WD SN850 Slower than expected performance

[monkeyboy46800]

So I was right in presuming the other link was you posting in a different forum under a different nick then?

Regardless, the problem is still not because of the drive.

Nope, not me and he has completely different motherboard and cpu.
If I had motherboard with with CPU lanes for M.2 I would put my NVME in that slot and forget about running across the PCH.

I still don't understand why you say its not the drive, if other Gen4 NVME's are getting good write speed across the chipset lanes why shouldn't the SN850 ?
The chipset does have 8GB/s of bandwidth....

 

[TheLostSwede]

Nope, not me and he has completely different motherboard and cpu.
If I had motherboard with with CPU lanes for M.2 I would put my NVME in that slot and forget about running across the PCH.

I still don't understand why you say its not the drive, if other Gen4 NVME's are getting good write speed across the chipset lanes why shouldn't the SN850 ?
The chipset does have 8GB/s of bandwidth....

So once again, did you bother read ANY of the things I posted?
First you say you can't find anyone having the same issue.
Then you're saying they're not the same, even though every single link I posted is having slow write speeds, just not with the same drive.
Then you say no-one else has the same issue again, wtf?
Dude, you need to take a seriously reality check.
There are LOADS of people with the SAME issue, with different drives.
It's NOT just you and it's NOT just the SN850.
CPU lanes or chipset lanes ISN'T the issue again.
This is NOT a hardware problem.
But you simply WON'T listen.
Have a great life, never bother me again.

 

[monkeyboy46800]

So once again, did you bother read ANY of the things I posted?
First you say you can't find anyone having the same issue.
Then you're saying they're not the same, even though every single link I posted is having slow write speeds, just not with the same drive.
Then you say no-one else has the same issue again, wtf?
Dude, you need to take a seriously reality check.
There are LOADS of people with the SAME issue, with different drives.
It's NOT just you and it's NOT just the SN850.
CPU lanes or chipset lanes ISN'T the issue again.
This is NOT a hardware problem.
But you simply WON'T listen.
Have a great life, never bother me again.

You really are lost in your words.
If not hardware, SN850 or CPU/CHIPSET Lane issue then it only leaves Windows 10 as the culprit, is this what you are implying ?

 

[lolokaa]

@TheLostSwede Why don't you take your personal issues elsewhere? Stay on topic man..

 

[monkeyboy46800]

Another thing I just been reading about is that their is that not all X570 chipsets are the same, apparently their is a Premium 15w chipset and a standard 11w chipset which has less performance.
Looking on Asrock website they actually mention this in specs of boards:

X570 Taichi http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X570 Taichi/#Specification

X570 ITX/TB3 https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X570 Phantom Gaming-ITXTB3/index.asp#Specification

This makes me think maybe the non premium version cannot handle the insane write speeds of Gen4 NVME and the premium version can.
I'll ask Asrock and report back here

 

[tabascosauz]

Another thing I just been reading about is that their is that not all X570 chipsets are the same, apparently their is a Premium 15w chipset and a standard 11w chipset which has less performance.
Looking on Asrock website they actually mention this in specs of boards:

X570 Taichi http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X570 Taichi/#Specification
View attachment 189957
X570 ITX/TB3 https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/X570 Phantom Gaming-ITXTB3/index.asp#Specification
View attachment 189961

This makes me think maybe the non premium version cannot handle the insane write speeds of Gen4 NVME and the premium version can.
I'll ask Asrock and report back here

No I'm 99% sure any differences are just flexibility of lane allocation for premium/workstation-oriented boards (think X570-ACE), because the ACE has 8x/8x/8x multi-GPU support......and even if there are 2 versions for 11W and 15W, and even if the X570-ACE has a special PCH, it's not like it affects you, because the way to solve this problem would be to buy any other B550/X570 ITX board that appropriately uses CPU lanes for the NVMe...

And I really wouldn't take that claim at face value. I know the Reddit thread you're referencing, it's 1 Reddit thread and it's not corroborated anywhere else on the web. Everywhere else has conflicting claims like:

• X570 draws 11-15W
• X570 has a 11W and 15W version
• X570 draws 11-15W depending on silicon quality
• X570 is 11W TDP, TRX40 is 15W TDP

And well, it's ASRock's product page. You already know the standard of quality that goes into those.

 

[TheLostSwede]

@TheLostSwede Why don't you take your personal issues elsewhere? Stay on topic man..

Oh wow, my personal issues? I have provided all the information he said isn't out there, proving that other people have the same problem, yet HIS problem is not the same...

 

[Hachi_Roku256563]

It is Not the drive like ThelostSwede says IT is not any part that has failed it is 1 thing
some limitation bottleneck or bug happening in the chipset it seems to effect some x570 boards and not others
you can get wd to send you all the free drives you want but it wont do anything

 

[monkeyboy46800]

It is Not the drive like ThelostSwede says IT is not any part that has failed it is 1 thing
some limitation bottleneck or bug happening in the chipset it seems to effect some x570 boards and not others
you can get wd to send you all the free drives you want but it wont do anything

With regards to @TheLostSwede comments I totally agree with most of her comments, but I also believe something is happening to write speeds when the SN850 runs on the X570 chipset lanes which does not happen to other GEN4 drives when running on the X570 chipset. As it stands I have no concrete evidence until I get my hands on another X570 board (Taiichi should be here in a few days) for testing.
I will also keep on investigating until I find the cause as I really don't want to let this board go, it has everything I need, thunderbolt 3 being the main factor.

 

[Sihastru]

I also believe something is happening to write speeds when the SN850 runs on the X570 chipset lanes which does not happen to other GEN4 drives

But you haven't established that. You only tested the SN850, in two variants, 1TB and 2TB. If you'd tested other Gen4 drives on your system then we'd know this. But you haven't and so we don't.

I think the issue TheLostSwede has with you, and, frankly, I do too, is that you're making these massive conclusive jumps that are somewhat illogical. There's a hint of cognitive dissonance in your approach. What you do is telling us there's something wrong with the drive or the motherboard. Perhaps. You are however adamant that it can't possibly be user error. That you tried everything, absolutely everything and it can't possibly be you. Dealing with someone like this can be very frustrating.

You need to be more scientific in your approach. You are limited in what you can do, we all are, but you can be more thorough. Don't make a bunch of changes at a time. Be as granular as you can be. Start FRESH, everything DEFAULT, NO overclocking of any kind. Whenever there's a binary setting that can have an effect on the performance of your SN850 drive, test with it in it's default state, then flip it, on or off, whatever that would be. Compare the results. Keep that setting flipped to the side that gave you the better results. Go to the next one. Non-binary settings require more time.

Take the time, do your research. Don't copy things other people did for their systems. Don't take everything at face value.

And don't get me wrong. It could turn out that you are right. You may well be right. The SN850 is a new product. Everything AMD does is and will forever be in a BETA state. But you didn't provide enough empirical evidence as to convince us to this end. Feeling it in one's bones isn't empirical evidence.

 

[monkeyboy46800]

@Sihastru @TheLostSwede

Guys / Girls, after a few emails with asrock R&D team and testing at home (980 Pro X570 Taichi) we finally know the issue lies with SN850 drives and X570 chipset, it just doesn't behave well when writing across chipset lanes. Maybe WD will update firmware but all is under NDA and Asrock are not allowed to speak about the fine details.

@W1zzard , I know you guys have insanely busy schedules, but details like this should come up in reviews. Maybe you can bring it up with WD as lots of us are moving to having multiple fast M.2 SSD's in our workstations.

 

[monkeyboy46800]

New SN850 firmware due next week:

**EDIT**
Firmware now available: https://wddashboarddownloads.wdc.com/wdDashboard/firmware/WDS200T1X0E-00AFY0/613000WD/613000WD.fluf
Still crappy write speeds

 

[5950xSlowNvme]

Just wanted to chime in here. I dragged a 980 Pro 500GB, as the OS drive, kicking and screaming out of my system due to it dropping to 25% of its write speeds and instead put an 850 1TB in.

My write speeds are about 3100, as seen in this thread. The NVME sits in M2.1 on my board and all integrated peripherals are disabled (WiFi, Audio, etc).

The good news is, its 3x faster than the 980 Pro 500GB and consistently so, so that's a bonus. The bad news is, its still far off its actual.

I've updated using the firmware, no difference. I have another 1TB in my system, on M2.3 and its fine, speeds are all good.

 

[monkeyass408]

I'm having the exact same problem with my SN850 on an MSI x570 Tomahawk w/a 5900x. Eager to see how things play out.

my brother and i both have the msi x570 tomahawk wifi. I have a 5900x and he has a 5950x. Tried my crucial mx500 2tb as a control test. Im getting shiety write speeds on both systems. I popped the drive in my old system that has an x470 ryzen 2700 and it benches like it should. I have tried many bios and none of them have fixed this issue. The issue isnt just this drive. Its all my drives are affected. My 1tb rockets 4, 2tb rockets, 2tb intel 660p. Every single drive has write issues. I also have tried to install different chipset driver versions and nothing worked. I am convinced its a bios/x570 chipset issue.

 

[Searing]

New SN850 firmware due next week:

View attachment 193146

**EDIT**
Firmware now available: https://wddashboarddownloads.wdc.com/wdDashboard/firmware/WDS200T1X0E-00AFY0/613000WD/613000WD.fluf
Still crappy write speeds

These are my results with an Asus B560-Plus + Intel i5-11500, SN850. I got very bad results using AS SSD for some reason, but very high results with Crystal Disk Benchmark.

 

[R0H1T]

The issue isnt just this drive. Its all my drives are affected.

Yeah well I have a 2700 (non X) with x570 MAG & two 970 EVO+ 1TB drives & I don't see this issue, the one (OS) drive on the "chipset lane" just runs hotter that's it. The performance difference between the one directly going with the CPU lanes as opposed to chipset is negligible! Of course this doesn't necessarily apply to (all) PCIe 4.0 drives but the thread seems to be headed in a direction which suggests there's issues with x570 chipset & I don't see that just yet.

 

[monkeyboy46800]

These are my results with an Asus B560-Plus + Intel i5-11500, SN850. I got very bad results using AS SSD for some reason, but very high results with Crystal Disk Benchmark.

Yeah well I have a 2700 (non X) with x570 MAG & two 970 EVO+ 1TB drives & I don't see this issue, the one (OS) drive on the "chipset lane" just runs hotter that's it. The performance difference between the one directly going with the CPU lanes as opposed to chipset is negligible! Of course this doesn't necessarily apply to (all) PCIe 4.0 drives but the thread seems to be headed in a direction which suggests there's issues with x570 chipset & I don't see that just yet.

Point of this thread is SN850 on the PCIE 4.0 Chipset lanes, try it & you will see degraded write performance.
2700 & 11500 dont have PCIE 4.0 Chipset lanes.

Other PCIe 4.0 drives (Samsung, Corsair) perform ok, just the SN850 has issues on X570 chipset.

 

[R0H1T]

Point of this thread is SN850 on the PCIE 4.0 Chipset lanes, try it & you will see degraded write performance.

Yeah the reason why I contrasted my experience with yours is partly because you brought up the mx500 & 2 (3?) drives in your comment aren't PCIe 4.0 either IIRC. As far as I'm concerned a better way to gauge performance would be to use the PC normally & hwinfo to monitor performance, or use use something like hdsentinel. PCIe 4.0 drives throttle under heavy loads & high temps, do we know what temps are observed during benches or indeed during regular use?

This is why I also mentioned (drive) temps in my case, how the one drive is hotter because it is an OS drive, not necessarily because of the chipset thing.

Other PCIe 4.0 drives (Samsung, Corsair) perform ok, just the SN850 has issues on X570 chipset.

All PCIe drives, v4 or v3, throttle under heavy loads & temps. It's a feature.

Now it's quite possible that the (PCIe 4.0) drives run hotter on the chipset lanes, but that's not what I've observed with PCIe 3.0 drives here. I can show you other results from benchmarks run under WinPE so the OS thing will not have any bearing on the actual results.

 

[lolokaa]

Testing proves that at least the SN850 does not throttle and has zero effect on performance from temperatures.

 

[5950xSlowNvme]

Has anyone been able to run a SMART test against their 850, via the WD Dashboard app? I have two and neither of them work with the SMART tests, both throw Operation Failed errors.

I can get SMART data back from the drives using the option at the bottom of the page but the short and long tests just won't run.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Has anyone been able to run a SMART test against their 850, via the WD Dashboard app? I have two and neither of them work with the SMART tests, both throw Operation Failed errors.

I can get SMART data back from the drives using the option at the bottom of the page but the short and long tests just won't run.

Try CrystalDiskInfo.

 

[5950xSlowNvme]

Try CrystalDiskInfo.

Cheers, does it have a SMART test feature? I've got it down but it looks like its passively reporting on drive info, rather than something to perform a test?

Edit: Ignore me, running the app is the test. So all's good there. Thanks!

 

[chrcoluk]

Given my experience of WD warranty vs samsung, and this review, I think this drive is firmly on my radar if I ever buy a new NVME. The large SLC area I like as well.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Cheers, does it have a SMART test feature? I've got it down but it looks like its passively reporting on drive info, rather than something to perform a test?

Edit: Ignore me, running the app is the test. So all's good there. Thanks!

If you want to go hardcore, try this

Download – smartmontools

www.smartmontools.org

 

[529th]

Just bought a SN850 1TB but the model version is different, it's WDBAPY0010BNC, not WDS100T1X0E. It's unopened, should I return it for something else? e.g. a 980 Pro ?