[SOLVED] SSD runs slow

[dvana]

A week ago I build a new pc for my work and at the moment i'm filling in the gaps to run it as fast and smooth as possible. Now I run a benchmark with userbenchmark and with magician from samsung and found that one of my ssd drives is running slower than the other.

My pc:
Asus ROG STRIX Z490-E GAMING ssd speed
2x SSD Samsung EVO 970 Plus

The first one came back with:
Drive Health: Good
Sequential:
Read: 1780 mb/s
Write: 1720 mb/s
Random (IOPS):
Read: 325439
Write: 209228

The Second one:
The first one came back with:
Drive Health: Good
Sequential:
Read: 3538 mb/s
Write: 3295 mb/s
Random (IOPS):
Read: 355712
Write: 200439

It seems the performance is the same. I have a feeling that the MOBO is holding the first one back in speed.
In both cases the software says the drive is in good health. Even with the slower speed.
The first drive has Windows on it. Not the best drive to run it on if it is the slower of the two.
Is there a way in the BIOS to run both SSD's at there full potential.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Take the second drive OUT and re-test the first drive.

Do you have anything installed in any of the PCIe slots other than the graphics card? Specifically, the second PCIe slot? Because that will drop speed on one of the M.2 drives to x2 instead of x4.

The OS should be installed on the drive that is installed in the M.2_1 slot.

 

[RealBeast]

A week ago I build a new pc for my work and at the moment i'm filling in the gaps to run it as fast and smooth as possible. Now I run a benchmark with userbenchmark and with magician from samsung and found that one of my ssd drives is running slower than the other.

My pc:
Asus ROG STRIX Z490-E GAMING ssd speed
2x SSD Samsung EVO 970 Plus

The first one came back with:
Drive Health: Good
Sequential:
Read: 1780 mb/s
Write: 1720 mb/s
Random (IOPS):
Read: 325439
Write: 209228

The Second one:
The first one came back with:
Drive Health: Good
Sequential:
Read: 3538 mb/s
Write: 3295 mb/s
Random (IOPS):
Read: 355712
Write: 200439

It seems the performance is the same. I have a feeling that the MOBO is holding the first one back in speed.
In both cases the software says the drive is in good health. Even with the slower speed.
The first drive has Windows on it. Not the best drive to run it on if it is the slower of the two.
Is there a way in the BIOS to run both SSD's at there full potential.

It looks like you have RAPID mode enabled on SSD 2. You will get the most benefit of using on the OS drive.

 

[Darkbreeze]

What SIZE are these drives, because there are different expected performance characteristics depending on what size drive it is. A 240-250GB SSD normally will not have as good of performance as the same series in a 500 to 1TB version of the same drive.

 

[dvana]

Take the second drive OUT and re-test the first drive.

Do you have anything installed in any of the PCIe slots other than the graphics card? Specifically, the second PCIe slot? Because that will drop speed on one of the M.2 drives to x2 instead of x4.

The OS should be installed on the drive that is installed in the M.2_1 slot.

I've got a graphics card on the first PCIe slot. The Nvidia RTX 2070 SUPER

Thanks I will check what the system does if I switch some hardware around and take one of the drives out.

 

[dvana]

What SIZE are these drives, because there are different expected performance characteristics depending on what size drive it is. A 240-250GB SSD normally will not have as good of performance as the same series in a 500 to 1TB version of the same drive.

They are both the same size. Both 1TB. They are exactly the same.

 

[dvana]

It looks like you have RAPID mode enabled on SSD 2. You will get the most benefit of using on the OS drive.

Rapid mode is enabled in the BIOS right? If that is the case I should be able to turn on rapid mode on the other drive as well right?

 

[dvana]

It looks like you have RAPID mode enabled on SSD 2. You will get the most benefit of using on the OS drive.

I just read somewhere that the 970 series doesn't have a Rapid mode. The drive is already fast on its own.
https://www.windowscentral.com/samsung-ssd-rapid-mode

 

[USAFRet]

Rapid mode is enabled in the BIOS right? If that is the case I should be able to turn on rapid mode on the other drive as well right?

RAPID mode is done within the Samsung Magician.

Turn it OFF for all drives, reboot and retest.

 

[RealBeast]

I just read somewhere that the 970 series doesn't have a Rapid mode. The drive is already fast on its own.
https://www.windowscentral.com/samsung-ssd-rapid-mode

That is correct, I just opened Magician and it says that my 970 doesn't support it. Check all all the other settings in Magician to see if both drives are configured the same. Did you have any background operations running during the performance tests? That would have a big impact.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I would take EACH drive out, individually, leaving only one drive installed, in the M.2_1 slot, and test it. Then take it out and test the other drive in the same slot. See if the drives test differently when there is only one of them installed and being tested.

Also, I would disable System restore, disable automatic Trim/Defragmentation schedules, disable indexing and disable Windows update by setting it to only update at a time outside the time you are testing, all temporarily, so that you can be sure none of those processes decides to fire up and run while you are trying to test. But, I would ONLY do that if you test and there are moderately large differences in the results between the two drives. If there are, then do this, and retest.