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Samsung T7 2TB slow R/W speeds

I

icemantx

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
547
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I recently bought a Samsung T7 2TB and I am experiencing slower than expected speeds on my Late 2014 iMac 27” via USB 3 and also on the other computers the family has using USB-C which are: M1 MacBook Air, M2 MacBook Air, M1 iMac.

So my iMac is not the problem - same on all Macs with including the new ones which have Mac OS 13.2 installed.

The T7 has 850GB of space used and was formatted to APFS.

The speeds I am seeing are roughly 400-500 Read and 100-300 Write using Black Magic on all 4 computers.

I am using the supplied cables and have tried different USB ports on all Macs.

Thoughts?
 
I can’t run Blackmagic benchmarks on my 2TB T7 Shield as it’s encrypted for Time Machine (app refuses), but my general feeling is that it’s significantly faster than that.
 
xraydoc said:
I can’t run Blackmagic benchmarks on my 2TB T7 Shield as it’s encrypted for Time Machine (app refuses), but my general feeling is that it’s significantly faster than that.
Click to expand...
I have read that the shield version has much better consistent speeds than the regular T7 that I have…
 
Having a similar problem with 2 brand new T7 shield SSDs here, both 4 TB. Write speeds are about 750 MB/s, read 270 MB/s, no matter which cable I use. My SanDisk Extreme 4 TB (NOT the pro version!) gets close to 1000 MB/s r & w. What's going on here?!
 
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That is very strange. I have three 2tb Samsung T7's and one 2tb T7 Shield, use them all on my 2018 (Intel) Mini. No problems with any of them, got the oldest ones in 2020. Never saw anything like this myself and I use them very heavily. Perhaps a defective product or something odd about your computers?


samsung-t7-2tb.png


Samsung-t7-shield.png
 
Just tried my t7 shield 1tb using a USBc connection to my 2018 Mini.
Got around 913MBps for both reads and writes...
 
icemantx said:
I recently bought a Samsung T7 2TB and I am experiencing slower than expected speeds on my Late 2014 iMac 27” via USB 3 and also on the other computers the family has using USB-C which are: M1 MacBook Air, M2 MacBook Air, M1 iMac.

So my iMac is not the problem - same on all Macs with including the new ones which have Mac OS 13.2 installed.

The T7 has 850GB of space used and was formatted to APFS.

The speeds I am seeing are roughly 400-500 Read and 100-300 Write using Black Magic on all 4 computers.

I am using the supplied cables and have tried different USB ports on all Macs.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Jumping on this hope you don't mind as im looking to buy the same. I keep on seeing some saying Gen.2 and others not. Is there a difference, or am I going to get a not so good product if its not Gen.2 - Dont know if you saw the same?
 
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I was going to add something to this, albeit a bit tardy.

I have three Samsung 2TB T7's. They have worked very well for me. I have windows on one that I use with my 2017 iMac and the other is an extra storage disk (APFS). The third I use as a backup (cloned) for windows.

Two of the drives have good consistent R/W speeds-they're fast. The third has irregular speeds, and is much slower. I've tried everything I can think of to fix this; reformatting, updating the firmware, changing cables, changing ports-nothing helps.

I ran the diagnostics with the Samsung software and it says the drive is fine. I have no idea what's wrong with it.
 
Viking1983 said:
I was going to add something to this, albeit a bit tardy.

I have three Samsung 2TB T7's. They have worked very well for me. I have windows on one that I use with my 2017 iMac and the other is an extra storage disk (APFS). The third I use as a backup (cloned) for windows.

Two of the drives have good consistent R/W speeds-they're fast. The third has irregular speeds, and is much slower. I've tried everything I can think of to fix this; reformatting, updating the firmware, changing cables, changing ports-nothing helps.

I ran the diagnostics with the Samsung software and it says the drive is fine. I have no idea what's wrong with it.
Click to expand...
Now that's an interesting find. Any chance this could be related to different file systems? Could it be that the 3rd drive is a counterfeit product?

Let's hope Sonoma fixes the speed problems, maybe someone here is brave enough to give the developer beta a try...
 
That's an interesting question (is it counterfeit?). I looked it up in my records and it's the only drive I bought on ebay. The rest I got from local retailers. Hmmm, makes you wonder!
 
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Viking1983 said:
That's an interesting question (is it counterfeit?). I looked it up in my records and it's the only drive I bought on ebay. The rest I got from local retailers. Hmmm, makes you wonder!
Click to expand...
I find it highly unlikely that it was a "counterfeit" T7.... like really have there been any reports of such? They seem not expensive enough to reproduce but as always know where you buy your stuff from. If something seems to good to be true it pretty much always is.

If anything it could simply be lemon so return and get your money back or a replacement...
 
AFAIK, you cannot enable TRIM on a USB SSD. Anyway, I don't think that's the issue since I don't have any speed issues. If you are only getting 37MB/sec then IMO, it must be a defective drive or possibly an issue with the port on the Mac.
 
Boyd01 said:
AFAIK, you cannot enable TRIM on a USB SSD
Click to expand...
A very long discussion on this site appeared to conclude that modern macOS does support TRIM via UASP. Unfortunately it's not as easy as it used to be to verify.

But yes, I agree that the person seeing only 37MB/sec should definitely look for other causes. The System Report should at least show whether it's using USB 3 and not 2.
 
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Same issue, T7 Shield 4TB:

Screenshot 2023-07-19 at 5.33.35 PM.png


T7 (non shield) 500gb:

Screenshot 2023-07-19 at 5.36.52 PM.png



Got the 4TB on prime day sale, but guess have to return it, very disappointing old gen is faster. Have a 16 MBP M1 Max. Tried different format, different cables, etc.


Update: If I leave the shield plugged in for 20 min before doing the speed test, the speed improves to 860 MB/s write, 680 MB/s read. If I disconnect it and connect again, speeds are slow like before. So not a solution unless you leave it plugged in... wonder if it's a bug.


Update 2: I used Samsung Magician on my PC to update the firmware and now I'm getting ~850/700 MB/s on Mac and ~980/800 MB/s on PC. As far as I know this is the only way to update the firmware, so if you don't have a PC you're out of luck. Interestingly APFS (Encrypted) is faster for me than APFS.
 
Last edited:
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Bought a T7 Shield on Aliexpress on July 7 and received it yesterday. It's formatted in APFS (GUID) and connected through its original C to C cable in my 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro.

T7 SHIELD (4TB):

Samsung PSSD T7 Shield : Apple M1 Max.png
DiskSpeedTest.png




My previous SSD, A Crucial P2 NVME (2Tb) inside an ORICO M2PAC3-G20 enclosure (also USB 3.2 Gen 2). Same formatting.

CRUCIAL P2 (2TB)/ORICO ENCLOSURE:

ASMT ASM236X NVME : Apple M1 Max.png
DiskSpeedTest2.png


---

Should've stayed with the Frankensteins enclosures NVMEs. Though losing the "ruggedness", would've saved some money + have the ability to insert it into a PC.
 
Renan C. said:
Bought a T7 Shield on Aliexpress on July 7 and received it yesterday. It's formatted in APFS (GUID) and connected through its original C to C cable in my 16" M1 Max MacBook Pro.

T7 SHIELD (4TB):

View attachment 2236105View attachment 2236106



My previous SSD, A Crucial P2 NVME (2Tb) inside an ORICO M2PAC3-G20 enclosure (also USB 3.2 Gen 2). Same formatting.

CRUCIAL P2 (2TB)/ORICO ENCLOSURE:

View attachment 2236107View attachment 2236108

---

Should've stayed with the Frankensteins enclosures NVMEs. Though losing the "ruggedness", would've saved some money + have the ability to insert it into a PC.
Click to expand...
Try APFS (Encrypted), it is faster for me than APFS.
 
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