Curious about some USB 3.0 speeds I get

[pullman]

Greetings and salutations

I have a Caldigit Fasta PCIe card (the 6GU3) in my cMP3,1 (in one of the two top (slower) PCI slots). The card has two USB 3.0 ports and two eSATA ports and I'm wondering about some readings I get in AmorphousDiskMark with various USB sticks and drives.

Here are readings from a Teamgroup MP44 256GB NVME in a Satechi enclosure connected with a USB C-USB-A adapter (USB 3.1). Don't they look rather low? It might be the adapter, which is a Delock I found on Amazon. But I would have expected better read speeds.

And these are readings from an Agfaphoto 16GB USB 3.0 stick. I get pretty much the same regardless of which of my USB 3.0 sticks I try.

 

[DigiH]

Any cables involved, or just the adapter?

Particularly for

Teamgroup MP44 256GB NVME in a Satechi enclosure connected with a USB C-USB-A adapter (USB 3.1).

it's just that I got a new small NVMe enclosure the other day, capable of 10Gbits/s, but I had to go through several USB-C cables to get its full speedo, while all the other USB-C cables gave me pretty much the same measly 42ish as in your screenshot above

 

[pullman]

Thank you very much for the reply. Yes that one is connected with the cable that came with the Satechi enclosure. This is how it looks:

Any cables involved, or just the adapter?

Particularly for

Teamgroup MP44 256GB NVME in a Satechi enclosure connected with a USB C-USB-A adapter (USB 3.1).

it's just that I got a new small NVMe enclosure the other day, capable of 10Gbits/s, but I had to go through several USB-C cables to get it full speedo, while all the other USB-C cables gave me ptreey much the same measly 42ish as in your screenshot above

 

[DigiH]

And at which USB-A port do you connect it to with the adapter, USB2 or USB3, have a look in System information > USB once connected. It looks as if it's a USB2 port, or a mistakenly wrong included USB-C cable - though pretty unlikely.

Do you know the spec of the adapter?

 

[DigiH]

Just looked at your drive's specs on their page, and it states

System Requirements: Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 3, USB4, or USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C ports required for optimal use​

So possibly as I suspected, an issue with a lower spec USB-A port, adapter, or the cable - anything under USB 3.2 Gen2 in the chain

 

[DigiH]

Which Mac are you hooking it up to?

 

[pullman]

Yes it's definitely going to perform much better with all the requirements you mentioned, I fully agree. But the PCI card I use, though old, is meant to be USB 3.0 with theoretical speed of 5 Gbps. I had just expected to see speeds more resembling those of an ordinary USB 3.0 stick.

This is from Sys Info – PCI. The highlighted line is the USB bus on the PCI card (the line above is the controller for the eSATA ports). The link speed looks normal at 5 GT/s.

And this is Sys Info – USB:

And at which USB-A port do you connect it to with the adapter, USB2 or USB3, have a look in System information > USB once connected. It looks as if it's a USB2 port, or a mistakenly wrong included USB-C cable - though pretty unlikely.

Do you know the spec of the adapter?

 

[pullman]

A Mac Pro 2008 3,1

Which Mac are you hooking it up to?

 

[DigiH]

A Mac Pro 2008 3,1

Which has the following connections according to MacTracker:
Looking like the main bottle neck being the Mac Pro USB ports to me.

 

[pullman]

Thank you, yes that is correct. But as the drive is connected to a PCI card with USB 3.0 ports I had expected higher numbers.

Which has the following connections according to MacTracker:
Looking like the main bottle neck being the Mac Pro USB ports to me.

 

[DigiH]

Or if you are using it with the PCIe card which is 3.0, how many pins does the adapter have where you look into its opening?

One row of 4 only, or one row of 4 plus another row behind/in front with 5, and which colour?

Check to see if it then might be the adapter being the USB 2 bottle neck, just briefly found this which should visualise it for you

How to Check If USB Port Is 2.0 or 3.0

This post shows you several simple and effective ways you can quickly tell or check if the USB port of a computer, USB cable or flash drive is 2.0 or 3.0.

www.isumsoft.com

 

[DigiH]

So with your PCIe card being USB 3.0, the included cable from the enclosure and an adapter also being USB 3 you should see more like 420 MB/s, about ten times as much as you're seeing now, with the likely culprit the adapter being USB 2!?!

Just re-read your adapter being (USB 3.1) - hmm, very strange then. In that case I'd really try another USB-C cable, cause a gut I watched on YouTube the other week had exactly the same problem with one of the enclosures he was testing, and fine transfer speeds when taking a different USB-C cable …

 

[brofkand]

Obviously the culprit is the cheap junk adapter you’re using. Give me a break.

 

[DigiH]

LOL and it was also with a Satechi one I just looked it up again. Best if you watch it yourself

Suffice to say he even made two entries into his final conclusion chart for the Satechi enclosure, one with their supplied cable, one with his own cable.

 

[DigiH]

Obviously the culprit is the cheap junk adapter you’re using. Give me a break.

Or more likely the crappy cable they seem to like to include with some of their enclosures.

 

[pullman]

So this is how the adapter looks.

And this are the ports on the Caldigit card:

Or if you are using it with the PCIe card which is 3.0, how many pins does the adapter have where you look into its opening?

One row of 4 only, or one row of 4 plus another row behind/in front with 5, and which colour?

Check to see if it then might be the adapter being the USB 2 bottle neck, just briefly found this which should visualise it for you

How to Check If USB Port Is 2.0 or 3.0

This post shows you several simple and effective ways you can quickly tell or check if the USB port of a computer, USB cable or flash drive is 2.0 or 3.0.

www.isumsoft.com

 

[brofkand]

Or more likely the crappy cable they seem to like to include with some of their enclosures.

Possibly but impossible for OP to verify without a USB-C equipped machine.

 

[pullman]

Well I'm not using that enclosure. But maybe the included cable is not great.

LOL and it was also with a Satechi one I just looked it up again. Best if you watch it yourself

Suffice to say he even made two entries into his final conclusion chart for the Satechi enclosure, one with their supplied cable, one with his own cable.

 

[DigiH]

Well I'm not using that enclosure.

I'm well aware of that, just don't rule it out if they make a mess with such an expensive TB4 enclosure by including a crippling cable, that it could very well be a similar case with your slower USB 3.2 enclosure.

 

[pullman]

Yes I agree, that could well be the reason.

What about the mismatch in pins though?

I'm well aware of that, just don't rule it out if they make a mess with such an expensive TB4 enclosure by including a crippling cable, that it could very well be a similar case with your slower USB 3.2 enclosure.

 

[DigiH]

Possibly but impossible for OP to verify without a USB-C equipped machine.

Should be quite possible if he has another good USB-C to USB-C cable

 

[DigiH]

What about the mismatch in pins though?

You card only having four, do I see that correctly?

Or do the front 5 notches have contacts - can't really make it out here.

 

[Mactech20]

Are you using it in slot 2?

1 & 2 have PCIE 2.0 x16 on the 2008 Mac Pro. 3 & 4 only have PCEI 1.1 X4. Technically 1.1 should be fast enough but its worth switching to see.

 

[Der Keyser]

Greetings and salutations

I have a Caldigit Fasta PCIe card (the 6GU3) in my cMP3,1 (in one of the two top (slower) PCI slots). The card has two USB 3.0 ports and two eSATA ports and I'm wondering about some readings I get in AmorphousDiskMark with various USB sticks and drives.

Here are readings from a Teamgroup MP44 256GB NVME in a Satechi enclosure connected with a USB C-USB-A adapter (USB 3.1). Don't they look rather low? It might be the adapter, which is a Delock I found on Amazon. But I would have expected better read speeds.

View attachment 2460350

And these are readings from an Agfaphoto 16GB USB 3.0 stick. I get pretty much the same regardless of which of my USB 3.0 sticks I try.

View attachment 2460351

Your external enclosure is running at USB 2 speeds (480Mbps or about 50MB/s).
I’ll wager a case of beers that the USB-C to USB-A adapter is causing the issue. The included USB-C cable from satechi is good enough if plugged into a USB-C port. But add an adaptor, and noise destroys any chance of 5Gbps USB3 speeds. Go purchase yourself a decent USB-C to USB-A USB3.1 Gen2 Cable and you will see the full 5Gbps without issue

 

[ThailandToo]

I have had the same problem with some Satechi (not same model). Their stuff looks great on paper and some peripherals are nice but I don’t trust them with anything related to docks or enclosure speeds. As I had a few problems. It wasn’t the cable in my experience.