Samsung is unleashing its next-generation internal storage today with the new 990 PRO SSD lineup. Described as the company’s latest high-performance NVMe SSD, it is based on the PCIe 4.0 architecture with “lightning-fast speeds and superior power efficiency” as a follow-up to the 980 PRO heat sink edition – be sure to check out our tutorial review for installing one in your PlayStation 5. Clocking in with even faster transfer rate speeds than its predecessor alongside options with and without the heat sink, you can get a closer look at the new Samsung 990 PRO SSD lineup below.
New Samsung 990 PRO SSDs on the way
While it might not be the PCIe 5.0 upgrade you were hoping for, the new Samsung 990 PRO SSD lineup features the brand’s latest V-NAND tech as well as an updated proprietary controller to deliver “nearly the highest speed currently available from the PCIe 4.0 interface.”
It clocks in with sequential read and write speeds of up to 7,450MB/s and 6,900 MB/s, respectively. (The 980 Pro delivers up to 7,000 MB/s read speeds for comparison.) From there, you’ll find random read and write speeds coming in at up to 1,400K and 1,550K IOPS, a “55% improvement in random performance over the 980 PRO.”
Samsung Electronics America announced the 990 PRO, the company’s high-performance NVMe SSD, delivering lightning-fast speeds and superior power efficiency. The new SSD is optimized for graphically demanding games and other intensive tasks including 3D rendering, 4K video editing, and data analysis.
While not particularly universal data for all battle stations, Samsung said that when “tested with Forspoken, Luminous Productions’ forthcoming action role-playing game supporting the latest game-loading technology, the map loading time was about one second, compared to four seconds for a SATA SSD and 28 seconds for a hard disk drive (HDD).”
The Samsung 990 PRO SSD features a nickel coating on the controller and a heat spreader label on the drive for thermal management as well as Samsung’s Dynamic Thermal Guard technology. But the heat-sink-equipped variant adds “an additional layer of thermal control” alongside new RGB lighting. (Details on the lighting specs here are thin as far as the official press release.)
You’re looking at $179 for the 1TB model and $309 for the 2TB when they launch in October – sign up to be the first to land one on this page – while the 4TB variant isn’t expected to launch until 2023.
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