As shown, I partly know the reason for this.
The first bench was on a pcie 3.0 x4 to m.2 nvme adapter (in the x16 slot - no gfx card in place)
The second is a pcie 2.0 x1 adapter in the x1 slot.
Mobo is h81m-k.
given that when the gfx card is in I only have a pcie x1 slot available. So is this the best speed I can hope for or will I get any better results on a pcie gen 3.0 x1 adapter?