NVMe SSD Storage Performance: Intel Z370 vs. AMD X470

[Julio Franco]

Today we're looking at high speed storage performance by comparing AMD and Intel mainstream desktop chipsets with ADATA's latest and greatest XPG SX8200 960GB SSD, one of today's favorites drives among enthusiasts, perfect for comparing the storage performance of AMD's X470 and Intel's Z370 chipsets.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/review/1646-storage-performance-intel-z370-vs-amd-x470/

 

[Puiu]

Can you please try and see what the variation between different motherboards with the same chipset is? It would help a lot to identify which OEM has the best results (if there really is a big enough difference between them)

 

[hahahanoobs]

Can you please try and see what the variation between different motherboards with the same chipset is? It would help a lot to identify which OEM has the best results (if there really is a big enough difference between them)

A 470 chipset on board A will be the same on board B. Mobo manufacturers don't mess with it, because there is nothing they can do to it.

 

[MonsterZero]

From what I understand there is almost no performance gain from an NVMe Raid.

 

[Capaill]

"Making this job a little easier are motherboard makers who do specify the bandwidth for M.2 slots, so make sure you consult the manual to make sure your getting all the GB's you should be."
I've read this sentence 5 times and still can't figure it out. Are the motherboard makers making it easier (hello Yoda) or do you have to consult the manual to see if they made it easier? Also *you're

 

[Puiu]

A 470 chipset on board A will be the same on board B. Mobo manufacturers don't mess with it, because there is nothing they can do to it.

The chipset may be the same, but the implementation, the bios and drivers can affect performance.

 

[seeprime]

From what I understand there is almost no performance gain from an NVMe Raid.

Data transfer rate for RAID NVMe will be measurably faster than a single NVMe drive. it won't be noticeable, however, unless you're processing databases or doing video transcoding on multiple streams.

 

[HardReset]

Couple of errors in article:

Even on newer AMD X470 motherboards, the X470 chipset only offers PCIe 2.0 lanes, so it suffers the same bandwidth limitations as that of the Intel H310 chipset. The Asrock X470 Taichi used for testing features two M.2 slots, the top slot which is referred to as M2 1 is connected directly to the CPU and therefore enjoys a PCIe 3.0 x4 link. The second slot called M2 2 is connected to the chipset and is therefore limited to PCIe 2.0 x4 bandwidth.

It does not. Chipset-CPU link is PCIe 3.0 x4 on X470 chipset. Second slot is connected to PCIe 2.0 lanes chipset provides and that's the reason it's only PCIe 2.0 x4. It's possible to make X470 motherboard with two PCIe x4 NVME connectors but so far no manufacturer has decided to do motherboard like that. Or at least when I last time checked there was none.

 

[Krishna V]

Couple of errors in article:

Even on newer AMD X470 motherboards, the X470 chipset only offers PCIe 2.0 lanes, so it suffers the same bandwidth limitations as that of the Intel H310 chipset. The Asrock X470 Taichi used for testing features two M.2 slots, the top slot which is referred to as M2 1 is connected directly to the CPU and therefore enjoys a PCIe 3.0 x4 link. The second slot called M2 2 is connected to the chipset and is therefore limited to PCIe 2.0 x4 bandwidth.

It does not. Chipset-CPU link is PCIe 3.0 x4 on X470 chipset. Second slot is connected to PCIe 2.0 lanes chipset provides and that's the reason it's only PCIe 2.0 x4. It's possible to make X470 motherboard with two PCIe x4 NVME connectors but so far no manufacturer has decided to do motherboard like that. Or at least when I last time checked there was none.

Its not the manufacturers that decide whether it is PCI-E 2.0x4 or 3.0. It is the base chipset itself. OEMs control other features. X470 chipset is made on 55nm whereas Z370 is on 22nm, and H370 is on 14nm. That at least tells us that Intel's boards are denser than X470 and that's why may be x470 does not have/cannot have support for PCI 3.0x4 for M.2 via chipset.

Same OEMs are making Z370 and X470. It doesn't make any sense for them to castrate one and AMD not talking about it if they do. Even the higher Crosshair had to castrate the PCI-E x16 slot to get more lanes to M.2. THat itself shows that its not in hands of OEM.

 

[Krishna V]

A 470 chipset on board A will be the same on board B. Mobo manufacturers don't mess with it, because there is nothing they can do to it.

The chipset may be the same, but the implementation, the bios and drivers can affect performance.

Implementation is only about - how to share the lanes. They cannot change the limitations of base X470 chipset itself. For example, Crosshair hero was made such that PCI-E 3.0 X16 (primary) slot shares lanes with secondary M.2 slot - to make the second M.2 a PCI3.0x4 slot.

X470 is on 55nm whereas Z370 is on 22nm.X470 itself does not support PCI-E3.0x4 connections (at least for M.2) via chipset. OEMs cannot change that underlying limitation. Their only option - as done by Asus Crosshair - is to steal from GPU lanes.

 

[HardReset]

Implementation is only about - how to share the lanes. They cannot change the limitations of base X470 chipset itself. For example, Crosshair hero was made such that PCI-E 3.0 X16 (primary) slot shares lanes with secondary M.2 slot - to make the second M.2 a PCI3.0x4 slot.

X470 is on 55nm whereas Z370 is on 22nm.X470 itself does not support PCI-E3.0x4 connections (at least for M.2) via chipset. OEMs cannot change that underlying limitation. Their only option - as done by Asus Crosshair - is to steal from GPU lanes.

Wrong. Manufacturers can make PCI Express 3.0 x4 from chipset without sharing any lanes. It's all about sacrificing extra SATA ports or not.

Chipsets are usually made with larger nm than CPU's or other parts because power consumption is small anyway. That has nothing to do with chipset features. Again, x470 supports PCI Express 3.0 x4 lane directry from chipset and that can be used for M.2. Main problem is that then only 4 SATA ports are available from chipset and additionally only 8*PCI Express 2.0 lanes are available for other purposes.

That is because both Ryzen CPU AND x470 chipset has two SATA Express connections https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA_Express

Almost exclusively on x470 boards CPU SATA Express is used for NVME x4. Nothing prohibts using chipset SATA Express connections for NVME x4, but most manufacturers use at least one SATA Express to get two additional SATA ports. Some use other SATA Express ot get another for 2*PCI Express 3.0 for peripherals and some manufacturers decide to get 2 additional SATA ports (8 total).

So NVME X4 from x470 chipset is possible.

 

[chosebine]

Thanks by the way for the test. Useful for me.

Here the specs link of the manufacturer of x470:

https://www.amd.com/fr/products/chipsets-am4

Those specs are the capabilities of x470 chipset. so, to persist in knowing if the chipset is pcie 2.0 or pcie 3.0, nothing better to check the information. Certain one supposed that the smoothness of engraving was the cause of the "slowness" of the x470. I have serious doubts that this is the cause of the speed differences.

I think rather that it is the chosen architecture of each of the manufacturers.
the x470 seems to function as a quick switch and it reserves only part of its bandwidth for each of the technologies (USB, SATA, PCIE). Each has its turn of bandwidth.

whereas the z370 seems to grant a direct link through the DMI link. This explains why the Intel motherboard has shares between SATA and M.2.

The z370 operates as a fixed turnout. Whereas the x470 works like a spinning top by scanning each of the I / O and sending them back to the CPU. At the cost of lower bandwidth but no shared line handicap.

which explains the reason why there is at least 1xm.2 connected directly to an AMD microprocessor. While at Intel, due to the technological choice, it has little importance to put all m2 on the chipset.

These differences have little impact for the user(considering you put your I/O dilligently) but require more consideration when dedicating a machine for virtualization and servers.

 

[HardReset]

Thanks by the way for the test. Useful for me.

Here the specs link of the manufacturer of x470:

https://www.amd.com/fr/products/chipsets-am4

Those specs are the capabilities of x470 chipset. so, to persist in knowing if the chipset is pcie 2.0 or pcie 3.0, nothing better to check the information. Certain one supposed that the smoothness of engraving was the cause of the "slowness" of the x470. I have serious doubts that this is the cause of the speed differences.

I think rather that it is the chosen architecture of each of the manufacturers.
the x470 seems to function as a quick switch and it reserves only part of its bandwidth for each of the technologies (USB, SATA, PCIE). Each has its turn of bandwidth.

whereas the z370 seems to grant a direct link through the DMI link. This explains why the Intel motherboard has shares between SATA and M.2.

The z370 operates as a fixed turnout. Whereas the x470 works like a spinning top by scanning each of the I / O and sending them back to the CPU. At the cost of lower bandwidth but no shared line handicap.

which explains the reason why there is at least 1xm.2 connected directly to an AMD microprocessor. While at Intel, due to the technological choice, it has little importance to put all m2 on the chipset.

These differences have little impact for the user(considering you put your I/O dilligently) but require more consideration when dedicating a machine for virtualization and servers.

Let's just say Intel wanted to create more space between HEDT and desktop. That is, LGA1200 boards have NVMe attached on CPU even when chipset got double bandwidth to CPU. Less reason for CPU attached NVMe = Intel does it. Intel just doesn't care about customers until they really have to.

Outside that little thing, good information there

 

[termi21]

I don't think it's mentioned by anyone. I find it weird that Intel "chipset" result, is a bit faster than AMD's "directly to CPU" result. Is it an AMD disadvantage or something?

 

[HardReset]

I don't think it's mentioned by anyone. I find it weird that Intel "chipset" result, is a bit faster than AMD's "directly to CPU" result. Is it an AMD disadvantage or something?

Almost all results fit into margin of error. Also worth to note that Intel's results will drop heavily if there is other load than just NVMe. Using SATA, ethernet etc etc will heavily slow down Intel while AMD results should stay same. This test is good example of one that does Not reflect into IRL situation.

 

[Puiu]

I don't think it's mentioned by anyone. I find it weird that Intel "chipset" result, is a bit faster than AMD's "directly to CPU" result. Is it an AMD disadvantage or something?

I think the only downgrade is sata support which now runs only from the chipset since the CPUs don't have it natively.

But on the flipside you get a lot more PCIe lanes for NVMe drives. Top end motherboards should be able to offer 8 PCIe 5.0 lanes for storage from the CPU (28 in total from the CPU). This is a major advantage over the current offering from Intel.