If Samsung’s 990 PRO, its most recent NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD, can come close to meeting its stated specifications in real-world testing, it will provide gamers, 3D renderers, and 4K/8K video editors with a respectable price-to-performance ratio.
The 990 PRO is marketed as having a 55 percent boost in random performance over the 980 Pro and “nearly the highest speed currently available from the new PCIe 4.0 interface.” According to Samsung, sequential read and write rates are 7,450 and 6,900 megabytes per second (MB/s), respectively. Based on the performance of IOmeter 1.1.0, random read/write speeds are indicated as 1,400K and 1,550K IOPS, respectively. DRAM for the 990 PRO discs is 1 GB per terabyte of storage, with the 4 GB model having the most DRAM available.
Samsung says that its own V-NAND and proprietary controller improvements are to blame for the performance increase. According to the manufacturer, power efficiency is up to 50% better than the 980 PRO, and heat is dissipated by a nickel coating and heat-spreading label. The heatsink model, which naturally includes RGB lights, gives you greater temperature assurance.
Three-bit TLC (triple-level cell) NAND storage is used in the 990 PRO range. As mentioned in our review of Samsung’s 980 range, this density and speed come at the expense of some read and write durability. For its most recent drives, Samsung didn’t offer cache data, which may have an impact on when buffer is filled up and write rates “fall off a cliff.”
The MSRP for the 990 PRO and PRO with Heatsink drives is $179 for 1TB and $309 for 2TB, and they will be available in October (presumably for the non-heatsink versions). In 2023, a 4TB model ought to be accessible. All models have a five-year limited guarantee and are M.2 2280 sized. For updates on ordering the 990 PRO, you can register on Samsung’s website.