970 evo nvme performance...

Type_R · 27 Apr 2019 at 16:41

I have a 500 Gb Nvme drive connected up to the following setup:

- Intel 6700K
- Gigabyte Gaming 7 (Z170X)
- GeForce 980 ti

The Nvme drive is my boot up drive running Win10. It just feels a little sluggish at times.

I also have 2xSandisk Extreme Pro SSDs (250 gb each) in RAID 0 which means I have to run the motherboards Intel RAID controller.

CrystalDisk for the Nvme:

CrystalDisk for the ExtremePROs (RAID 0):

Unfortunately because the Intel controller is being used Samsung Magician does not work and cannot identify the 970 evo...although Windows does.

Any thoughts on the performance of the Nvme much appreciated...does it look normal? Thanks

Type_R · 28 Apr 2019 at 19:05

bledd said:
I have the same motherboard, CPU and nvme drive. Mine shows up fine in magician..

Do you have a RAID setup...hence are you forced into using the Intel Controller for the RAID?

Type_R · 28 Apr 2019 at 21:41

bledd said:
Ah, no I don't sorry.

1x NVME (256GB)
1x M2 (575GB)
1x SSD (512GB)

That might explain it...I’m pretty sure if I used the on board controller it would see the drive perfectly. As you can see above putting the SSDs in RAID 0 does almost give 2x read speed.

Type_R · 6 May 2019 at 11:37

Thanks guys for all the test results. I changed my config back to AHCI/UEFI (got rid of the RAID0)...Magician now sees the drive fine.

Type_R · 7 May 2019 at 03:43

ED209 said:
Can confirm if using raid then the software does not see the drives as they are shown as one drive and going through the intel raid controller. I had two 850 evos in raid and didn’t find either of them till back on ide or ahci

So I actually had the 970 evo as an independent drive but because I was using RAID0 on 2xSandisk Extreme Pros the RAID controller/drivers prevented magician from correctly identifying the Nvme.

My speeds are identical for the 970 using the intel controller vs the onboard AHCI controller. Obviously the RAID driver are now just delivering 550/520mb/s.

Also the change from RAID to AHCI requires switching to safe mode..I am using Win10...so I used this guide:

Some systems will have the Windows operating system installed using RAID drivers including the Intel Rapid Storage Technology. SSD drives typically perform better using AHCI drivers. There is in fact a way to switch operation from either IDE / RAID to AHCI within Windows 10 without having to reinstall. Here are the steps:

Click the Start Button and type cmd
Right-click the result and select Run as administrator
Type this command and press ENTER: bcdedit /set {current} safeboot minimal (ALT: bcdedit /set safeboot minimal)
Restart the computer and enter BIOS Setup
Change the SATA Operation mode to AHCI from either IDE or RAID
Save changes and exit Setup and Windows will automatically boot to Safe Mode.
Right-click the Windows Start Menu once more. Choose Command Prompt (Admin).
Type this command and press ENTER: bcdedit /deletevalue {current} safeboot (ALT: bcdedit /deletevalue safeboot)
Reboot once more and Windows will automatically start with AHCI drivers enabled.