Samsung Unveils High-Performance 990 PRO Series SSDs Optimized for Gaming and Creative Applications
Samsung Electronics America today announced the 990 PRO, the company’s high-performance NVMe SSD based on PCIe 4.0. 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.
“Consumers demand high-performance and high-capacity storage for PC and console games, 4K and 8K content, and other heavy data workloads” said Jose Hernandez, Senior Director of Memory Product Marketing at Samsung. “Using Samsung’s proprietary V-NAND and controller, the 990 PRO provides speed, power efficiency, and reliability for gaming sessions and creative outlets alike.”
Fast Performance for a Better Gameplay Experience
Featuring Samsung’s latest V-NAND and a new proprietary controller, the 990 PRO series offers nearly the highest speed currently available from the PCIe 4.0 interface1. The SSD delivers sequential read and write speeds of up to 7,450 megabytes per second (MB/s) and 6,900 MB/s, respectively. Its random read and write speeds come in at up to 1,400K and 1,550K IOPS2, respectively. With up to a 55% improvement in random performance over the 980 PRO, the 990 PRO is particularly well-suited for heavy gaming as well as creative and productivity tasks.
High-performance NVMe SSDs are also critical in reaping the full benefits of the latest game console and gaming technologies. Powered by NVMe, the 990 PRO brings faster loading times to PCs and consoles for a better gaming experience. When tested with Forspoken3, 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).
Ultimate Power Efficiency and Thermal Control
Built on a low-power architecture, Samsung’s newly designed controller dramatically improves the SSD’s power efficiency by up to 50% compared to the 980 PRO4. Additionally, the 990 PRO employs a nickel coating on the controller and a heat spreader label on the drive for reliable thermal management. Samsung’s Dynamic Thermal Guard technology further ensures that the drive’s temperature stays in the optimal range.
The 990 PRO with Heatsink version offers an additional layer of thermal control while its new RGB lights add more style to the drive. Samsung’s 990 PRO with Heatsink maximizes the cooling effect and prevents performance degradation due to overheating.
Samsung’s 990 PRO is an excellent solution for laptop and desktop upgrades as well as for build-your-own PCs, providing a significant performance boost while using less power for increased battery life and thermal management.
The 990 PRO and 990 PRO with Heatsink will be available starting this October with the manufacturer’s suggested retail prices (MSRP) of $179 for the 1TB model and $309 for the 2TB. A 4TB capacity version will become available in 2023. For more information, please visit Samsung.com.
Samsung NVMe SSD 990 PRO Series Specifications
| Category | Samsung SSD 990 PRO | 990 PRO with Heatsink |
|---|---|
| Interface | PCIe Gen 4.0 x4, NVMe 2.0 |
| Form Factor | M.2 (2280) |
| Storage Memory | Samsung V-NAND 3-bit TLC |
| Controller | Samsung in-house controller |
| Capacity[5] | 1TB 2TB 4TB |
| DRAM | 1GB LPDDR4 2GB LPDDR4 4GB LPDDR4 |
| Sequential Read/Write Speed | Up to 7,450 MB/s, Up to 6,900 MB/s |
| Random Read/Write Speed (QD32) | Up to 1,400K IOPS, Up to 1,550K IOPS |
| Management Software | Samsung Magician Software |
| Data Encryption | AES 256-bit Full Disk Encryption, TCG/Opal V2.0, Encrypted Drive (IEEE1667) |
| Total Bytes Written | 600TB 1200TB 2400TB |
| Warranty[6] | Five-year Limited Warranty[7] |
1 PCIe 4.0’s highest theoretical sequential read speed is 8000 MB/s — 990 PRO reaches 7,450 MB/s as of Q3 2022.
2 Sequential and random performance measurements are based on IOmeter1.1.0. Performance may vary based on SSD’s firmware version, system hardware & 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
4 980 PRO provides power efficiency of 1,129/877 MB per watt for sequential read/write while 990 PRO’s is 1,380/1,319 MB per watt for sequential read/write, based on internal test results of the 1TB capacity model.
5 1GB=1,000,000,000 bytes by IDEMA. A certain portion of capacity may be used for system file and maintenance, so the actual capacity may differ from what is indicated 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 contained on Samsung Electronics product or loss of profit or revenue which may be incurred by user. For more information on the warranty, please visit samsung.com/SSD or semiconductor.samsung.com/internal-ssd/.
7 Five years or total bytes written (TBW), whichever comes first. For more information on the warranty, please refer to the enclosed warranty document in the package.
