Installed PCI - NVME Samsung 961 SSD- Slow speeds?

Ryancope123 · 12 Oct 2016 at 19:51

Hi Guys,

just wondering if somebody could save me hours of pain !!

I have a Asus Formula VII Maximus with a PCI card in the 3rd slot with a Samsung 250GB PM961 attached, other 2 PCI slots have 2 x 980's, I have just purchased a Samsung 961 and I am only getting 1700 reads ? and 170k IOPS it should be 280k reads etc?

Anybody have any ideas please, when I installed the NVME SSD into the motherboard made the computer do about 5 restarts so I am guessing it was tweaking bios settings?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Cheers,
Ryan

peahead · 12 Oct 2016 at 20:08

Maybe because you have 2 x 980s the 3rd pci slot is being limited to 4x speed ?

This might be why

pastymuncher · 12 Oct 2016 at 20:35

The third slot is only pci-e 2.0 4x so maybe that is why your speed is lower than expected.

Ryancope123 · 12 Oct 2016 at 21:06

Thanks for the help guys

no work around ? i am guessing single GPU and use second slot?

Ryancope123 · 12 Oct 2016 at 21:10

Without sounding a little stupid - could i use the m.2 port ? is it faster than using the 3rd pci slot?

peahead · 12 Oct 2016 at 21:10

Ryancope123 said:
Thanks for the help guys no work around ? i am guessing single GPU and use second slot?

Yes this would be only option i believe

peahead · 12 Oct 2016 at 21:18

Ryancope123 said:
Without sounding a little stupid - could i use the m.2 port ? is it faster than using the 3rd pci slot?

I think you might just run into the same problem but i cant be 100% sure

theaterix · 12 Oct 2016 at 21:41

With the 6700k (I presume is your CPU) you only have 16 lanes. With 3 PCI cards installed, you will be doing 8x + 4x + 4x Which will also damage your GPU speeds and massively impact your SSD. An X99 upgrade is your only option for more PCI lanes OR, drop a 980 for 8x + 8x. Choice is yours

pandem0nium · 12 Oct 2016 at 22:38

Ryancope123 said:
Without sounding a little stupid - could i use the m.2 port ? is it faster than using the 3rd pci slot?

Yeah, this is the best option. The M2 slot should use 4 pcie 3 lanes for max bandwidth and won't Interfere with the airflow between cards.

pandem0nium · 12 Oct 2016 at 22:41

theaterix said:
With the 6700k (I presume is your CPU) you only have 16 lanes. With 3 PCI cards installed, you will be doing 8x + 4x + 4x Which will also damage your GPU speeds and massively impact your SSD. An X99 upgrade is your only option for more PCI lanes OR, drop a 980 for 8x + 8x. Choice is yours

You need to take into account the lanes provided by the chipsets as well.

There's enough there for x8 x8 graphics plus a full speed M2.

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/462341-skylake-haswell-e-pcie-lane-misconception/

Ryancope123 · 13 Oct 2016 at 08:39

Thank you all for your help, would somebody be kind enough to check out the below link and tell me if the m.2 on the maximus vii will provide me better speeds than the actual 3rd pci slot at 2.0 x4 ?

The size allowance isnt an issue as i will just run an adapter and have M.2 SSD behind chassis somehwhere

Thanks again all.
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VII_FORMULA/

pastymuncher · 13 Oct 2016 at 09:25

From their website it appears to be pci-e x2 so that's even slower.

Ryancope123 · 13 Oct 2016 at 09:32

pastymuncher said:
From their website it appears to be pci-e x2 so that's even slower.

Damn so i am basically screwed

Seems faster than my 850 EVO though, just a little annoyed i am only getting 1700 reads etc when its 3k normally.

pandem0nium · 13 Oct 2016 at 11:51

Sorry, I thought it was skylake.

You won't be able to get full speed from the m2 slot on the Z97 chipset.

The PM uses TLC nand rather than MLC in the SM which is less than ideal.

Ryancope123 · 13 Oct 2016 at 13:02

pandem0nium said:
Sorry, I thought it was skylake.

You won't be able to get full speed from the m2 slot on the Z97 chipset.

The PM uses TLC nand rather than MLC in the SM which is less than ideal.

Hi mate,

I can return it and exchange for the SM , may i ask why its not ideal on paper the PM looks the faster one ?

pastymuncher · 13 Oct 2016 at 13:11

Ryancope123 said:
Damn so i am basically screwed

Seems faster than my 850 EVO though, just a little annoyed i am only getting 1700 reads etc when its 3k normally.

That's still a hell of a lot faster than the fastest standard ssd's though. You just won't get the full performance until your next platform upgrade.

Ryancope123 · 13 Oct 2016 at 13:14

pastymuncher said:
That's still a hell of a lot faster than the fastest standard ssd's though. You just won't get the full performance until your next platform upgrade.

I will just be happy for now

Thanks again for your help buddy, appreciate it.

pandem0nium · 13 Oct 2016 at 17:38

Ryancope123 said:
Hi mate,

I can return it and exchange for the SM , may i ask why its not ideal on paper the PM looks the faster one ?

If it's a straight swap, then yeah definitely worth it.

Tlc is cheaper, usually has less performance and endurance.

I have the sm961 128gb as a boot and program drive and the PM951 512 as storage and steam games drive.

bru · 13 Oct 2016 at 17:58

Ryancope123 said:
Hi Guys,

just wondering if somebody could save me hours of pain !!

I have a Asus Formula VII Maximus with a PCI card in the 3rd slot with a Samsung 250GB PM961 attached, other 2 PCI slots have 2 x 980's, I have just purchased a Samsung 961 and I am only getting 1700 reads ? and 170k IOPS it should be 280k reads etc?

Anybody have any ideas please, when I installed the NVME SSD into the motherboard made the computer do about 5 restarts so I am guessing it was tweaking bios settings?

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Cheers,
Ryan

Seeing as it looks like your motherboard limited anyway, I have to ask, just what are you writing the data too that you will ever notice the difference, outside of benchmarks ?

pandem0nium · 13 Oct 2016 at 19:19

bru said:
Seeing as it looks like your motherboard limited anyway, I have to ask, just what are you writing the data too that you will ever notice the difference, outside of benchmarks ?

This has wind up and trap written all over it.