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Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB slow speeds

Lordle

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Nov 5, 2024
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Hello guys,

I just received my Samsung 990 Pro and the reading and writing speeds are really low from the said speeds and Performance mode is slower than the standard mode.

The bottom one is standard top one is performance mode. Random read and random writes seems okay at first.
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I found another post about this issue and that guy recommended using "EaseUS Partition Master" to do "4K Alignment" it did improved to 5850/4850 but the random read and write slowed down hugely also. After that I thought if I switched to performance mode and it got back to what I started.
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Temps during tests was 50-55C. Idle temp is 41C and yes I did used the M.2 in the Gen4 slot I also use seagate M.2 in Gen3 slot and that has no speed issues.

Also Crystaldiskmark -

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MB - MSI B550-A PRO
CPU - Ryzen 7 5800X3D
GPU - RTX 3080
Ram - G.skill 3000mhz 2x8
PSU - 700W Be quiet
 
Dam.. I have 2 of the 980’s. I bet they have the same issue. I’ll check later.
 
What does samsung magician say under drive details page. My first question would be what interface speed is. I have a 980pro 1tb and i am getting around 7000/5000 MB/s which is what mine is rated for.

1730831725783.png
 
I don't have the Samsung 990 pro 1TB, but a Kingston KC3000 1TB which is pretty much in the same league and pricing.
But according to testing your M2 SSD should have a slightly higher score than mine.

versus.jpg


When if I run CrystalDiskMark 8 I got the following score:

KC3000.jpg


However much lower temps, that could have some impact on performance.

Can you improve the cooling?
 
How full is the drive?
 
I don't have the Samsung 990 pro 1TB, but a Kingston KC3000 1TB which is pretty much in the same league and pricing.
But according to testing your M2 SSD should have a slightly higher score than mine.

View attachment 370415

When if I run CrystalDiskMark 8 I got the following score:

View attachment 370416

However much lower temps, that could have some impact on performance.

Can you improve the cooling?
I'm using my motherboards M.2 cooler i don't think i can improve the heating any more than that, and my segate M.2 is also running around the same temperature 45-55 and its perfectly stable.
 
How full is the drive?
It's a new drive i just received it and i didn't still download anything to this drive. I'm thinking about returning and get a new one, or buy a Kingston KC3000.
 
4,000MB/s write is far from low. I'm happy with 1,000 if I can even saturate that much.
 
4,000MB/s write is far from low. I'm happy with 1,000 if I can even saturate that much.
If I was paying for a 4.000MB/s M.2 I'd also be happy. But it's not about the speed, it's about what you pay and get for it.
 
If I was paying for a 4.000MB/s M.2 I'd also be happy. But it's not about the speed, it's about what you pay and get for it.
So many other factors like like Que Depth, thread count. File size, drive fullness, sustained write duration. I think you fell for the marketing ads and also lack technically understanding of why it may be just at 4GB instead of 7.
 
I dont know what the expected performance is for a 990 pro but I can see from first reply an idea of it.

With it being sequential thats a weird one, I would check the bios and make sure anything related to ASPM is disabled, if it wasnt, disable it and retest.

The only time I have had under performing sequential, it was actually caused by i/o errors in the underlying memory system.
 
I dont know what the expected performance is for a 990 pro but I can see from first reply an idea of it.

With it being sequential thats a weird one, I would check the bios and make sure anything related to ASPM is disabled, if it wasnt, disable it and retest.

The only time I have had under performing sequential, it was actually caused by i/o errors in the underlying memory system.
Pretty sure its 7450/7000 MB/s is performance listed. Test i listed was a 980 pro which is little slower at 7000/5000
 
1731023828363.png


I have a 4TB 990 Pro (the heatsink version) and haven't changed anything software wise (don't even have it installed). We have comparable systems outside of memory amount.

I do know my boards 2 M.2 slots run at different speeds, so maybe that's something to consider. (The one closest to the CPU for me being the "fast" one, I believe it's a B550 limitation.)
 
Last edited:
Hello guys,

I just received my Samsung 990 Pro and the reading and writing speeds are really low from the said speeds and Performance mode is slower than the standard mode.

The bottom one is standard top one is performance mode. Random read and random writes seems okay at first.
View attachment 370387
I found another post about this issue and that guy recommended using "EaseUS Partition Master" to do "4K Alignment" it did improved to 5850/4850 but the random read and write slowed down hugely also. After that I thought if I switched to performance mode and it got back to what I started.
View attachment 370388
Temps during tests was 50-55C. Idle temp is 41C and yes I did used the M.2 in the Gen4 slot I also use seagate M.2 in Gen3 slot and that has no speed issues.

Also Crystaldiskmark -

View attachment 370390

MB - MSI B550-A PRO
CPU - Ryzen 7 5800X3D
GPU - RTX 3080
Ram - G.skill 3000mhz 2x8
PSU - 700W Be quiet

Here is mine 2TB 980 Pro on standard mode (top slot Gen4 of X570 Taichi) after clean install.

1731024411549.png


4TB 990 Pro (B650 LiveMixer top NVMe gen 5 slot in Gen 4 mode)
1731030093602.png


Are you running antivirus? I noticed Norton A/V kills my Intel 905p performance in my other system (even if I turn A/V off).
 
Last edited:
Hello guys,

I just received my Samsung 990 Pro and the reading and writing speeds are really low from the said speeds and Performance mode is slower than the standard mode.

The bottom one is standard top one is performance mode. Random read and random writes seems okay at first.
View attachment 370387
I found another post about this issue and that guy recommended using "EaseUS Partition Master" to do "4K Alignment" it did improved to 5850/4850 but the random read and write slowed down hugely also. After that I thought if I switched to performance mode and it got back to what I started.
View attachment 370388
Temps during tests was 50-55C. Idle temp is 41C and yes I did used the M.2 in the Gen4 slot I also use seagate M.2 in Gen3 slot and that has no speed issues.

Also Crystaldiskmark -

View attachment 370390

MB - MSI B550-A PRO
CPU - Ryzen 7 5800X3D
GPU - RTX 3080
Ram - G.skill 3000mhz 2x8
PSU - 700W Be quiet

Interesting! I have two 990 Pro SSDs in different builds, and both run flawlessly at their specified speeds (give or take a few trims here and there). I've also built a third build using the same SSD and nothing leaves my workshop without being thoroughly tested.. again flawless stuff!

Is BIOS up-to-date?

SSD firmware up-to-date?

990 PRO is a Gen 4 SSD - make sure you're not hitting bandwidth limitations with PCIe 3.0.

Your board supports x2 M.2 slots.

- M2_1 (from CPU) supports PCIe 4.0. This is where it should be slotted in. On the mobo its the one closer to the CPU, or above the x16 GPU slot. If its already in there, drop into BIOS and locate M.2 settings and see if BIOS is correctly configured to PCIe 4.0 and x4 lanes. Other possibilities, the motherboards sharing bandwidth with other PCIe slots/SATA (if thats even a thing anymore) or power management settings throttling performance.

- The second one M2_2 (from the chipset) supports 3.0. Avoid this one.
 
980Pro 1TB w/heatsink
Not clean install, actually is Win10 converted to Win11 about 10months ago.
The drive is 2.5y old and 2/3 full with OP (10%) enabled and 30+TB written data

Untitled_209.png

1731059947345.png
 
People, please stop suggesting that this is a PCIe 3.0 issue, because it is physically impossible for a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot to read or write at speeds higher than 3.5GB/s. The fact that OP is getting more than that indicates the drive is connected via and running at PCIe 4.0 x4.

The drive very evidently has an issue here because it's performing waaay slower than what I'd expect from a new, empty drive:
  • 4KB/QD32 write IOPS are half the 1.5m they're specified to be
  • way lower sequential read/write than seems reasonable; I would expect this drive to be turning out reads in the high 6GB/s and writes low 6GB/s, and you're getting ~2GB/s lower on both
So either the drive is faulty or, more than likely, you're a victim of a bait-and-switch component change on newer models, whereby to optimise cost Samsung has replaced components with slower ones in the hope that nobody will notice. They have done this with multiple of their drives and the 990 Pro is specifically one of the models known to suffer from this. It's one reason why I refuse to buy a Samsung SSD - apart from being overpriced and overhyped, the performance is simply not guaranteed, and that is completely unacceptable for a supposed top-end model.

I would return the drive and get something like the WD_BLACK SN850X that is known not to suffer from bait-and-switch and therefore will always perform close to what its advertising claims. I have a 2TB SN850X, am extremely happy with it, and would highly recommend.
 
I dont know what the expected performance is for a 990 pro but I can see from first reply an idea of it.

With it being sequential thats a weird one, I would check the bios and make sure anything related to ASPM is disabled, if it wasnt, disable it and retest.

The only time I have had under performing sequential, it was actually caused by i/o errors in the underlying memory system.
I checked and it was disabled.
 
Here is mine 2TB 980 Pro on standard mode (top slot Gen4 of X570 Taichi) after clean install.

View attachment 370748

4TB 990 Pro (B650 LiveMixer top NVMe gen 5 slot in Gen 4 mode)
View attachment 370754

Are you running antivirus? I noticed Norton A/V kills my Intel 905p performance in my other system (even if I turn A/V off).
I prefer not to use any AV other than windows defender.
 
People, please stop suggesting that this is a PCIe 3.0 issue, because it is physically impossible for a PCIe 3.0 x4 slot to read or write at speeds higher than 3.5GB/s. The fact that OP is getting more than that indicates the drive is connected via and running at PCIe 4.0 x4.

The drive very evidently has an issue here because it's performing waaay slower than what I'd expect from a new, empty drive:
  • 4KB/QD32 write IOPS are half the 1.5m they're specified to be
  • way lower sequential read/write than seems reasonable; I would expect this drive to be turning out reads in the high 6GB/s and writes low 6GB/s, and you're getting ~2GB/s lower on both
So either the drive is faulty or, more than likely, you're a victim of a bait-and-switch component change on newer models, whereby to optimise cost Samsung has replaced components with slower ones in the hope that nobody will notice. They have done this with multiple of their drives and the 990 Pro is specifically one of the models known to suffer from this. It's one reason why I refuse to buy a Samsung SSD - apart from being overpriced and overhyped, the performance is simply not guaranteed, and that is completely unacceptable for a supposed top-end model.

I would return the drive and get something like the WD_BLACK SN850X that is known not to suffer from bait-and-switch and therefore will always perform close to what its advertising claims. I have a 2TB SN850X, am extremely happy with it, and would highly recommend.
Thank you for your feedback. In my country 1TB SN850X is 30$ more than a Samsung 990 Pro and KC3000 is 20$ cheaper than a 990 Pro. I’d probably return this one and get a KC3000 which is a more price/performance rn. Do you have any knowledge about bait-and-switch in KC3000?
 
And one thing I strongly want to point out is, when you turn on performance mode the reads/writes drops. Shouldn’t be otherwise?
 
Do you have any knowledge about bait-and-switch in KC3000?
Not sure about the Kingston KC3000, but my other two NVMe SSD's are Kingston NV2 2TB and they are known for having whatever component is available ;) .

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/kingston-nv2-1-tb-m-2-nvme-ssd/

However they serve me well, did not encounter any problems with them (yet). They were relatively cheap and that was one of the reasons I took the chance with them. They deliver about the performance of a PCIe 3. x 4 SSD, more than enough for storage and fine with me.

I'm old and slow, won't notice some milliseconds difference :roll:.

Edit
W1zzard did a review on the KC3000 also: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/kingston-kc3000/17.html
 
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