Zenith Extreme Alpha - NVME Maximum 2GB/sec Windows Copy Speed or Real Bench

[olivieraaa]

Zenith ii Extreme Alpha of course.
Thought I would start a thread with this issue.

I wonder if you guys have experienced the same NVME bandwidth issue I am having.

I have a hard limit in windows in terms of file copy speeds of a max. 2.1GBytes per second.

It doesn't matter how I setup my NVME's or even if I software RAID them using windows (or the new Storage Spaces), the transfer speed is limited to that 2.1GBytes per second. Searched google and saw just a couple people talk about their limit without understanding why that is.

My config:
- 3990x
- Extreme Alpha
- Windows 64-bit Pro with lastest updates
- All latest drivers including latest NVME drivers from Samsung
- 128GB RAM @3200 and tried @3600
- 2x Samsung NVME 980 Pro 2TB setup in M.2_1 and M.2_2
- Tried also with 2x Samsung 960 Pro 1TB - same max bandwidth.

Also tried in Both DIMM.2 slots with the same hard limit (actually closer to 2.0GBytes per second in this config).

I have not tried NVME RAID option in BIOS as I presume it is only for the NVME RAID Cards.

To clarify, benchmarking with the synthetic benchmark CrystalDiskMark I can get 10 Gigabytes per second both read and right on software RAID Q1T1. But if I use any other benchmark tools or just windows copying I am stuck at a maximum speed of 2.1GBytes per second.

HD Tune benchmarking gets 2.1Gbytes per second peak.

I understand that the NVME's have peak speeds and have RAM on them and when that gets filled up then the average read and write is limited. I never reach any higher speeds even before the drive cache gets filled up. Also, in Software RAID with 2 or 3 or 4 disks it should scale but NADA, not one byte more per second. Something is limiting the speed.

When I try to bench both DIMM.2 slots at the same time they seem to be sharing the bandwidth almost 50%/50% (that's expected since they're PCIe lanes).
When I try to bench both M.2_1 and M.2_2., I hit a peak of 2.3GBytes per second combined, which is barely higher than the issue I am getting, which works out slightly better but very far from expected performance.

My BIOS is configured properly and I disable the SATA ports, and even make room to give lanes for the M.2_3 which I don't use.

Anyone can explain if there is some kind of limit (at the 2GBps mark) on AMD processors I am not aware of ? It's my first AMD.

My other (much older) Rampage VI Extreme X299 using the same drives hits 3.3 GBytes per second for the 980's pro 2TB, and 2.2GBytes per second for the 960 Pro 1TB on each drive using the DIMM.2 slot with CPU lanes configured. And they stack almost linearly when benchmarks are executed at the same time on multiple disks... never hit a limit yet on that X299 board.

Am I missing something ?

Thx.

[gloves085]

It would help if you posted your HDTune testing settings, e.g.

@ 512bytess blocksize I got <20MB/s
@ 64k I got <2000 MB/s
@ 8MB I got <4000 MB/s

Crystal Disk raw io tests are very different from file copy tests which are limited by OS overheads and other factors such as file/block/stripe sizes.

As long as Crystal is giving you the raw IO speeds you expect for your drive, you shouldn't be too worried.

FWIW this very quick test was done on my HyperX M2 raid 1 config that gives over 7G/s raw.

[olivieraaa]

gloves085 wrote:
It would help if you posted your HDTune testing settings, e.g.

@ 512bytess blocksize I got <20MB/s
@ 64k I got <2000 MB/s
@ 8MB I got <4000 MB/s

Crystal Disk raw io tests are very different from file copy tests which are limited by OS overheads and other factors such as file/block/stripe sizes.

As long as Crystal is giving you the raw IO speeds you expect for your drive, you shouldn't be too worried.

FWIW this very quick test was done on my HyperX M2 raid 1 config that gives over 7G/s raw.

I will definitely try these exact settings and post my results back. I returned the board and ordered a new one. It won't change anything as I've tested more than 2 boards already and they all have the same results.

I had also created 2 RAMDISKs and still get the same 2GB/sec limit in file copy speeds from any disk to any disk, so for me this is either the OS or driver limiting the transfer speed or the CPU or Chipset architecture that is limiting throughput.

I have not yet tried using the HyperX M2 card yet (I do own the X16 gen 4 card). I have no room for it - already using both X16 slots for 2x 3090's.

I am going to later try a Linux install on it. I've never played on linux so it will take a bit of time.