU performance, and little if any noticeable difference in the user facing SSD performance.

 

[Spacedude-321]

Ok, so you are saying I am getting the best I can out of my current set up?

 

[USAFRet]

Ok, so you are saying I am getting the best I can out of my current set up?

Yep.