Dramatically slow write speeds on the 2021 Helios 300 PH315-54-760S PCIe 4 NVMe SSD

KeyserTommasi

Hey guys!

I just got a 2021 Helios 300 - Model Name: PH315-54-760S, currently running the latest version of Windows 11 Home 64-bit:

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/predator-model/NH.QC2AA.003

It comes with a 512GB PCIe 4 M.2 NVMe SSD - Model Name: Micron 3400 MTFDKBA512TFH [Read speed: 6,600 MB/s | Write speed: 3,600 MB/s]:

https://media-www.micron.com/-/media/client/global/documents/products/product-flyer/micron_3400_ssd_product_brief.pdf?la=en&rev=94d51acbb0f1475ca21b5f76f30d07ca

When I do a read/write speed test with the latest version of CrystalDiskMark, the first test or two after I start the Helios produce normal results:

However, after the first couple of tests, the write speeds drop dramatically, and I cannot get the normal write speeds back - no matter how long I wait before repeating the tests - unless I shut down my laptop and start it again:

Sometimes I don't even need to conduct a couple of tests for the write speed to drop; the very first test can sometimes produce the same slow results shown in the second image.

What's causing this issue and how can I resolve it to prevent the write speeds from dropping? It may be worth mentioning that this is my first experience with an NVMe SSD, so I'm not sure whether this is normal behavior. Thank you!

​//Edited the content to add model name.   ​

xapim

KeyserTommasi check the drives thermal if it heats up much it will throttle the speeds same as a cpu/dgpu also it depends on the drives quality and the ability to maintain the speeds for a long period of time usually the more budget drives have lower speeds  either way this is my own personal view on this if anyone else has another answer for this please share

KeyserTommasi

@xapim Thank you for responding. That would have made sense if both the read and write speeds were affected, but in my case only the write speed is affected, so I don't think that's the reason. Also, I just did another test where the SSD's temperature was 56 degrees Celsius, which is not high at all. Read speed was normal, write speed was 665 MB/s just like my 2nd screenshot above. There's gotta be another reason.

xapim

KeyserTommasi the other explanation would be in someway a faulty drive as it might happen not only on the big expensive brands but also on mostly oems like yours so the only oher thing you could do here would be send it to acer to get it tested or even get another (better) drive to test and compare yourself as if you only use it for gaming and average use its fine but if you do content creation/rendering or any other high demanding works you would need all the speed you can get from any drive

KeyserTommasi

To be honest, I don't think it's faulty because I scanned the SSD multiple times with different programs, and they all said it's functioning normally. Also if it were faulty, that should also affect the read speeds as well. I can't really send the laptop back to Acer either either - I bought it from Amazon US but had it shipped overseas. 

My very uneducated guess is that this is happening because this is an entry level Gen 4 SSD at an entry level capacity (512 GB), and these are usually bound to underperform compared to their higher capacity counterparts. Next year when Gen 5 SSDs hit the market, Gen 4 models will get a nice price drop; that's probably when I'll get one, but for now, it would be great if this issue can be solved, if at all that's possible. 

xapim

KeyserTommasi the only thing i can think of here (apart from what you have said as its completely correct all oem drives tend to underperform as they are way cheaper thats why the manufacturers use them and not just drives same happens with ram and other hardware after all they will have to save the budget on something after the cpu/dgpu costs) would be the win11 incompatibility/bugs as it was designed for 12th gen in mind not 11th gen i dunno why are they shipping 11th gen with win11 maybe microsoft its forcing all manufacturers to do so so they can force everyone to update same as they did on win 10 as if the manufacturers do not do whatever microsoft says they will remove the licensing to use the all OS so technically all manufacturers have to obey to microsofts terms and rules and whatever they say must be done im still on 1809 an will never move up also still have machines on xp and 7 working just fine updates permanently disabled