Is 330mb/s write speed normal for brand new Samsung EVO 860 250 GIGS ? Old one (850 EVO 120gig) on same system gets 530mb/s

Question

My new Samsung EVO 860 write speed varies wildly from test to test.

Sometimes the write speed is over 530 mbs, but mostly stuck at about 330 mbs.

I also have a 3 years old EVO 850 120 GIGS and it writes much faster...

Is this normal? This SSD is under warranty for replacement, I have 24 hours left, does it sound like a lemon to you?

My system is i5-8400 with 16 GIGS of RAM and WIN 10, brand new system.

I also have a brand new Acer Laptop, and it's the same thing, the new SSD writes at about 330 and the old one at about 530...

This has been confirmed with Samsung Magician, Crystal Disk and As SSD.

Answer 1

According to Samsung marketing, the quoted performance for the EVO 860 is "up to 500" with a disclaimer:

[...] Sequential write performance measurements are based on Intelligent TurboWrite technology [using] CrystalDiskMark v.5.0.2 [...] sequential write performances [outside of the] Intelligent TurboWrite region are 300 MB/s for 250/500 GB and 500 MB/s for 1 TB.

So the performance is as expected.

Source

Edit:

TurboWrite Technology is a trademark which means "memory buffered". Data is sent to the memory buffer of the drive (the host OS probably has no idea this is happening) and then it is actually written to the main storage at the drive controller's leisure and convenience. The buffer could be "regular memory" (volatile, possible data loss on power loss) built in or more likely it is a faster form of SSD (safer). This buffer will allow the drive to be quicker for the majority of consumer write tasks which are most often a small fraction of the buffer size and rarely sustained long enough to fill the buffer.

TurboWrite Technology creates a high-performance write buffer area within the drive that simulates high-performance SLC. During write operations, data from the host system is first transferred/written to the high-performance buffer at
accelerated speeds and then during the idle periods, the data is moved from the buffer to primary storage region.

[...]

Under consecutive write operations with no idle time, the buffer will eventually become full. At this point, the transfer will exit TurboWrite and write data directly to the main storage area of the drive at 3-bit MLC performance.

TurboWrite on the 250GB drive is 520; unbuffered (no TurboWrite) is 270.

source

Answer 2

Well, I returned the SSD and got a new one.

Write speeds are now over 500 mbps, consistently.

So conclusively, 300 mbps is NOT normal write speeds for Samsung EVO 860 250 GIGS.

If you experience same issue, warranty is 5 years, return it for a new one and it will solve the issue.

Answer 3

Ok so my brand new 860 Evo 500GB has 370 read and 250 write. There's not errors and trim works fine. I update the latest firmware but nothing change. I change the cable and position in the Sata ports and now I have 550 read and 390 write. Still 390 is quite slow but better than before. Try it before turn back your disk.

Answer 4

I had the exact same problem, but I updated my firmware today, and now it shows roughly the same write speed what samsung advertises in their website. You had stated when you got a new SSD the problem was solved, I believe the problem might have been solved because the new drive might have the new firmware. So what is the solution? just update your samsung magician software, then update the firmware.! Anyway I left this answer here for those who have the same problem.