Issue with Samsung 9100 Pro speed issues on Z890 / Arrow Lake

Tim21 · ‎04-09-2025

I recently installed a Samsung 9100 Pro in an MSI PRO Z890-A Wifi motherboard along with a core ultra 285K processor. I am not getting the advertised sequential read/write speeds of the 9100 Pro. The SSD is installed in an m.2 slot that is directly connected to the CPU using 4 PCIe 5.0 lanes.

There are several other users that are experiencing the same issue as me. The common denominator is Z890 motherboard (regardless of make or model) and Arrow Lake processor, when the SSD is inserted in a PCIe 5.0 m.2 slot connected directly to the processor.

This thread is one of them: Core Ultra 285K Bandwidth limitation of PCIe 5.0 dedicated SSD port - Intel Community

I have contacted both MSI and Samsung, but neither know the cause and none of their suggestions have worked.

Since the SSD itself can reach advertised speeds except for when in the configuration described above, and since multiple users are experiencing the issue on other Z890 motherboards, I think it is time Intel escalate the issue.

RobbieR_Intel · ‎04-09-2025

Hello Tim21,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention and for providing detailed information about your system configuration. I understand how important it is to achieve the expected performance from your hardware, and I appreciate the steps you've already took by contacting MSI and Samsung.

To assist us in analyzing the details of your system and addressing the issue effectively, we kindly ask you to generate a System Support Utility (SSU) report. This report will provide us with comprehensive information about your system's configuration, helping us identify any potential incompatibilities or issues.

To generate the SSU report, please refer to the article: How to get the Intel® System Support Utility Logs on Windows*.

Additionally, please answer the following questions:

What tool are you using to measure sequential read/write speeds?
Have you tried to test the SSD on a different system?

I look forward to your response!

Best Regards,

Robbie R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

Tim21 · ‎04-10-2025

Hi Robbie,

Thanks for looking into this. I have uploaded the ssu log to this post.

To answer your questions, I have used both Samsung Magician and CrystalDiskMark v8. Both give similar results for sequential reads, but the CrystalDiskMark results give within 95% of advertised speeds for sequential writes.

I do not have another system to try the SSD in. However, there is a small chance that I may be able to find a usb adapter that can run that fast. I will let you know. It is worth mentioning that others with this issue have verified their SSD speeds can reach the advertised speeds in other configurations.

RobbieR_Intel · ‎04-10-2025

Hello Tim21,

Thank you for providing the SSU Log being requested and additional information. I appreciate your efforts in using both Samsung Magician and CrystalDiskMark v8 to test the SSD performance.

I understand that you currently don't have another system to test the SSD, but I appreciate your willingness to explore the possibility of using a USB adapter. Please keep me updated on any development in that regard.

With that being said, I will now further investigate the issue and will get back to you once I have an appropriate resolution.

Best Regards,

Robbie R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

Tim21 · ‎04-12-2025

Hi Robbie,

I could not find a fast enough USB to m2. converter, so I purchased a Sabrent PCIe 5.0 x 4 to m.2 converter to test this with. I had to unplug my Nvidia RTX 4070 in order to plug in the Sabrent, since that is the only PCIe 5.0 slot on my motherboard.

In that configuration, I am getting advertised speeds on the Samsung 9100 Pro. That means there is nothing wrong with the SSD.

RobbieR_Intel · ‎04-13-2025

Hello Tim21,

Thank you for sharing the troubleshooting that you've done. Since with the usage of Sabrent PCIe 5.0 x4 to M.2 adapter card connected to the PCIe 5.0 slot shows the advertised speed of the Samsung 9100 Pro, it isolates that the issue is not with the SSD as the source of the issue.

This additional context is extremely helpful, and I’ve taken note of your findings. With the given information at hand, I will now continue to further investigate and will get back to you once appropriate information is available.

I sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding as we work through this.

Best Regards,

Robbie R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

RobbieR_Intel · ‎04-16-2025

Hello Tim21,

Thank you for patiently waiting. The issue you're encountering is more likely related to the motherboard rather than the CPU.

Since you are not reaching the advertised speed for the Samsung 9100 Pro SSD when installed in the M.2 PCIe 5.0 slot directly connected to the CPU is highly related to the Motherboard and is not with the CPU. While the Arrow Lake CPU provides the necessary PCIe 5.0 lanes, it is the Z890 motherboard's chipset that manages how these lanes are allocated and routed. In this case, the Z890 motherboard may not be fully supporting the required bandwidth for the SSD when connected directly to the CPU's PCIe lanes, which explains why the SSD is not performing at the expected speeds in the configuration.

When you have used a Sabrent PCIe 5.0 x4 to M.2 converter and connected the SSD to the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, this suggests that the PCIe x16 slot is properly configured to handle the full bandwidth needed for the SSD. This issue appears to be with how the motherboard PCIe lanes for the M.2 slot connected directly to the processor, rather than with the CPU itself.

In summary, the problem lies with the motherboard's PCIe lane management, not the CPU.

Best Regards,

Robbie R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

Tim21 · ‎04-17-2025

Hi Robbie,

Thanks for your response.

I respectfully disagree that it is a motherboard issue for the reasons below. Please feel free to correct me if I am missing something.

1) The motherboard manual and specifications web page for the motherboard say that the m.2 slot I am using is directly connected to the CPU with 4 PCIe 5.0 lanes. That provides plenty of bandwidth as long as the SSD is connected as PCIe 5x4 when powered up.

2) Using the HWInfo app, it shows that it is indeed connected as PCIe 5x4 when the SSD is in that m.2 slot. I can provide a screenshot of HWInfo if you are interested.

3) Several other users with other motherboard models made by other manufacturers are experiencing a nearly identical experience to mine. It is highly unlikely that they are all motherboard issues. Please let me know if you would like links to these. One is in another thread in this forum.

One question I have for you...Have you been able to run an SSD that can achieve over 14000 MB/s sequential reads on Intel hardware in a similar configuration, and gotten the advertised speeds?

pressed_for_time · ‎04-17-2025

The advertised speeds are not worth much in my opinion, Samsung always labels them as 'up to' so there is never any guarantee that they will be achieved while benchmarking. There is also the issue that maximum benchmark speeds need a completely empty drive, so a drive with any data on it at all will not produce optimum results.

That said, some reviewers have been able to virtually match Samsung's claimed numbers "...9100 PRO achieves lightning-fast sequential read/write speeds up to 14,800/13,400 MB/s" using Intel hardware.

An example is the The SSD Review . (See graphic below)

The motherboard used was the ASUS Z890 ProArt Creator WiFi and the CPU was the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K.

Tim21 · ‎04-17-2025

The advertised speeds are not worth much in my opinion, Samsung always labels them as 'up to' so there is never any guarantee that they will be achieved while benchmarking.

I am aware that in real scenarios, advertised speeds are not the greatest indicator of what the user will experience, but when I pay a lot for something, I expect it to work as advertised.

There is also the issue that maximum benchmark speeds need a completely empty drive, so a drive with any data on it at all will not produce optimum results.

Earlier in this thread, I mentioned that I was getting advertised speeds when the SSD is connected with a PCIe slot adapter, so having data on the drive is not an issue in this case.

That said, some reviewers have been able to virtually match Samsung's claimed numbers "...9100 PRO achieves lightning-fast sequential read/write speeds up to 14,800/13,400 MB/s" using Intel hardware.

An example is the The SSD Review .

Thanks for this link. I noticed in the review that the drive being tested was not the C: drive, so I asked the author if he was testing in the m.2 slot, or with a PCIe slot adapter like I did when I got the full advertised speeds. This is his response:

"The drive was tested in the former Gen HyperSSD AIC and not the M2 slot. Current Gen motherboards do not allow full performance from 14GB/s SSDs and we may be writing an article on this in a week or so… Waiting for a return from Intel. Presently, 14GB/s ssds only achieve 12GB/s speeds in the M2 slot and we have confirmed this in a number of different boards and can also validated it from several other tests and Internet posts of other sites."

If you know of any reviews where they tested in the configuration I am using, with the ssd in the 5x4 m.2 slot, and getting full speeds, I would appreciate any links.

Tim21 · ‎04-17-2025

The advertised speeds are not worth much in my opinion, Samsung always labels them as 'up to' so there is never any guarantee that they will be achieved while benchmarking.

I am aware that in real scenarios, advertised speeds are not the greatest indicator of what the user will experience, but when I pay a lot for something, I expect it to work as advertised when I know it can work.

There is also the issue that maximum benchmark speeds need a completely empty drive, so a drive with any data on it at all will not produce optimum results.

Earlier in this thread, I mentioned that I was getting advertised speeds when the SSD is connected with a PCIe slot adapter, so data on the drive is not an issue in this case.

That said, some reviewers have been able to virtually match Samsung's claimed numbers "...9100 PRO achieves lightning-fast sequential read/write speeds up to 14,800/13,400 MB/s" using Intel hardware.

An example is the The SSD Review .

Thanks for this link. I noticed in the review that the drive being tested was not the C: drive, so I asked the author if he was testing in the m.2 slot, or with a PCIe slot adapter like I did when I got the full advertised speeds. This is his response:

"The drive was tested in the former Gen HyperSSD AIC and not the M2 slot. Current Gen motherboards do not allow full performance from 14GB/s SSDs and we may be writing an article on this in a week or so… Waiting for a return from Intel. Presently, 14GB/s ssds only achieve 12GB/s speeds in the M2 slot and we have confirmed this in a number of different boards and can also validated it from several other tests and Internet posts of other sites."

If you happen to know of someone that has gotten to work in the 5x4 m.2 slot of a z890 motherboard, I would appreciate any links.

Tim21 · ‎04-17-2025

@pressed_for_time Thank you for the link. I noticed that the tests in that review were not on the C: drive, so I asked the author if he was running the tests with the ssd in the 5x4 m.2 slot, or in a PCIe slot adapter (which I did when I got near full advertised speeds.) This is his reply:

"The drive was tested in the former Gen HyperSSD AIC and not the M2 slot. Current Gen motherboards do not allow full performance from 14GB/s SSDs and we may be writing an article on this in a week or so… Waiting for a return from Intel. Presently, 14GB/s ssds only achieve 12GB/s speeds in the M2 slot and we have confirmed this in a number of different boards and can also validated it from several other tests and Internet posts of other sites."

If you happen to know any reviews where near full speed results were observed when the ssd is in the 5x4 m.2 slot of a Z890 motherboard, I would appreciate it.

RobbieR_Intel · ‎04-23-2025

Hello Tim21,

Thank you again for your detailed follow-up and for clarifying the testing and verification steps you've already taken.

You're right to expect high-end hardware to perform close to advertised specs - especially when you're using a platform that theoretically supports it.

In the meantime, if you have any screenshots that you're comfortable sharing, I'd be happy to review them as part of the investigation.

Best Regards,

Robbie R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

Tim21 · ‎04-24-2025

Hi Robbie,

I just updated to a newly-released BIOS with Intel MR1 and 200S boost, hoping it would help, but it hasn't:

I tried it with 200S boost both enabled and disabled. The screenshot above is actually the fastest it ran. Sequential read got as low as 10000 MB/s.

Here is a screenshot of HWInfo showing the SSD is connected using PCI Express v5 and using 4 lanes:

Is there anything in particular that you would like me to take a screenshot of?