Samsung 840 EVO 120GB low random read (IOPS)

Did you try other benchmarks?

What motherboard do you have, and what SATA3 port is the SSD connected to? SATA3 ports with a third-party controller (often from Asmedia) can seriously hinder performance... though normally that would be most evident in the sequential performance.

All the SATA ports on that motherboard are native, so that's not an issue.

Did you use Magician to set maximum performance?

I am also having a similar problem. I have the 250gb Samsung 840 not 'Pro' or 'Evo' just the 840. Specs are, 540 read and 250 write, 96000 IOPS read and 62000 IOPS write. I am getting better than 540/250 sequential read/write access, but very poor IOPS performance.

I was getting terrible (1/4 to 1/2 of spec) IOPS from read and write until I followed a guide to optimize SSD performance. The results are that I am still not hitting at, or near 96000 IOPS-read as advertised by the Magician Software. But I did get a good increase in read IOPS but can't do better than 65k-68000 read still, where as before the optimization routine I was getting half or less of the advertised IOPS for read and write. The write IOPS after optimization shot right up to spec just over or under 62000. But no matter what I try or suggestions I employ, I still can not get my read IOPS near 96000. Here is the page I used and completed all recommended 'fixes'. This was posted in another thread on tomshardware about a similar problem with another Samsung 8xx series SSD. http://www.computing.net/howtos/show/solid-state-drive-ssd-tweaks-for-windows-7/552.html

After using that guide my SSD is performing a lot better, but still not as it should. on another note; I ran "AS SSD BENCHMARK" software and it reported a max of 78000 IOPS read where as Samsung's Magician software will only report a max of 68000 at best. And last to note, every time I run the benchmark in Magician the readings swing wildly sometimes bad and sometimes good. This low Read/Write IOPS problem is all over the forums recently for the Samsung 8xx series drives. I'm going to try the add on Sata3 controller on my board because I currently have the SSD running on the Intel's Chipset Sata3 controller, but my motherboard has a Marvell Sata3 controller added on with 4 extra sata3 ports. I'll try one of those and see if it makes any difference and post back.

I hope some guru can figure this out, I've also heard many people calling Samsung, going through all the hoops, and leave the Samsung Tech's scratching their head as well. What's going on Samsung?!

Please anyone who may know, please give us poor Samsung 8xx series owners a solution so we can enjoy these SSD's at their full potential. I will say though, still beats the heck out of my Hitachi Deskstar 750GB Sata2 drive.

Lastly, I'm running these benchmarks on a fresh install of Win7 x64 Ultimate SP1. All drivers for Chipset, Motherboard, Soundcard, and Video Cards. That's it, nothing else to bung up the results.

My System: Just in case
Windows 7 x64 Ultimate SP1 (automatic update)
EVGA DARK X79 Socket 2011 Motherboard
EVGA G3 1300 watt PS
Intel 4930k Ivy-Bridge 6-Core 3.4ghz @ 4.0ghz on stock volts
G.Skill Trident-X 2400mhz @ 2400mhz 4x4Gb Quad Channel CAS 9-11-11-31 @ 1.66 volts
Corsair H100i 240mm Water Cooler (Corsair Link Software is still very glitchy)
Corsair 600T Silver Mid Tower Case
Creative xfi Fatality Titanium Pro Sound Card
2X EVGA GTX 285 2GB Edition in SLI (Old yes but I'm waiting for Q1 2014 for the Nvidia 800 Series before upgrading)
1X EVGA GTX 260 896mb core-216 running dedicated physX
Samsung 840 250GB SSD
Hitachi Deskstar 750GB Sata2 HDD
Seagate 2TB External USB 3.0 HDD

The native SATA3 ports are much better than the Marvell-controlled ones.

As for the lower IOPS, do keep in mind that these are maximums. You cannot count on always getting exactly 94000 when the spec says "up to 94000". 78000 IMO seems close enough not to indicate any problem.