Linux Mint : SSD Reads are horribly slow

[Darc Sceptor]

So I am not addressing my system SSD because I cannot find even the maker leastwise the specs.
But my main SSD is a WD Black 2TB SN770.
Now when I look at the specs as posted by Toms Hardware it has reads at 5,150 MBps.
However when I run root@michael-system:/home/michael# hdparm -t /dev/nvme1n1p1 it comes back with a read speed of only 1138.49 MB/sec.
This is quite a considerable drop from the specs...and this is a brand new SSD so age is definitely not an issue.
And this drop in speed (Obviously) can be felt when I launch a game stored on that stick. And in case anyone wonders it is formatted Ext4.

I suspect that the other one is equally affected but....well this machine is going to my boys soon but I will face it again with the machine I'm replacing it with.


System: Ace Magic AMD 5700U processor with APU graphics.
32 G single stick of memory (waiting for replacement of the dead stick)
WD Black 2TB stick. KPARTS(?) .5TB stick

For those that are unable to read my signature: I use Linux Mint 22 and Steam/Proton 9.0

 

[KGIII]

My first thought...

That's an NVMe M.2 SSD. There are a few NVMe standards. The earlier standards had a lower throughput rate than the newer standards do. So, the bottleneck could be the PC's NVMe bus speeds and it's not capable of reaching the speeds of the more modern NVMe SSD.

That's a shot in the dark - but something to eliminate in your troubleshooting. You'd have to look up your computer's specs to find that information but the information should be out there and reasonably easy to find.

 

[Darc Sceptor]

Well that shot in the dark killed my neighbor 3 houses down but never got anywhere near the subject.
As stated this is a brand new modern SSD with the rated speeds posted in my post. I made it very clear in my message what the normal read throughput is based on lab reviews. And as such it can handle modern interfaces. Seems, though, that Linux is the one that cannot handle the new speeds.

 

[KGIII]

Methinks you misread my post. The shot in the dark isn't that the device can't hit those speeds - but that your device isn't capable of those speeds. Your device may have slower bus speeds on the NVMe line because it's older.

We have no idea if this is the case because we don't know the specs of your computer.

But, I think you either didn't read everything I wrote or didn't understand what I wrote.

To give an easier to understand analogy, if your network only supports 100 Mb/sec it's going to make no difference if you upgrade your connection to 1000 Mb/sec. This is the same case with your computer, except with the bus speeds that you're connected to.

The lab reviews will have used computers that can support the maximum speeds of the SSD.

 

[Darc Sceptor]

Yup I misread what you wrote. I thought you were talking about the nvme not the computer. I just bought the computer.
The computer is new but the hardware is Chinese so you never know. But now that you pointed that out I wrote the vendor to find out what their throughput rate is on Nvme.

 

[KGIII]

It's all good. You can just say I wasn't clear enough, if you want.

But, there are a number of versions:

NVM Express - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I don't know all the speeds off the top of my head or anything. I just know that not all devices are the same and that older stuff (or stuff that uses older standards to save a few bucks) may not reach the speeds of current cutting edge devices.

 

[Brickwizard]

Ok so you have a WD Black 2TB SN770 NVMe drive, this is a mid range cl 4 NVMe, which means its designed to run on a PCIe bus class 4 with 4 lanes If you connect it to a PCIe3x4 its theoretical speed will be halved, if connected to a PCIe2x4 it will be quartered

 

[Brickwizard]

my system SSD because I cannot find even the maker leastwise the specs.

inxi -D

 

[Darc Sceptor]

inxi -D

That's a cool command. But it did not list a manufacturer only a model. I think I need to replace that one!

 

[Brickwizard]

only a model.

Copy and paste the model number into your favourite search engine and run

 

[Darc Sceptor]

Copy and paste the model number into your favourite search engine and run

Way ahead of you on that. I entered the model number and if I entered only part of it I find a Chinese company (as expected) but nothing that completely tied that model to that company from the website. I suspect it is just a generic Chinese stick

 

[KGIII]

They may have meant the model number of your computer. Then you can find the PCIe version, hopefully.

 

[Brickwizard]

can you run it again but this time copy paste back the results

 

[Brickwizard]

The computer is new but the hardware is Chinese so you never know

if you want manufacture and part number details on the motherboard then inxi -M

 

[Darc Sceptor]

root@michael-system:/home/michael# inxi -M
Machine:
Type: Mini-pc Mobo: N/A model: N/A v: V00 serial: CCQS1202113891
UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1.18_1F660103_P4C4M43_VC3_EC_0_0_59_AMI
date: 09/14/2023

root@michael-system:/home/michael# inxi
CPU: 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 5800U with Radeon Graphics (-MT MCP-)
speed/min/max: 906/400/4507 MHz Kernel: 6.8.0-48-generic x86_64 Up: 6h 58m
Mem: 6.51/30.75 GiB (21.2%) Storage: 2.29 TiB (14.5% used) Procs: 415
Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.34


root@michael-system:/home/michael# inxi -D
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 2.29 TiB used: 339.41 GiB (14.5%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 model: KPART512GBC2DVT size: 476.94 GiB
ID-2: /dev/nvme1n1 vendor: Western Digital model: WD BLACK SN770 2TB
size: 1.82 TiB

 

[Darc Sceptor]

if you want manufacture and part number details on the motherboard then inxi -M

I did an inxi -h and got a book! lol interesting command. Just what is inxi suppose to stand for?

So in China they have these streets setup. Street 1 will make a ton of electronics. Street 2 constructs the motherboards and get what they need from Street 1. Street 3 builds the computers and gets what they need from Street 2.

But I finally found what I was searching for, and the news isn't good. Here is the motherboard spec:
M.2 NVMe PCIe3.0 SSD (2x M.2 2280 NVMe&NGFF for SSD，Max 2TB)

So my 4.0 boards are running on a PCIe 3 slot which explains why it is so slow. But I enjoyed exploring this new command.

 

[Darc Sceptor]

That would be your hard disk, the nvme ssd, rather than the motherboard

No.....that is the spec for the NVME connection on the motherboard. My drive is WD Black SN770 2TB 4.0 Nvme.

 

[KGIII]

So my 4.0 boards are running on a PCIe 3 slot which explains why it is so slow.

See? My shot in the dark was correct.

It really wasn't a shot in the dark so much as the first step I'd take to troubleshoot it. It was a logical place to look first before diving into harder stuff.

Does your board have any PCIe 4 slots available? You can get M.2 NVMe riser cards for not a lot of money. If you have slots that have four lanes of PCIe 4, subtract a tiny amount for latency, and you'll get speeds closer to the theoretical maximum.

 

[Brickwizard]

So my 4.0 boards are running on a PCIe 3 slot which explains why it is so slow. But I enjoyed exploring this new command.

yep as we suspected,
your WD NVMe has a theoretical max read speed of 5,150MB/s and write speed of 4,900MB/s in ideal conditions on a PCIe4 x 4 lanes so you should get somewhere around half that, if it's significantly less then check it's not on a PCIe3 x 2 lanes as that would halve the speed again

 

[Brickwizard]

Just what is inxi suppose to stand for

I have absolutely no idea, all i can tell you is I have been using it for a few years, and 2 years back we were asked [forum members] to beta test what is now the installed version as between us we had a wide range of make and age of kit.