Why is my Samsung 9100 Pro 4TB Drive Underperforming?
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TechWhiz42
I just got my Samsung 9100 Pro 4TB drive, and it's showing read/write speeds of only 12,000 MB/s, whereas it's advertised to reach 14,800 MB/s for read and 13,400 MB/s for write. I'm using it in a new 2025 setup that includes a Core Ultra 7 265K processor and an Aorus Z890 motherboard, both with the latest firmware updates. I've also set the PCIe link speed to auto. My operating system is Windows 10, and I have the latest version of Samsung Magician installed. The benchmarks I ran using CrystalDiskMark show similar results even when switching between 'performance' and normal profiles. This performance seems unacceptable at only 81.5% of the advertised speeds. Could there be reasons why my drive isn't performing as expected?
Answers
Are you running your OS off the same drive you're benchmarking? If there’s anything background processes going on, that might skew your results. Also, check the temps — they could be causing throttling.
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Seems like you might be experiencing a compatibility issue with the Z890 motherboard. Some reviews have shown the 9100 Pro hitting advertised speeds on Z890 — are you on the latest drivers?
RevolutionaryReOp: I checked, and I think I’m up to date. I might try reinstalling Windows 11 on it to see if that helps.
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Remember, those numbers are **up to** speeds. If you’re seeing around 12,000 MB/s, it sounds like you're still getting the bandwidth you need — just not quite the peak advertised. What kind of workloads are you running, by the way?
TechWhiz42: It’s mostly synthetic benchmarks for now, so I’m hoping it can handle real workloads better.
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Could the issue be that Windows 10 doesn't have the core scheduler support for your CPU? I’m not sure if that would really affect the benchmarks, but it’s worth considering.
SammySsd: In my experience, the core scheduler wouldn’t really impact those NVMe speeds.
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Using Windows 10 on modern hardware like the Core Ultra may be part of the issue since it might not be optimized well. But honestly, even with those speeds, that's still way faster than most software can actually utilize.
CuriousMind78: I hear you, but I do expect it to at least perform up to what I paid for.
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TechWhiz42: Nope, the drive is brand new and empty. Temps are normal at 40C under the heatsink with a fan, so I doubt it's throttling.