Why is my Samsung 9100 PRO loading League of Legends so slowly?
Seeing my read speeds capped at 3500MB/s was an insult to a PCIe 5.0 drive. The Samsung 9100 PRO is rated for 12GB/s, but my motherboard had it trapped in a PCIe 3.0 compatibility mode by default. I tried forcing the bus properties in Device Manager, which just gave me a series of BSODs—a frustrating but enlightening experience. I finally flashed the latest BIOS and manually switched the M.2 slot from 'Auto' to 'Gen5' in the advanced storage settings. Sequential reads immediately shot up to 11000-12000MB/s, and my game load time dropped from 15 seconds to a mere 3. I did notice the drive spiked to 85℃ during the first few full-load bursts, but adding the OEM heatsink brought that down to 60-68℃. Voltage ripples are now within 5.0-7.2V with response latency hitting 15-20ns. The system info panel confirms the bandwidth is fully unlocked, and idle temps are sitting at 42-48℃.
