Samsung 990 PRO SSD for gaming and creative applications

Samsung introduces a powerful PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD with the 990 PRO. This new SSD, from which you will read the review in November, is very fast, energy-efficient and optimized for graphically demanding games and other intensive tasks, such as 3D rendering, 4K video editing and data analysis.

Speeds and Performance
Using Samsung’s latest V-NAND and a new in-house designed controller, the 990 PRO Series delivers the fastest speed currently available through the PCIe 4.0 interface[1]with sequential read and write speeds of up to 7,450 and 6,900 megabytes per second (MB/s), respectively, and random read and write speeds of up to 1,400K and 1,550K IOPS, respectively[2]. The random performance is up to 55% better than that of the 980 PRO, making the 990 PRO ideal for intensive gaming and creative tasks.
With these powerful NVMe SSDs, according to Samsung, you should get the most out of the latest game consoles and gaming technologies, with faster loading times and smoother running games. When testing with Forspoken[3]the upcoming action role-playing game from Luminous Productions, the map loading time was about one second, compared to four seconds for a SATA SSD and 28 seconds for a hard drive (HDD).

Energy efficient and reliable thermal control
Samsung’s newly designed controller is built to be energy efficient, making the controller much more energy efficient. The SSD is up to 50% more efficient than the 980 PRO[4]. In addition, the 990 PRO uses a nickel coating on the controller and a heat-dissipating label on the drive for reliable thermal management. Samsung’s Dynamic Thermal Guard technology keeps the drive at optimum temperature.
The 990 PRO version with Heatsink not only offers an extra layer of thermal control, but also features stylish RGB lighting.

PCIe 5.0 vs PCIe 4.0 interface
There were rumors that the new Samsung 990 Pro SSDs would have the PCIe 5.0 interface that can transfer data at an average speed of 32 gigatransfers per second (32 GT/s). But the 990 Pro still has PCIe 4.0 (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express or an expansion bus for transferring data from an SSD to graphics cards), which still does so with an impressive average speed of 16 GT/s (giga transfers per second).

Price and availability
The 990 PRO SSD will be available from early October 2022 for the suggested retail price of €189.99 for the 1TB model and €359.99 for the 2TB model. The 4TB model will hit the market in 2023. For more information, including warranty details, visit samsung.com/SSD or semiconductor.samsung.com/internal-ssd/

​Samsung NVMe SSD 990 PRO Series Specifications

​[1] The highest theoretical sequential read speed of PCIe 4.0 is 8000 MB/s. The 990 PRO has reached 7450 MB/s since Q3 2022.

[2] Sequential and random performance measurements are based on IOmeter1.1.0. Performance may vary based on the firmware version, system hardware, and SSD configuration.

* Test System Configuration: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core Processor CPU@3.80GHz, DDR4 3600MHz 16GBx2 (PC4-25600 Overclock), Windows 10 Pro 64bit, ASRock-X570 Taichi

[3] FORSPOKEN © Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. FORSPOKEN, LUMINOUS PRODUCTIONS and the LUMINOUS PRODUCTIONS logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Square Enix Co., Ltd.

* Test System Configuration: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core Processor 3.70 GHz, AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB, DDR4-2666 (16GB x2), Windows 11 Pro 21H2

[4] The 980 PRO offers power efficiency of 1,129/877 MB per watt for sequential read/write and the 990 PRO 1,380/1,319 MB per watt for sequential read/write, based on internal testing results of the 1TB model.

[5] 1GB=1,000,000,000 bytes by IDEMA. A certain portion of the capacity can be used for system files and maintenance, which means that the actual capacity may differ from what is stated on the product label.

[6] Samsung Electronics shall not be liable for any loss, including but not limited to loss of data or other information on the Samsung Electronics product, or loss of profits or revenues that the user may incur. For warranty information, visit samsung.com/SSD or semiconductor.samsung.com/internal-ssd/.

[7] Five years or total bytes written (TBW), whichever comes first. For more information about the warranty, see the enclosed warranty document in the packaging.