Low Disk Mark Scores

[HHH03]

When running the Disk Mark benchmark, task manager normally shows a very close reading of what the test scores will be. I have a Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVME drive. My scores are much lower than expected compared to other 970 EVO Plus NVME drives. Three of the tests revealed that my computer is using 25% usage (I have 4 drives) and the power usage column shows “very high” during the test except for the 4KQD1 test. When that test runs, task manager shows a high MB/s at first then it drops off to a much lower rate (about 1/2) and the power usage never gets above moderate. My question is why? Task manager is suggesting that the 4KQD1 test is being throttled for some reason. Another issue is that my scores are not very consistent, they vary a lot. I might get a Disk Mark score of 23,500 one time and 20 minutes later it will test at 19,500.
That’s quite a variation. Any suggestions concerning either of these issues and possible solutions would be welcomed.

[David (PassMark)]

and the power usage column shows

I don't think the (electrical) power usage is all that relevant, as it is only every a vague indication of what is happening,

shows a high MB/s at first then it drops off to a much lower rate (about 1/2) .... My question is why?

Maybe caching. Either in main memory caching, or caching on the drive itself for drives with DRAM.
Did you check device drivers, Windows power management settings, and temperatures.

[HHH03]

Everything looks good. Low temperatures on all components... I’m using the Microsoft NVME driver as the Samsung NVME driver lowers the scores 5-10%.
The inconsistency of the tests seems odd. The test “Disk Sequential Read” is very inconsistent. I’ll run a test and the score will be 2700, 10 minutes later run it again and it will be 1900. My SATA drives test consistently, the NVME drive is very inconsistent. The question becomes is it the test or is it the NVME drive itself.

[David (PassMark)]

Maybe TRIM / garbage collection is the drive is in heavy use?
Or some background task using the drive?

[DavyDee]

Ensure to disable security software prior the test. Antivirus, Antimalware etc. may access the disk randomly, which can reduce the score significantly and inconsistently.

[d4rks1gm]

I realize this is an old post, but it was on the front page and I am having the same issue.

My Disk Mark scores are also super low, I'm running a 980 Pro on PCIE 4. I have run tests with PerformanceTest, Samsung Magician and CrystalDiskMark. The results from the other two software had expected speeds, within reason, and temp never exceeded 57c.

I had a very similar experience to op, my score was 26000, then I rebooted to clear processes to get a better cpu reading, and my score dropped to 19000. I have no idea what could be causing the drastic differences in results, and I just built this PC last week.

Thanks in advance for taking a look

*These PerformanceTest results in the screenshot were after a fresh restart with no other software running.
** NVME firmware is updated, samsung doesn't have drivers for the 980 pro

[David (PassMark)]

Some of the Samsung claims and measurements are on the edge of being fraudulent as they are using a memory cache.
I don't know if it related to this issue, but it is something to be aware of.

This post is also worth looking at, as it examines under what scenarios you can expect to get the advertised speeds for a SSD. Turns out in the majority of circumstances you don't get the advertised speeds.
https://forums.passmark.com/pc-hardw...ax-nvme-speeds

If you are rebooting the PC, you should probably wait 5 to 10min for the machine to idle. There are sequential background tasks that run a few min after the machine has booted. Also check task manger to make sure there are things like a Windows update running in the background.

[d4rks1gm]

Some of the Samsung claims and measurements are on the edge of being fraudulent as they are using a memory cache.
I don't know if it related to this issue, but it is something to be aware of.

This post is also worth looking at, as it examines under what scenarios you can expect to get the advertised speeds for a SSD. Turns out in the majority of circumstances you don't get the advertised speeds.
https://forums.passmark.com/pc-hardw...ax-nvme-speeds

If you are rebooting the PC, you should probably wait 5 to 10min for the machine to idle. There are sequential background tasks that run a few min after the machine has booted. Also check task manger to make sure there are things like a Windows update running in the background.

Thanks for your reply David.

Your post in that thread was an interesting read, thanks for the info, as was Tim's post.

The raw numbers make sense to me now, and that is understandable. I'm just confused at the huge variance in the benchmarks of other users.