NVMe SSD very slow write speeds.

[netmann]

A couple of weeks ago I posted in regards to SP4 SSD speed. Storagenewsletter report the Toshiba NVMe XG3 SSD with the following specs:

Maximum sequential read speed: 2516 MB/s
Maximum sequential write speed: 1572 MB/s

Anandtech bench of 256 GB SP4 with Toshiba NVMe XG3 SSD showed the following:



Tonight I read Anandtech review of Surface Book. Their bench of 512 GB SB with Toshiba NVMe XG3 SSD showed:



Very different beast, isn't it?!

From the posts of Surface Book owners above I have not seen anyone with Toshiba SSD, most are Samsung PM951, and I am wondering why?! Perhaps some of the 512 GB and all of 1 TB SSD Surface Books only come with Toshiba SSD performance similar to Anandtech unit, or maybe he has given the unrestricted SSD test units for a better glorified review!!!

 

[Stocklone]

Good thing I got the i7/16GB/512GB so I could get stuck with the way slower Samsung drive. $2700 well spent. </sarcasm>

 

[Stocklone]

On a serious note. The original presentation of the Surface Book showed a 3GB file being transferred incredibly fast. Obviously that was a Toshiba drive. Is that grounds for a class action lawsuit? That demo was incredibly misleading to customers. Especially those that pre-ordered the device.

 

[ikjadoon]

From the posts of Surface Book owners above I have not seen anyone with Toshiba SSD, most are Samsung PM951, and I am wondering why?! Perhaps some of the 512 GB and all of 1 TB SSD Surface Books only come with Toshiba SSD performance similar to Anandtech unit, or maybe he has given the unrestricted SSD test units for a better glorified review!!!

I have not seen a single Surface Book owner with the Toshiba drive. I have only seen the Toshiba drive in review unit SBs. I have seen SP4's with the Toshiba drive, but nada on the SB (from the 128GB SB to the 512GB SB: all retail units, so far, seem to be Samsung).

On a serious note. The original presentation of the Surface Book showed a 3GB file being transferred incredibly fast. Obviously that was a Toshiba drive. Is that grounds for a class action lawsuit? That demo was incredibly misleading to customers. Especially those that pre-ordered the device.

Well, I didn't time the demonstration, but it could've been a 512GB Samsung which does write @ ~500MB/s. That would transfer the file in ~6 seconds. It also could've been a 1TB Samsung which could write ~1,000MB/s.

I specifically mentioned this issue to Anandtech (that review units were getting Toshiba, retail units had Samsung). Brett didn't address this directly in the review, but he did write:

Microsoft has gone down this road with the Surface Book, meaning there are going to be two versions of SSD available.

So, what...over time, the Toshiba drive will be "sprinkled" in? Maybe high demand caused them to tap into two sources. Whatever the distribution, I just don't see how one can get the Toshiba right now.

Then, I'll wait on buying a SB. I'm keeping this nearly $3000 laptop for 5+ years--why settle for the slower TLC?

 

[Christian Haberl]

Great point.

Here are the specs for the three drives:

The links you provided point to the MZVLV not MZFLV drives.

 

[ikjadoon]

The links you provided point to the MZVLV not MZFLV drives.

It seems to just be the OEM version. If you find any specs for the FLV drives, do post. We're looking. But, for the time being, the performance of the FLV drives matches well with the specification VLV drives.

And, I think we can suss it out logically: Samsung only lists two NVMe drives on its website, the SM951 and the PM951. This drive is certainly no SM951....and all its performance benchmarks line up exactly with the PM951.

 

[thaddyusmaximus]

Here's samsung drivers that improved my write speed dramatically. Please use at your own risk. Here's the link
BeforeAfter

 

[ikjadoon]

Yes, AS-SSD isn't very reliable with current NVMe drivers. CrystalDiskMark shows no such issues and that's what most reviewers are using. Let's not get distracted by the real issue: it doesn't matter what little variables we try to decipher in all of our anecdotal testing (BitLocker, AS-SSD, full or empty, TRIM, etc.)

Samsung rates the 256GB model at ~330MB/s writes. The Toshiba 256GB model can pull 1000MB/s. Has a single Surface Book owner received the Toshiba SSD?

 

[RaymondDijkstra]

A couple of weeks ago I posted in regards to SP4 SSD speed. Storagenewsletter report the Toshiba NVMe XG3 SSD with the following specs:

Maximum sequential read speed: 2516 MB/s
Maximum sequential write speed: 1572 MB/s

Anandtech bench of 256 GB SP4 with Toshiba NVMe XG3 SSD showed the following:

View attachment 116039

Tonight I read Anandtech review of Surface Book. Their bench of 512 GB SB with Toshiba NVMe XG3 SSD showed:

View attachment 116040

Very different beast, isn't it?!

From the posts of Surface Book owners above I have not seen anyone with Toshiba SSD, most are Samsung PM951, and I am wondering why?! Perhaps some of the 512 GB and all of 1 TB SSD Surface Books only come with Toshiba SSD performance similar to Anandtech unit, or maybe he has given the unrestricted SSD test units for a better glorified review!!!

This are my results with a SAMSUNG pm951 1Tb ssd.

Dell xps 15 i7

 

[ajcletus500]

can any one tell me whats the current scenario of the SSD in the SB. would it be worth buying right now if fast write speeds are important to me?

 

[Glenn Nelson]

ASRock H170m Pro4, Core i5-6500 (6th gen), 16 GB RAM. Have Samsung 950 Pro M.2, 512 GB.
I built this system and clean installed Windows 10 Pro (not an upgrade). I soon tested it with Crystal Mark.

This seemed good to me, but I knew almost nothing about expected speeds. After reading this thread, it seems I have a winner.
But I was having slow boot times: 25 seconds from power on to Windows login prompt! After much investigation, I discovered that I should install the Samsung SSD drivers - I was only using Microsoft drivers. With Samsung drivers:

Surprising, isn't it? Actually decreased read performance a bit, but improved write speeds. (But note that this is after using the computer for months).

 

[Dean Schulze]

My Surface Book SSD is very slowwwww. Extracting Eclipse (336 MB) takes 12 minutes!

My SSD is a NVMe Samsung MZFLV256. Here is my CrystalDiskMark, but it seems much slower than this: