B550-A PRO M.2_1 PCIe 4.0 slow speed.

[JulsA]

Good day. This is a bit lengthy post. I'm having issues with my B550-A PRO Motherboard's M.2 slot 1(M.2_1) when I plug in my Crucial P3 Plus 2TB to my rig, install Windows 11, update all drivers, and finally run a benchmark using Windows's WINSAT command on Command Prompts (winsat disk -drive c since it took hours to install all drivers and Windows updates. Now, I only get 200MB/s READ and 100MB/s WRITE results. It is also the same benchmark result when I use Crystal Disk Mark.

I did contact the store where I purchased the Crucial P3 Plus 2TB. We did some troubleshooting and firmware updating on the M.2 NVMe without any improved results and fixes.

I did use CrystalDiskInfo to check if my transfer mode is correct. It shows PCIe 4.0 X4(Current) | PCIe 4.0 X4(Support). Which is correct, but I still have a very slow READ and WRITE speed.

When I plug it in on the M.2 slot 2 (M.2_2), I get 3000-3200MB/s READ and 2800-3000MB/s WRITE. Which is close to the original specification of the Crucial P3 Plus. (5,000 MB/s READ and 4,200 MB/s WRITE) The CrystalDiskInfo now shows PCIe 3.0 X4(Current) | PCIe 4.0 X4(Support), which cannot fully utilize the capability of the M.2 NVMe.

I also plugged in my old GEN 3 M.2 NVMe on the M.2_1 slot, and the benchmark result is much better than my Crucial P3 Plus GEN 4.

Is there a specific BIOS Settings to correctly utilize the M.2_1 slot for Gen/PCIe 4.0? I'm worried that my motherboard doesn't really supports GEN 4 M.2 NVMe or defective.


SPECS:
Ryzen 5 5600x
B550-A PRO (Lastest BIOS A.E0 - AMD AGESA ComboAM4v2PI 1.2.0.A ; 07/03/2023)
Ripjaws V DDR4-3600 16GB (2x8GB)
ASUS DUAL 3060Ti LHR

 

[Alan J T]

No special Bios setting but I do think your Crucial M.2 is faulty as the M.2_1 slot seems to be working correctly with a different SSD

 

[citay]

Please provide a full screenshot of the SMART data with CrystalDiskInfo. In the program's menu under "Function" -> Advanced Feature -> Raw Values, select "10 [DEC]" to have human-readable values, in the options there is a setting to hide the serial number, and you can press CTRL-S to save a screenshot in there. Much better than taking a photo and then removing the serial in MS paint. Similarly for CrystalDiskMark, CTRL-S saves a screenshot.

I would just return the P3 Plus, it has catastropically low performance once the pseudo-SLC-mode has run out. Their QLC NAND is slower than the ones used on old SATA SSDs with QLC, like the Samsung 860 QVO. It drops to double-digit MB/s, slower than an HDD.

From the review conclusion of a renowned German tech site:
"It is often not that easy for the editorial team to make a judgment about an SSD because the performance is usually similar. The measurements for the Crucial P3 and P3 Plus make it easy, albeit in a less than pleasing way. With significant weaknesses in both practical reading and writing in SLC mode, the identical series are a failure.

However, it is not yet possible to determine what contributes most to the disaster: The tiny single-core controller without DRAM cache, Micron's new QLC NAND, or firmware issues. This combination is still completely new on the market.

Only if the price was right could the two Crucial SSDs be considered as archive storage (“data tomb”), although the low read and copy performance are strong counterarguments in this case too. But either way, there are much faster alternatives for the same price."

So, i would call it a day and get something that performs properly in all situations.

 

[JulsA]

Thank you for your replies. I will either have it replaced or upgraded to a similar price range.
Here is a screenshot of the S.M.A.R.T information, if that will help diagnose the issue.

 

[citay]

The only thing that sticks out from the SMART data is the relatively high "Number of Error information log entries" at the bottom. Although those log entries could mean anything, they are only for diagnostics at Crucial.

But yeah, i would just get rid of this one, it's just not a good model overall. Even something like a Samsung 970 EVO PLUS, despite only having a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface, is technically much superior, and costs around the same as the P3 Plus. The interface speed isn't that important to how an SSD performs. Other nice options are the Western Digital SN570, SN580 or SN770.

 

[JulsA]

Okay. Thank you very much. Will replace it soon.