Samsung 960 EVO NVMe performance...

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  1. Posts : 750
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bits
       #1

    Samsung 960 EVO NVMe performance...


    My new system is based on the Asus Prime Z370-A MB, that has two PCIe (x4), M.2_1 and M.2_2. Both of the sockets are populated with Samsung SSD 960 EVO 250 GB M.2 cards.

    Windows 10 setup had selected the M.2_1 drive and installed without any issues. Windows 10 is up to date, including the patch released today, and Samsung NVMe driver installed.

    Checking the performance of the "C" drive with CrystalDisk looks good:

    Samsung 960 EVO NVMe performance...-samsungnvme_c.png

    Well, until the other NVMe drive is checked that is:

    Samsung 960 EVO NVMe performance...-samsungnvme_e.png

    In every category, the "E" drive performs better than the the "C" drive, especially in write performance , and it puzzles me.

    The only difference visible between the two is the used space; "C" has 47 while "E" has 7GBs used space.

    Could the disk space utilization be responsible for the different performance, or the "C" drive came with some slight factory fault(s)?

    While there are temperature differences between the two NVMe cards, the "C" drive has a heatsink and actually runs 2-4 degree cooler than the "E" drive:

    Samsung 960 EVO NVMe performance...-samsung_temp.png

    Any advice would be appreciated, TIA...
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  2. Posts : 2,715
    Windows 10
       #2

    There is nothing in your numbers, slight differences are to be expected.
    The benchmarks are intentionally designed to bring out very small differences.

    The small temperature difference, slight difference in interface, manufacturing batch, bin sorting and so on will give small differences in Drives.

    Real world there is no difference, they are essentially both the same. Chill out, be happy.
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  3. Posts : 809
    Win10
       #3

    There's always going to be performance fluctuation, see Performance Consistency - The Samsung 960 Pro (2TB) SSD Review

    Your system (C) drive is generally going to have lower benches because the OS is doing stuff in the background. The lower amount of free space (potentially triggering garbage collection more frequently) as well as the DRAM cache already being filled with OS data before the benchmark is started would also affect performance.
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  4. Posts : 750
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bits
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Thanks for the chill, I am happy...

    Your reasonings make sense, especially the part about the OS drive being active during the performance test.

    The Anandtech's article about performance consistency is an interesting read, thank for the link. Since this PC does have a UPS backup, the Windows write cache buffer flushing is off.

    Over all, I am not too impressed with this PC's performance. Coming from a PC with Samsung SSDs is probably the main reason. This PC is certainly faster than the SSD PC, but it isn't like stepping up from the HDD to the SSD. In my view, unless one need to run large programs, or works with large files, the SSD based PC is almost as good as the M.2 based PC. On the other hand the cost of the M.2 and the SSD drives is pretty much the same

    With that said, creating a Macrium Reflect image of the C drive, around 25GBs, to the other M.2 drive , that was impressive. The image completed in 1:18, but that's not the purpose for the second M.2 drive...
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  5. Posts : 5,478
    2004
       #5

    If you were interested you could boot from PE (for example Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums) then download CrystalDiskMark6_0_0.zip

    As neither disk would be being used (PE runs in RAM) you could compare them with no other overhead. I just tried it and the zip version runs fine in PE.
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  6. Posts : 750
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bits
    Thread Starter
       #6

    lx07 said:
    If you were interested you could boot from PE (for example Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums) then download CrystalDiskMark6_0_0.zip

    As neither disk would be being used (PE runs in RAM) you could compare them with no other overhead. I just tried it and the zip version runs fine in PE.
    Thanks for the suggestion, I'll add the unzipped CrystalDiskMark to Reflect, or other bootable flash drive and test it.

    I am just curious, if there are substantial performance differences between the M.2 cards/drives. In my view, over 10% difference is substantial...
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 5,478
    2004
       #7

    Cr00zng said:
    In my view, over 10% difference is substantial...
    You don't know that yet though do you? Not till you test it.

    Another thing to consider is running CrystalDiskMark from PE might show a lower write speed (as you are using some RAM that would otherwise be used as cache). I also very much doubt PE is as efficient as Windows when it comes to memory management or anything else.

    Only therefore compare relative performance of your disks from PE - don't compare performance running from PE against performance running from Windows.

    I doubt you'll learn anything interesting but in your shoes I would definitely test it and see what happened. I would want to know.

    Perhaps you will find both are the same (so speed deficit is due to OS running) or perhaps you'll find one really is worse. Then you'll have to swap them around and test again in case it is connection not drive.

    It would be interesting anyway I think. If you do it please update your results.
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  8. Posts : 750
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bits
    Thread Starter
       #8

    lx07 said:
    You don't know that yet though do you? Not till you test it.
    I've tested and I know, now, you will too...

    Test result for the "C" drive in PE, with just Windows drivers:

    Samsung 960 EVO NVMe performance...-c_drive.png

    And here's the result for the "D" drive:

    Samsung 960 EVO NVMe performance...-d_drive.png

    In general, the performance differences between the two drives are the same as previously; not the values, just the difference between the two drive. Keep in mind that the test in PE did not have the Samsung NVMe driver. The MS NVME driver is pretty good, it seems....

    The next test would be swapping the drives, but I am not going there. One of the reason is that the "C" drive has a heatsink attached to it that came with the MB built-in. The other is that the results might be the same; in another word, the current performance difference would still be there, And that would be either the drive in itself, or the MB; neither of them will be changed for a 100MB/s performance difference. Besides...

    I tend to side with PolarNettles... Once the 50GBs data is dumped to the "E" drive, the chances are that its throughput performance will be similar/same as the "C" drive.

    Nonetheless, I do appreciate your suggestions/guidance, thanks...
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  9. Posts : 5,478
    2004
       #9

    Cr00zng said:
    I tend to side with PolarNettles....
    Me too generally. He/She know more than me I reckon.

    I'll stick my oar in anyway though on occasion with some random theory. Thanks for the update anyway.
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  10. Posts : 9
    windows 10
       #10

    Delete post
    Last edited by 69matrix69; 04 Feb 2018 at 12:16.
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