My PCIe5 SSD is slow. Samsung 9100 PRO

[sblantipodi]

As title.
It seems that my Samsung 9100 PRO PCIe5 SSD is slow.

it works pretty well in Crystal Disk Mark
but it scores only 2850 points in 3DMark storage bench while it should perform 4000+ points...

What problem could it be?

Temp is in check with a max temp of 60°C

 

[PowerBuilder]

TLC SSDs always write in SLC mode, but when the critical capacity is filled, they immediately switch to TLC mode. Then, 7~14GB/s is reduced to 1~2GB/s, and when transferring small file pieces, it can be reduced to 10~500MB/s or less.

 

[sblantipodi]

TLC SSDs always write in SLC mode, but when the critical capacity is filled, they immediately switch to TLC mode. Then, 7~14GB/s is reduced to 1~2GB/s, and when transferring small file pieces, it can be reduced to 10~500MB/s or less.

so it this normal?
drive is a 2TB one and I have 1.1TB of free space.

 

[_roman_]

You may look at that topic, please. That explains. Because i made a bad statement
the basics / theorie behind is still the same, regardless of which brand nvme you have and whatever pcie 3.o / 4.0 / 5.0

Post in thread 'Acer MA200 1 TB'

May 9, 2025

I think the graph gives me a wrong impression. it ends around 4000mb/s. It should end vertically, the same as most other graphs around 8000 mb/s for pcie 4.0 nvme-SSDs

This graph has shown me to pay special attention first to the division units for the x and y axis. Lessons learnt, only pay attention to the total numbers.

First NVME i found which is older wiht a graph

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

...

• PowerBuilder

• 

 

[sblantipodi]

but I haven't understood well why and when the device switch from SLC o MLC to TLC mode.
can you explain me it please? there is no much infos on this on the net

 

[_roman_]

Kinda easy.

In my point of view I would never buy SAMSUNG AND WD = Western Digital = Sandisk with bad firmware in the past. Fact. We had recently another topic SAMSUNG overpriced NVME = dead.

Simple. You bought a Samsung drive with "up to" speeds. Samsung does not give any guaranteed minimal speed.

I do not care for up to 15000 MB/S nonsense speed.

You will see quite often that I commend under a PCIE 5.0 NVME SSD review the lack of dedicatd DRAM and that it'S slower as my current PCIE 4.0 KC3000 drive in most "real life scenarios".
That one graph really shows quite well how bad a drive behaves, see post #4 here.

Note: this is a starting point. Please check techpoerwup for nvme reviews and check those graphs and pages. It should give you plenty of knowledge.
e.g. look into KC3000 2tb / than the drive from post #4 and a few ohters to get a basic idea about that topic.

 

[sblantipodi]

but why I score 2800 points in 3dmark storage bench with a 9100PRO 2TB while there are other users that scores three times more on the same bench?

 

[_roman_]

A few question to check...

did you assemble the mainboard correctly? did you used the first nvme slot - which is directly connected to the cpu?

have you updated the firmware of mainboard and nvme?

are you sure no process were influencing the drive? background downloads of windows updates - were windows updates disabled? are you 100% you had not any traffic on the nvme?

which speed is the nvme configured? have you misconfigured in the mainboard the nvme? does it maybe only run wiht pcie 3.0?

have you checked for issues with samsung + your mainboard + your mainboard brand + with your operating system

edit: I just wanted to test it with w11 pro 24h2. I can not
paid software for steam and epic

https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/3dmark--storage

40 Us dolla - no thanks: https://benchmarks.ul.com/3dmark

 

[massaker]

Simple. You bought a Samsung drive with "up to" speeds. Samsung does not give any guaranteed minimal speed.

Neither Kingston does. Every manufacturer does it the same way nowadays.

I do not care for up to 15000 MB/S nonsense speed.

Good point. But still twice the "up to" speed Kingston promices for your SSD.

You will see quite often that I commend under a PCIE 5.0 NVME SSD review the lack of dedicatd DRAM and that it'S slower as my current PCIE 4.0 KC3000 drive in most "real life scenarios"

Has nothing to do with his 9100Pro, as it has DRAM-Cache as well.

That one graph really shows quite well how bad a drive behaves, see post #4 here.

This tiny Acer SSD is good for 2230 one, still has absolutely nothing to do with 9100Pro flagship drive. And in #4 posted graph is complete bullshit (there is no "MLC mode"!).

which speed is the nvme configured? have you misconfigured in the mainboard the nvme? does it maybe only run wiht pcie 3.0?

Just look at his Crystaldisk Mark results! It runs definitive PCIe5.0-connection speed!

 

[A Computer Guy]

What motherboard are you using and what NVMe slot is it plugged into? The last time I had an NVMe only operate at half speed was in a scenario where it was running only half it's lanes (x2 instead of x4). Also depending on which NVMe slot you use some are gen4 or gen3 slots. Some motherboards may allow you to change NVMe slot speed as well.

You can use HWiNFO64 to confirm the link speed. For example...

 

[jarablue]

Well I got over 100MB/s random 4k q1t1 on my 990 pro and you're only getting 85MB/s...something ain't right there.

 

[steamrick]

something ain't right there.

Yes, your 990 Pro should be getting around 80 MB/s.

The only SSDs I'm aware of that genuinely manage over 100 MB/s in 4K Q1T1 are optane. All regular SSDs have too much NAND latency.

 

[sblantipodi]

did you assemble the mainboard correctly? did you used the first nvme slot - which is directly connected to the cpu?

yes, it's the only PCIe5 slot for nvme drives

have you updated the firmware of mainboard and nvme?

sure

are you sure no process were influencing the drive? background downloads of windows updates - were windows updates disabled? are you 100% you had not any traffic on the nvme?

the drive runs the OS, but no other things running apart the OS and the bench

which speed is the nvme configured? have you misconfigured in the mainboard the nvme? does it maybe only run wiht pcie 3.0?

PCIe5 gen 5 4x

have you checked for issues with samsung + your mainboard + your mainboard brand + with your operating system

no known issue

Just look at his Crystaldisk Mark results! It runs definitive PCIe5.0-connection speed!

correct

 

[kryptonite]

the

.

I think you're running the CrystalDiskMark test in Default mode because in the right more for this drive, the RND4k tests should read Q32T16 and Q1T1.

For an NVMe drive, under settings, change from Default to 'NVMe SSD'. That will allow multi-threaded tests, and scores may improve in Crystaldiskmark.

But more troubleshooting is required for poor scores in 3DMark Storage. I have a T705 that scores 3600 on 3DMark Storage, and also scrores poorer than reviews on CrystalDiskMark Q32T16 and Q1T1 as well that I'm investigating.

 

[agent_x007]

Check temps under load and after heatsink get's heat-soaked (ie. after some minutes of full load).

 

[sblantipodi]

the


I think you're running the CrystalDiskMark test in Default mode because in the right more for this drive, the RND4k tests should read Q32T16 and Q1T1.

For an NVMe drive, under settings, change from Default to 'NVMe SSD'. That will allow multi-threaded tests, and scores may improve in Crystaldiskmark.

But more troubleshooting is required for poor scores in 3DMark Storage. I have a T705 that scores 3600 on 3DMark Storage, and also scrores poorer than reviews on CrystalDiskMark Q32T16 and Q1T1 as well that I'm investigating.

values seems pretty normal or not?
but why so bad in 3dmark?

Check temps under load and after heatsink get's heat-soaked (ie. after some minutes of full load).

temps are in check under 60°C

I have noticed that even other SSDs on other nvme slots are slower than most others on the 3dmark storage bench. That's really weird

 

[jarablue]

Yes, your 990 Pro should be getting around 80 MB/s.

The only SSDs I'm aware of that genuinely manage over 100 MB/s in 4K Q1T1 are optane. All regular SSDs have too much NAND latency.

Not sure but every test I ran was over 100mbs..not by much but consistently over.

 

[georgeren]

Go into device manager
Click Disk drives
Click Policies
Click Enable wrie caching on the device
Click Turn off Windows write-cache buffer flushing on this device.

If using Samsung Magician (a current version in 2025)
Click Performance Optimization
Click Full Performance Mode