[SOLVED] Samsung 970 Evo File Transfer Speeds Slow(40MB/s) in Windows

[eatacow]

System Specs:
Ryzen 3700x
MSI MAG B550 MORTAR
32GB Trident Z 3200
500GB Samsung 970 EVO NVME in the fast M.2 slot
Seagate Barracuda 8TB SATA

I installed the drivers from Samsung's site and it still didn't help. I booted into Ubuntu and the transfer speeds are much better in the same scenarios, around 110MB/s, although I still think this is below spec of 300MB/s for sustained writes.

When transferring video files(~10GB) from HDD to SDD, my transfer speeds are hovering around 40MBps.

When copying the file from the SSD onto itself, I am still averaging around 40MB/s but it looks like a saw tooth:

Would appreciate any insights.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Have you installed Samsung Magician and made sure you have the MOST recent firmware version installed? Which slot, EXACTLY, do you have the M.2 drive installed in?

The "fast" slot tells us nothing. I've seen dozens of cases where somebody THOUGHT they had it installed in the correct slot, but it wasn't, or it was installed in a slot that shares bandwidth with something else. Probably want to be pretty sure about that.

You also don't make any mention of WHICH version of Windows you are running, which could also be important. Additionally, how much FREE space is available on this drive AND on the HDD, because booting from an Ubuntu disk almost tells you nothing if the problems are due to a lack of space on the drives involved since that OS would not be running from those drives.

Has it been this way since the start, or is this a new development that was NOT happening before? Have you run disk cleanup and TRIM operations on the SSD, and defragmented the HDD?

 

[USAFRet]

"from HDD to SDD "
Speed is dictated by the slowest device in the chain.
Here, the HDD. Doesn't matter how fast the SSD can write. The HDD can only feed at its own rate.


"copying the file from the SSD onto itself, "
And that will be slow as well. You're asking the drive to read and write at the same time.
That sawtooth is alternating between read and write.

The only time you see at or near the advertised speeds is doing a benchmark, or transferring between two similar drives.
What does Samsung Magician show for performance?

 

[eatacow]

Thanks for the replies. Here are some answers to the questions asked:

1. Samsung Magician says it is the latest driver
2. The SSD is installed in the top M2_1 slot which is connected to the CPU, not the chipset. It is PCI3/4 4x
3. I am running Windows 10 Home Edition
4. The drive has 319GB used of 465GB
5. TRIM is on the SSD and I have done the windows optimize, HDD is 0% fragmented
6. I have transferred files the same files from the HDD to a network drive and it averaged above 100MB/s, so the bottleneck seems to be the SSD
7. Not sure if this is a new issue, this is a new drive. I used clonezilla to copy a disk image for a different SSD
8. Benchmarks for the drives seem normal, see below
   

 

[USAFRet]

7. Benchmarks for the drives seem normal

If the performance test in Samsung Magician shows the expected performance, it isn't the SSD or the port it is in.

 

[Darkbreeze]

"Latest driver" is not the same as "Latest firmware". Totally different things.

 

[eatacow]

Sorry, meant it says latest firmware

 

[USAFRet]

Those Sequential benchmark numbers in Magician are right on track with published numbers from Samsung.

• Sequential Read Speed
• Max. 3,500 MB/s

• Sequential Write Speed
• Max. 2,500 MB/s

Samsung 970 EVO | Consumer SSD | Specs & Features | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Samsung 970 EVO delivers PCIe® Gen3 NVMe, M.2, and capacities ranging from 250GB to 2TB. Download 970 EVO firmware, driver, and more.

www.samsung.com

As noted in Magician, the temperature on that is a bit high.

 

[USAFRet]

You mention Clonezilla.
This was cloned from another drive? In this same system, or elsewhere?

What drive was it?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Good catch. I agree, if this was a clone of an SSD from a different system, then a clean install of Windows is most probably called for here.

 

[eatacow]

Yes, it was a clone from a different system. It was a Kingston SSDNow V300 III 240GB SSD. I'd prefer not having to do a clean install, but if you think that would fix it I would try it. What would be the reason for needing a clean install?

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, it was a clone from a different system. It was a Kingston SSDNow V300 III 240GB SSD. I'd prefer not having to do a clean install, but if you think that would fix it I would try it. What would be the reason for needing a clean install?

This is/was the OS drive in both systems?

If so, yes...a fresh install is strongly recommended.

Moving an installed OS between systems has 3 possible outcomes.

1. It works just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It works, but you're chasing issues for weeks.

I'd expect this is #3.
And a clone is no different than trying to move the physical drive.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Yes, it was a clone from a different system. It was a Kingston SSDNow V300 III 240GB SSD. I'd prefer not having to do a clean install, but if you think that would fix it I would try it. What would be the reason for needing a clean install?

Because running an OS that was used for a different platform, in my experience, almost always results in problems. There are some cases where people have had success with reusing a Windows installation that came from a different machine or with different hardware, but I've mostly seen that not be successful. Time after time after time. If you change platforms, motherboard, CPU, etc., a clean install should be done as a matter of course IMO.

Is it convenient? No, it isn't. Is it how it should be done? Yes, almost always.

 

[eatacow]

Ok, thanks for the replies. I'll followup after doing a clean install.

 

[USAFRet]

And for future reference, CloneZilla has been supplanted by much better tools.
Especially for a Samsung target drive. Use Samsung Data Migration for a Samsung drive, Macrium Reflect for all other makes.

 

[Darkbreeze]

There is a specific WAY in which the clean install should be done as well. Primarily, the BIGGEST factor is making sure you disconnect ALL drives except the drive you are installing Windows TO and the drive you are installing Windows FROM. So basically, disconnect your HDD, leave the SSD connected, and follow these instructions, and you should end up with an accurate installation.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[eatacow]

Thanks for all the help. I did a clean install of Windows and now copying the same file from the ssd onto itself transfers at 2GB/s and from the HDD is 110MB/s. So looks like everything is fixed now, hopefully it stays that way. Thanks again.

 

[USAFRet]

Wow. Yeah, #3 above.
"It "works", but issues..."

 

[Darkbreeze]

👍