[SOLVED] Samsung Evo 970 Plus 250Gb performance drop,

[tuananh13522]

I have an Evo 970 Plus 250gb m2 nvme ssd, when i first installed it 3 months ago, checked with samsung magician, its performed like advertised at 3,500mbps, but now, its performance dropped like half, i checked on samsung magician(updated to latest version), which reported it was running at pcie 3.0 x2 not x4. I have tried a bunch of different things, from firmware update, mobo bios update, take it out - reseat it, clear cmos, checked windows power plans, settings, etc....nothing help.
My mobo was Asrock B450M Steel Legend, bios updated to 2.5.
I searched on google for a while and try out everything i found that deemed possibly fix it but to no avail.
Other components performed normally.
So, i would like to ask if there is anything i missed? I did use an HDD for data storage, the 970 evo plus has windows installed on it.
Also, i checked bios settings but there is nothing relevant to the 970 in there.
Is it possible for the mobo i use was flawed? it was normal 3 months ago. same specs, i dont add new hardware or remove anything.
Re-install Windows is the last option which i prefer not to do.
My Specs: Windows 10 64bit
AMD Ryzen 5 2600
Asrock B450M Steel Legend
2 x 4GB Team Elite DDR4 2400Mhz
Samsung 970 Evo Plus 250G NVME
1TB SATA3 Seagate HDD
Asus RX 580 8G ROG Strix Top OC
Corsair RM1000X PSU

 

[theoneandonlyfoohyking]

It's possibly due to thermal throttling. Does your motherboard have in built M.2 heatsinks?

 

[Dragos Manea]

Try to remove HDD, some lanes are common between m.2 and others like sata, try to remove hdd and see if it reverts to x4 if so try to find a sata port that it is not shared with m.2

 

[tuananh13522]

Thanks for replying

It's possibly due to thermal throttling. Does your motherboard have in built M.2 heatsinks?

AFAIK, the B450M Steel Legend dont have M2 heat sink, the mobo have 2 m2 slots, 1 ultra-m2 and 1 for m2 sata, the ultra m2 slot was above the reinforced pcie x16 slot which i installed the 970 evo plus there, the other below the vrm heat sink, right next to SATA ports.
I already ordered a Jonsbo M2 heat sink for it, should arrive tomorrow morning maybe noon, still, temp looks good for me.

Try to remove HDD, some lanes are common between m.2 and others like sata, try to remove hdd and see if it reverts to x4 if so try to find a sata port that it is not shared with m.2

I removed the sata cable completely, but Samsung Magician still show that the drive is being run at PCIE Gen.3 x2 not x4.


Also, this benchmark result

The drive was new, bought it 3 months ago, as first it performed as expected but now this, guess i will try reintall windows but if it became like this again, i will return it. I read somewhere that even after reinstall windows it wont change to x4, if true, it will be the worst scenario for me.

My suspect is that my mobo somehow limiting the drive performance but after take a look at bios setting and try change some settings that could related to pcie gen/speed or whatever, nothing changed, but hell, this mobo bios just list the drive along with hdd as storage devices, nothing else. I tried reset to default bios settings, clear CMOS, nothing helped.
i will reinstall windows for now and do some tests after that, and test again after the m2 heat sink arrive. I will keep this thread updated.
https://www.asrock.com/MB/AMD/B450M Steel Legend/ ; i updated its BIOS to 2.5 just in case but turn out, it not even related; even before the bios update, the 970 evo plus was performed like this, i dont know when though, but after updated its firmware 2 months ago, i did tested it again and still the same expected performance.
Windows powerplan was set as AMD Ryzen Balanced Powerplan; and Powerlink management was turned off. Also, hibernation and sleep function was disabled because my pc would shutdown after it enter sleep mode for reasons who know.
So, any help would really be appreciated.

 

[mdd1963]

your CrystalDiskInfo clearly indicates you are in X2 lanes transfer mode...for whatever darn reason,...(but, that certainly explains the half speed results)

I'd look for BIOS options that allocate/possibly share bandwidth/X2 vs X4 lanes to the M.2 NVME slot?

 

[tuananh13522]

your CrystalDiskInfo clearly indicates you are in X2 lanes transfer mode...for whatever darn reason,...(but, that certainly explains the half speed results)

I'd look for BIOS options that allocate/possibly share bandwidth/X2 vs X4 lanes to the M.2 NVME slot?

I looked at BIOS settings, but nothing came up close, more like options related to M2 NVME were not part of it to begin with. Should i flash another BIOS?

 

[tuananh13522]

[Update] After tried reinstall windows, things still the same, Samsung Magician still say the drive was using PCIe Gen 3 x2 not x4, guess this is on hardware side, not software. The M2 Heatsink should arrive soon, will test again and update thread. Might as well as try move it to the other m2 slot to see if anything change.

 

[Dragos Manea]

Maybe the drive is faulty, try to use it on another PC, if not try to use another drive on your pc.

 

[Endre]

Hello!
I own an SSD identical to yours.
Mine works the same as when I bought it, even surpassing the advertised speeds a bit.

First of all, check out the manual of your motherboard!

1. If the M.2 slot in which you have the SSD is next to a PCIe slot that is in use, they might share bandwidth!

2. Also, certain SATA ports might share bandwidth with the M.2 slot.

(The 2 examples that I gave are true regarding my motherboard).

 

[tuananh13522]

[Update 2] Heatsink arrived and installed, temp drop ~10 degree compared to normal, tried clear CMOS and reseat the drive again, no progress. Also, my RX 580 Strix running at PCIe 3.0 x16, though, it shouldn't interfere with the 970 evo plus nvme interface anyhow as stated by Asrock that the Ultra M2 slot have its own lanes, not share with the PCIe x16 slot. Strange that they stated it should run at PCIe Gen.3 x4.
Thanks for replying again guys, guess i will test it on the other pc of mine to see how it fare, if it still the same, i will have to RMA it for another drive. I have read an article (was it Reddit, i dont remember though), that after latest firmware update, his evo 970 plus performance start to drop, and he mentioned a workaround and disable Connected Standby in registry, also tried that and not work, however i cant find that workaround he talked about ( , so i can't find any lead anymore.

• Tried install the 970 evo plus to the other m2 slot but as expected, didnt work as the mobo didnt recognize it and ask for bootable device, guess that slot was only applicable for M2 SATA, not NVMe.
• Thinking of try moving the RX580 to the secondary pcie slot to see if anything happen.
• BTW, is it normal for a 3 months old nvme ssd to have such high written data rate (2.9TB)? And can anyone confirm latest cause performance drop?

 

[tuananh13522]

[Update 3] Tested on the other pc, mobo is Gigabyte B450M Gaming, Ryzen 3 2200G, with an SATA 3 SSD and 1 HDD ; Samsung Magician do recognize the Evo 970 Plus running at PCIe Gen.3 X4 not X2. Here's the screenshot:

With this, i can safely say that the drive is not faulty.
So, problem maybe lie with the Asrock B450M Steel Legend? I will try flash to older BIOS to see if it fix anything. Will update once i get more results.

 

[tuananh13522]

[Update 4] Tried with various BIOS version from 2.1 all the way back to 2.5, nothing change. So all goes back to square one. I dont know what to do next, guess i will just let it be and wait for new firmware update. I will keep this thread open and will post feedback updates if there is any progress.
BTW. I read somewhere else about low power mode in Samsung SSDs but does it even possibly the cause?

 

[geofelt]

Samsung has a pcie nvme driver which you can download.

Tool & Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Download various software related to your product, including Samsung Magician, designed for use with Samsung's memory products, and find related information.

www.samsung.com

 

[tuananh13522]

Samsung has a pcie nvme driver which you can download.

Tool & Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Download various software related to your product, including Samsung Magician, designed for use with Samsung's memory products, and find related information.

www.samsung.com

I already use the lastest driver/firmware thus latest version of samsung magician. I am now suspecting the Ultra M2 slot on the B450M Steel Legend has something wrong with it as the other pc of mine still recognize the 970 evo plus as PCIe Gen.3 x4 not x2; thus eliminating the case of it being faulty. Guess i will bring the mobo to service center to take a look next monday.

 

[Endre]

I already use the lastest driver/firmware thus latest version of samsung magician. I am now suspecting the Ultra M2 slot on the B450M Steel Legend has something wrong with it as the other pc of mine still recognize the 970 evo plus as PCIe Gen.3 x4 not x2; thus eliminating the case of it being faulty. Guess i will bring the mobo to service center to take a look next monday.

I still believe that your M.2 NVMe drive shares bandwidth with another drive.
I’d suggest you taking out every other drive that you have, take out even the discrete graphics card, if you have one on the CPU.
Load BIOS defaults.
See if your Samsung drive works @PCIe 3.0 x4.

 

[tuananh13522]

I still believe that your M.2 NVMe drive shares bandwidth with another drive.
I’d suggest you taking out every other drive that you have, take out even the discrete graphics card, if you have one on the CPU.
Load BIOS defaults.
See if your Samsung drive works @PCIe 3.0 x4.

There is only 2 drives in my pc, one is the evo 970 plus, the other is my hdd, as i tested yesterday, removing the hdd dont affect the 970 plus evo anyhow. My CPU is Ryzen 5 2600, it dont have integrated graphic so removing my graphic card will not work. the other pc of mine has a Ryzen 3 2200G and R9 390 PCS+ card, yet it still recognize the 970 evo plus running at its correct speed and nvme interface.
The Evo 970 plus did work, when i install it into my system 3 months ago, it indeed run at PCIe Gen.3 x4, but now it wont, the bandwidth dropped half but i wasnt able to find the cause of it yet.
BIOS default settings, yes, reset it every single time after i reflash my BIOS last night, with various BIOS versions, before continue into windows, result was the same. Even clear CMOS wont do anything. And BIOS settings dont have any options related to the m2 nvme drive, there are some options mentioned PCIe Speed Gen 1/2/3 and that's it, tried change those too, but nothing change.
My current mobo, the B450M Steel Legend, has 2 M2 slots, one Ultra-M2 for the NVMe drive, the other for M2 SATA.
So sometime between first time install the evo 970 plus and using it till the other day, something happened, I highly suspect it was the Ultra M2 slot gone wrong/faulty but still there might be other causes, but the drive itself definitely not faulty. Too bad i dont have any other NVMe drive around to test if it really was that Ultra M2 slot.

 

[Endre]

There is only 2 drives in my pc, one is the evo 970 plus, the other is my hdd, as i tested yesterday, removing the hdd dont affect the 970 plus evo anyhow. My CPU is Ryzen 5 2600, it dont have integrated graphic so removing my graphic card will not work. the other pc of mine has a Ryzen 3 2200G and R9 390 PCS+ card, yet it still recognize the 970 evo plus running at its correct speed and nvme interface.
The Evo 970 plus did work, when i install it into my system 3 months ago, it indeed run at PCIe Gen.3 x4, but now it wont, the bandwidth dropped half but i wasnt able to find the cause of it yet.
BIOS default settings, yes, reset it every single time after i reflash my BIOS last night, with various BIOS versions, before continue into windows, result was the same. Even clear CMOS wont do anything. And BIOS settings dont have any options related to the m2 nvme drive, there are some options mentioned PCIe Speed Gen 1/2/3 and that's it, tried change those too, but nothing change.
My current mobo, the B450M Steel Legend, has 2 M2 slots, one Ultra-M2 for the NVMe drive, the other for M2 SATA.
So sometime between first time install the evo 970 plus and using it till the other day, something happened, I highly suspect it was the Ultra M2 slot gone wrong/faulty but still there might be other causes, but the drive itself definitely not faulty. Too bad i dont have any other NVMe drive around to test if it really was that Ultra M2 slot.

Well, unfortunately, in this case, the best option left is to take it to a PC service.

 

[Joakim Agren]

Are you running any security software such as antivirus or firewall? Try to temporarily disable those and then run a test in Crystal Disk and see if that makes a difference.

 

[tuananh13522]

Just installed SiSoftware Sandra Lite and got this:

So, the question now turn around to how i disable this low power mode or something
More on this:
Warning W1207 - AGP 2/3 devices may be incompatible with AGP 1 mainboards and may need later drivers (e.g. AGP miniport, video drivers).
Fix: Make sure you have updated your System BIOS and Video BIOS. If you're using a legacy version of Windows, consider upgrading to Windows XP/Vista. If you’re not using an Intel chipset, download the latest version of the miniport driver for your chipset.

Warning W1204 - This device seems slow. While this does not hamper the bus speed directly transactions with this device will take longer and thus reducing the overall efficiency.
Fix: You cannot fix this - but keep it in mind when buying your next device.

More update, HWinFO64 show this:

[Update 5] Ok, i will try to reinstall Windows once more, this time using Secure Erase within BIOS setting. Hope this will be the last time i have to mess with BIOS settings.

 

[geofelt]

What might have changed since all was well??
Can you possibly use system restore to reset your pc back to a time when all was ok.

Running at X2 when you used to run at X4 sounds to me like a hardware problem.
There are supposedly some new bios updates coming for ryzen processors that will address some 100 minor issues; perhaps your problem is one of those.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-cpus-new-microcode-bios-agesa-1004,40549.html

While you may be concerned about why the difference, as a practical matter your real performance will be hardly different.
Most of what windows does is small random i/o and x2 or x4 makes no difference.
Yes, for sequential operations, there will be a difference but I would only expect you to notice the difference on such tasks like virus scans.

 

[tuananh13522]

What might have changed since all was well??
Can you possibly use system restore to reset your pc back to a time when all was ok.

Running at X2 when you used to run at X4 sounds to me like a hardware problem.
There are supposedly some new bios updates coming for ryzen processors that will address some 100 minor issues; perhaps your problem is one of those.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-ryzen-cpus-new-microcode-bios-agesa-1004,40549.html

While you may be concerned about why the difference, as a practical matter your real performance will be hardly different.
Most of what windows does is small random i/o and x2 or x4 makes no difference.
Yes, for sequential operations, there will be a difference but I would only expect you to notice the difference on such tasks like virus scans.

Thanks for replying, no, i dont particularly fond of system restore and never used it since windows installation.
Yes, i think i will wait for that AMD AGESA update to see if it available for my mobo or not; if not i would wait for another firmware update from Samsung, but i will still bring my mobo to Service Center for checkup just in case, it still within warranty so if that Ultra M2 slot actually faulty and i get lucky, they will exchange a different one for me.
Just got back from that "Secure Erase" and reinstall Windows, still not change.
You're right, the difference is not noticeable, but it irk me that the drive i paid for got its performance dropped after 3 months, so i intend to investigate the issue on my end. Anyway, i will keep this thread updated once i find anything new.

 

[tuananh13522]

[Update 6] AMD StoreMi Drive Controller Information show this:

Spoiler

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Controller Driver: Samsung NVMe Controller
Controller Vendor: Samsung
Controller HWID: PCI\VEN_144D&DEV_A808&SUBSYS_A801144D&REV_00\4&2EEC526C&0&0009
Controller Type: NVMe
Controller Bus: 1
Drive Name: Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 250GB
Drive ID: \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1
Drive HWID: SCSI\DISK&VEN_NVME&PROD_SAMSUNG_SSD_970\5&10515A84&0&000000
Interface: SCSI
Location: Host 2 : Bus 0 : Target 0 : LUN 0
Capacity: 233 GiB
Controller Driver: AMD Virtualized AHCI Controller for StoreMI
Controller Vendor: AMD
Controller HWID: PCI\VEN_1022&DEV_43C8&SUBSYS_43C81849&REV_01\4&288C77C7&0&010B
Controller Type: AHCI
Controller Bus: 2

Drive Name: ST1000NM0033-9ZM173
Drive ID: \\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0
Drive HWID: SCSI\DISK&VEN_&PROD_ST1000NM0033-9ZM\5&25248246&0&010000
Interface: SCSI
Location: Host 1 : Bus 1 : Target 0 : LUN 0
Capacity: 932 GiB
Controller Driver: Standard SATA AHCI Controller
Controller Vendor: AMD
Controller HWID: PCI\VEN_1022&DEV_7901&SUBSYS_79011849&REV_51\4&2B9CC193&0&0241
Controller Type: AHCI
Controller Bus: 9
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AMD Store Mi show that the ssd interface was SCSI, can anyone explain that to me please?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SiSoftware Sandra

SCSI General Properties
Controller : 2
Bus : 0
Target ID : 0
Logical Unit No. : 0

General Capabilities
Model : NVMe Samsung SSD 970
Revision : 2B2Q
Serial Number : 00523_58_4**

General Capabilities
Manufacturer : Samsung
Model : Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 250GB
Revision : 2B2QEXM7
Serial Number : S4EUNF0M40**
MAC Address : 38:25:00:00****
Capacity : 232.89GB
Interface : NVMe
Version : 1.300

Properties
No. Namespaces : 1
Current Block Transfer : 2MB
Submit Required/Max Queue Size : 64bytes - 64bytes
Complete Required/Max Queue Size : 16bytes - 16bytes
Volatile Write Cache : Yes

Namespace Information
ID : 1
Capacity : 2105410.28TB
Free Capacity : 0bytes
No. LBA Formats : 98
Unformatted Bytes Per Sector : 1bytes

Disk Power Management
Warning/Control Temperature : 84.00°C
Maximum/Critical Temperature : 84.00°C
Automatic Power State Transitions : Yes
Power State - R 0/0 - W 0/0 : 7.800W
Power State - R 1/1 - W 1/1 : 6.000W
Power State - R 2/2 - W 2/2 : 3.400W
Power State - R 3/3 - W 3/3 : 0.070W
Power State - R 4/4 - W 4/4 : 0.010W

S.M.A.R.T Data
Available Threshold : 10%
Busy Time : 4 hour(s), 8 minute(s)
No Error Log Entries : 278
Host Reads : 179422031
Host Writes : 164466788

Sensors
Disk Enclosure Temperature : 49.00°C
Power-On Time : 20 day(s), 9 hour(s)
Power Cycles : 134
Available Spare Blocks : 100%
Data Read : 3.58TB
Data Written : 3.4TB
Unsafe Shutdowns : 20
Temperature 1 : 49.00°C
Temperature 2 : 51.00°C

Translation Mode Disk Geometry
CHS Geometry : 30401 x 255 x 63
Bytes Per Sector : 512bytes
Capacity : 232.88GB

Cache Information
Read Cache : Yes
Write Cache : Yes
Prefetch Buffer : No

Partitions Information
Partition #1 : MBR IFS-NTFS 209.6GB (1MB-209.6GB)

Logical Drives
Logical Drive : C:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More details from Sandra report:
SiSoftware Sandra

Device Information
Device Type : Flash Disk Controller
Device ID : Bus 1, Device 0, Function 0
Official Device Name : Samsung NVMe Controller
OEM Device Name : Samsung NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981
Hardware ID : VEN_144D DEV_A808 REV_00
Device Name : Samsung NVMe SSD Controller SM981/PM981
Product ID : VEN_144D DEV_A801 REV_00
Revision : A1

Power Management Features
Version : 1.2
Supports Clock Slow-down : Yes
Supports D1 PM State : No
Supports D2 PM State : No
Supports PME# : No
Supports PME Clock : No

PCIe Capabilities
Version : 3.0
Port : 0
Physical Slot Implemented : No

Device Capabilities
Line Cache Size : 16bytes
I/O Range : No
Memory Range : Yes
Bus Master Capable : Yes
Special Cycle Recognition : No
Memory Write and Invalidate : No
Video Palette Snoop : No
Parity Error Response : No
Address/Data Stepping : No
System Error Line : No
Fast back-to-back Transactions : No
Detects Parity Errors : No
Supports System Error Line : No
Supports Parity Line : No
User Defined Format : No
66MHz Bus Support : No
New Capability List : Yes
Device Select Timing : Fast
Multi-Function Device : No
Header : 00
Interface : 02

Hardware Resources
Memory Range : FCF00000
INT Pin : A#
Dynamic Management : Yes

[Mod Edit: placed wall of text inside spoiler tags]