Samsung PM961 M.2 poor performance

Ripper-X- · 13 Oct 2016 at 17:34

Having problems with a Samsung PM961 M.2 ssd connected to the M.2 port on the mobo, in the bios it shows Sata Port5/M.2 - not present, but I am able to select it from a list of boot options, any way to fix this?
Ran some tests using AS SSD Benchmark app, CrystalDiscMark 5 & Samsung Magician 4.9.7 & read times dont seem much better than my old 840 evo, but the write speeds look way off compared to the 840 & the 4K test took ages to complete on the AS SSD app.
The PM961 isnt supported by the Samsung Magician software so it seems.
Anyone got any ideas what the problem might be & how to fix it?
Pic's of test results below, 3x M.2 tests & 3x 840 Evo tests (without being optimised by magician software & no rapid mode) With rapid mode enabled on the 840 its performance is way faster.
I was expecting the M.2 to be way faster than the 840 evo... :/

My system, MSI mobo Z97 Gaming 7 MS-7916, latest bios 1.C0. Samsung PM961 M.2 ssd, Samsung 840 evo ssd, Intel i5 4670K cpu, 8gb ddr3 2400mhz ram. Windows 10.

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Ripper-X- · 13 Oct 2016 at 19:37

Ok, I've put in the request & just waiting for it to be sent to me..

Ripper-X- · 13 Oct 2016 at 19:58

Cant see where to download it from, just the "email me Disk benchmark" bit?
So guys do I need a M.2 X4 PCI-E adapter card , would my motherboard be able to run it at full speed then?
I'm a bit confused about it as I'm sure I remember seeing on the MSI website when I bought the mobo that the M.2 was capable of 10 gb/s?

Ripper-X- · 13 Oct 2016 at 20:03

I've just downloaded it from another site, going to try it now.

Ripper-X- · 13 Oct 2016 at 20:19

So there's a driver I need to install that will sort out the slow write speed?
Here's the results, what you reckon?

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Ripper-X- · 13 Oct 2016 at 20:25

How much too slow would you say it is? So do I need a M.2 X4 PCI-E adapter card , would my motherboard be able to run it at full speed then?

Ripper-X- · 13 Oct 2016 at 20:43

Gaming is a big part of my pc so I dont want to take anything away from the graphics so looks like it will have to stay in the M.2 slot, so are you saying that if I use any of the pci-e slots for anything else it will take lanes away from the graphics card?
Is there anything I can do to boost the speed of it, as you said its on the slow side?
I had a look on the Samsung website & they only do a NVMe driver for the 950 pro so thats no good I guess?
As I said my old SSD is a Samsung 840 evo, with rapid mode enabled it shows fast test result better than the M.2, is it actually faster or are the figures fiddled in some way, would I be better off going back to the 840 evo as my boot drive?

Ripper-X- · 13 Oct 2016 at 21:01

I was hoping the M.2 would give me a nice little speed boost until I upgrade, which probably isnt going to be until early 2018 now, oh well..

I think rapid mode does use ram to cache yes, and the test results do look impressive.
Thanks for trying to help...

Ripper-X- · 13 Oct 2016 at 22:16

HoneyBadger said:
You're running a Z97 chipset, unfortunately it's all about PCIE 3 lanes and from your CPU, the max lanes avalaible to you are 16. Your mobo has no PLX chips so that's your limit.

All 16 lanes will be in use by your graphics card, so if you add a PCIE card it will take lanes away from the GFX.

I was just reading an old review of my mobo & it says "it's equipped with three PCIe x16 slots hanging off the CPU" & also on the MSI website it says "Get up to 3 PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots" so does that not make 48 lanes? Or is this mean something totally different?
The pic below show my mobo with 3 graphics cards installed so are they all sharing 16 lanes or have 16 each?

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Ripper-X- · 13 Oct 2016 at 23:57

Yeah sorry I've done a bit or research myself & I understand it a bit better now, even the i7 skylake cpu's only have 16 lanes, looks like i'll be getting something more on the lines of a 5390k or equivalent for my next build.
Thanks for taking the time to explain..

Ripper-X- · 14 Oct 2016 at 00:36

FredFlint said:
I get about the same with a SM951 on a Z97 10Gb port so it looks about right.

I dont suppose you could do a quick test with Samsung Magician or one of the others so I could compare results?

Ripper-X- · 14 Oct 2016 at 00:44

Ok thanks thats good to know I'll bear that in mind, still got a bit of time to go yet before I upgrade so there might be an even better setup to go for by then

Ripper-X- · 14 Oct 2016 at 01:57

Wow nice, £530 tho thats one pricey mobo

Ripper-X- · 14 Oct 2016 at 12:00

HoneyBadger said:
It is, it's a shame it looks crap!

I'll do a straight swap for my mobo if you like, mines looks quite nice...

Ripper-X- · 14 Oct 2016 at 12:03

FredFlint said:
This is what my sm951 gets on a z97:

Thx Fred, wonder why mine is showing poor 4k results, what does it even mean? :confused:

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Ripper-X- · 14 Oct 2016 at 13:23

Yeah I noticed & tried that with similar results...

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Ripper-X- · 19 Oct 2016 at 11:46

Hey mag1caltrev0r you are my hero lol

That was a big improvement for me, not as fast as yours as im guessing you're on a newer mobo with faster M.2 slot or in a 4x pci slot?
Test result now.

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Ripper-X- · 19 Oct 2016 at 19:38

Yeah I thought so, seems like im stuck with these speeds until my next upgrade, looks like Troop is using a 4x M.2 slot as well. Thanks again