[SOLVED] Slow M.2 drive using PCIe 2.0 instead of 3.0

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rmullan

rmullan

Apr 11, 2022
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My new Samsung 980 1TB in the M.2 slot is reportedly using PCIe 2.0 x2, making it many times slower than my regular SSDs plugged into the SATA ports.
MSI X99A Gaming 7 advertises M.2 slot as "transfer speeds up to 32gbps" without specifying the PCIe.
Samsung drivers don't work with this one model, for some reason, windows and BIOS drivers are up to date.

Computer:
X99A Gaming 7
intel 5930k
ZOTAC 980ti amp extreme
two 256gb Samsung SSDs
no other pcie
not overclocked, nor xmp

Any advice? I looked so hard before making an account and posting here, but apologies if a similar question has been asked before. Nothing seems to match up exactly with what I have going on. For instance, my mobo only has one slot, so that's not the issue.
It's been a long day full of problems caused by this little stick and I'm about ready to return it and buy another normal ssd instead.
If it's useful info at all, I've spent all day trying to either clone a drive to or install windows on this thing. Both failed. Decided just to use it as secondary storage and live with it, but then I benchmarked it and now we're here.

All the other threads detailing similar problems asked for screenshots of magician, hwinfo, and crystaldisk, so here:
https://imgur.com/a/6FicKdO
View: https://imgur.com/a/6FicKdO


Thank you very much in advance!
 
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rmullan said:
My new Samsung 980 1TB in the M.2 slot is reportedly using PCIe 2.0 x2, making it many times slower than my regular SSDs plugged into the SATA ports.
MSI X99A Gaming 7 advertises M.2 slot as "transfer speeds up to 32gbps" without specifying the PCIe.
Samsung drivers don't work with this one model, for some reason, windows and BIOS drivers are up to date.

Computer:
X99A Gaming 7
intel 5930k
ZOTAC 980ti amp extreme
two 256gb Samsung SSDs
no other pcie
not overclocked, nor xmp

Any advice? I looked so hard before making an account and posting here, but apologies if a similar question has been asked before. Nothing seems to match up exactly with what I have going on. For instance, my mobo only has one slot, so that's not the issue.
It's been a long day full of problems caused by this little stick and I'm about ready to return it and buy another normal ssd instead.
If it's useful info at all, I've spent all day trying to either clone a drive to or install windows on this thing. Both failed. Decided just to use it as secondary storage and live with it, but then I benchmarked it and now we're here.

All the other threads detailing similar problems asked for screenshots of magician, hwinfo, and crystaldisk, so here:
https://imgur.com/a/6FicKdO
View: https://imgur.com/a/6FicKdO


Thank you very much in advance!
Click to expand...
https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/X99A-GAMING-7/Overview

That says pcie3x4.

Look in the bios and see if you can set the m.2 speed.
 
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Ah I did wonder why the evo was so unreasonably high. But I wanted to include it because it's running with the same settings as the nvme and I wanted a fair comparison.

And oh my god. I looked everywhere to see if it specified, it's definitely not in the manual. Can't believe it was buried there.
Thank you for finding that.

Do you think I should swap it out for another 2.5" drive or just live with the limitation? It's 1am and my brain is fried, forgive me, I don't have the will to work that out for myself.
 
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rmullan said:
Ah I did wonder why the evo was so unreasonably high. But I wanted to include it because it's running with the same settings as the nvme and I wanted a fair comparison.

And oh my god. I looked everywhere to see if it specified, it's definitely not in the manual. Can't believe it was buried there.
Thank you for finding that.

Do you think I should swap it out for another 2.5" drive or just live with the limitation? It's 1am and my brain is fried, forgive me, I don't have the will to work that out for myself.
Click to expand...
RAPID mode is enabled in the Samsung Magician.

I tried it for a while, saw no actual benefit.
So I turned it off.

For your NVMe drive, leave it as is.
 
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USAFRet said:
What is on each drive?
Click to expand...
C has windows and some files
F has some games
X currently has nothing because it's the new one and I've been fiddling with all sorts of settings for it

As I said, I tried very hard to either move or freshly install windows onto X but it just isn't playing nice.
Had it as an MBR, windows installer said nvme has to be gpt.
Changed it to GPT, windows says a fresh install needs to go onto MBR.

🤷‍♀️
 
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Bob.B said:
Wag.
Do you have the proper chipset driver?
Reseat the m.2 and test.
Can you get another m.2 just for test purpose?
Click to expand...
chipset drivers are up to date according to device manager.
m.2 reseated twice with no effect.
I cannot afford another m.2, honestly I couldn't afford this one, hah, but I got so fed up of my limited storage space.
I'm inclined to believe from what USAFRet pointed out, and the fact that the motherboard is pretty old, that the m.2 slot is only 2.0x2
 
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