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How to improve SMB tranfer with Win11 Pro (compared to Win10)

Thierry TGMDev 0 Reputation points
2025-06-14T08:53:16.1533333+00:00

Why an old Win10 laptio outperforms a powerfull desktop Win11 pro ? What is the solution ????
[ 1 ] INITIAL SITUATION

  • Old Win10 laptop  (i7 processor, 8 years old)
  • Brand new Win11 PC (i9 14900K), powerful hardware (64 Gb), I226-V onboard NIC.
  • Connected to NAS via 1 Gbps network (verified physical link speed).

- File copy 2.5 GB = 10 min 30 sec (~4 MB/sec)

- Old Win10 Laptop: 2.5 GB = 1 min 15 sec (~72 MB/sec)

[ 2 ] FIRST PHASE: SMB TUNING ATTEMPTS

  • Tried multiple SMB tuning commands:

    * Disabled signing, compression, bandwidth throttling, caching

    * Modified DirectoryCacheLifetime, MaxCmds, MultiChannel

    * None produced meaningful performance improvement.

  • Modified SMB client dialect (SMB3/SMB2) — no major impact.
  • NAS side SMB parameters tested and restarted.

[ 3 ] SECOND PHASE: HARDWARE EXPERIMENTS

  • Replaced network cable
  • Changed Switch and swapped switch ports with the one used by the Win10 PC
  • Replaced onboard NIC (I226-V) with Intel I210-T1 PCIe NIC.
  • No significant improvement. File copy times remained ~10 min.

 [ 4 ] THIRD PHASE: DRIVER DISCOVERY

  • Discovered NIC driver dated 2020 still installed despite Win11.
  • Used PC HelpSoft Driver Updater tool to update NIC driver (from 2020 to 2024)
  • After driver update: file copy time improved dramatically to 3 min 30 sec (~23 MB/sec).
  • Conclusion: driver optimization produced 70% performance gain.

 [ 5 ] FOURTH PHASE: FINAL TUNING & EDGE CASE

  • After update, additional SMB client tuning produced no further measurable gains.
  • One-time performance peak observed (72 MB/sec) but unreproducible.
  • NAS fully capable of 72 MB/sec as proven on Win10 client.
Windows 10 Network
Windows 10 Network
Windows 10: A Microsoft operating system that runs on personal computers and tablets.Network: A group of devices that communicate either wirelessly or via a physical connection.
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  1. Joseph Tran 665 Reputation points
    2025-06-16T17:50:21.9533333+00:00

    Based on your information that you have provided, I have some recommend for you to check it out and after try it please let me know the result:

    • Keep the NIC driver up-to-date from the official Intel website, not Windows Update.
    • Disable SMB compression (if enabled):
    Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableCompression $false
    • Advanced NIC Tuning (Device Manager > NIC > Advanced tab):
      • Disable:
        • Interrupt Moderation
        • Energy Efficient Ethernet
      • Set the value :
        • Receive Buffers = 2048
        • Transmit Buffers = 2048
        • Jumbo Packets = 9014 (if supported by NAS & switch)
        • Flow Control = Rx & Tx Enabled
    • Disable Windows Auto-Tuning for TCP (if needed):
    netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
    • Test throughput using iPerf3 instead of file copy to isolate filesystem overhead:
      • On NAS or another PC:
        • iperf3 -s
      • On your Windows 11 Desktop
        • iperf3 -c <NAS_IP> -P 4
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