[SOLVED] Samsung 950 Pro slow speeds on Asus Z97-AR & PCIe Host Adapter Card

[idgamerd]

Hello,

My Samsung 950 Pro is getting very slow speeds. I am using Asus Z97-AR motherboard, from Googling that I did it seems that the motherboard is old and the M.2 is gen1 or 2 and you can't get max speeds on it as a result. So I tried using a PCI Express x4 Host Adapter Card:
https://www.amazon.com/Ableconn-PEXM2-SSD-NGFF-Express-Adapter/dp/B017JGVTAM

I seen other posts claiming that buying a host adapter card would do the trick. Unfortunately the speed I'm getting on the card are EXACTLY the same as with my on board m.2 connection (they are literary identical!).

Now my motherboard doesn't actually have a x4 slot but it does have 3 x16 slots. 1 is used by my 2080 Ti, the second (closest to the video card) gave me HALF the speed then I get from on board m.2 and pcie card and the 3rd speed is identical to my m.2 slot speeds.

What gives? I bought the PCI Express x4 Host Adapter Card back in April 27, 2017 is it possible that the card is just old gen too? Is it something in the BIOS settings? I installed NMVe driver.. I'm out of ideas, can anything recommend or suggest something!?

Thank you

 

[rgd1101]

look like the slot is pcie 2.0 not 3.0. that about half of what performance you would get

 

[idgamerd]

look like the slot is pcie 2.0 not 3.0. that about half of what performance you would get

I downloaded the manual and it states:
2x PCIe Express 3.0 / 2.0 .16 slots (single at 16x or dual at 8x/8x mode)
2x PCIe Express 2.0 x16 slo (max at 2x mode)

This explains why one of the PCIe ports is half the speed I normally get as you say.

But why is the speed the same of the other PCIe x16 3.0 the SAME as my m.2 gen 2 port. Isn't it support to be MUCH faster through the host adapter?

What could be the issue and what can I try?

 

[idgamerd]

PROBLEM SOLVED!!

I originally plugged my host adapter card into a CORRECT x16 slot but for some strange reason (I am guessing because Gen was set to Auto in BIOS) I received only HALF the speeds that I was getting at my motherboard m.2 then I tried the other x16 slot and received the SAME speed I was getting at my motherboard m.2

I looked up the manual for the motherboard and the reason I was getting the same speed was because the host adapter was plugged into 2.0 pcie slot. I switched the host adapter into 3.0 pcie x16 and manually changed Gen to 3.0 and now these are the speeds I am getting: