Samsung 990 Pro 2TB review: stupid fast

I won’t discarded your clip here. The Samsung 990 Pro is nan best SSD you tin bargain correct now. It’s crazy fast, peculiarly erstwhile it comes to ample record transfers, and contempt a comparatively precocious price, Samsung justifies nan costs pinch other features that fewer different brands spell retired of their measurement to fuss with.

The peculiar exemplary I’m looking astatine here, nan Samsung 990 Pro 2TB pinch heatsink, whitethorn not beryllium nan correct prime for everyone, though. Although it’s a very accelerated drive, nan other costs of nan heatsink and its slant toward expanding nan retention wrong nan PlayStation 5 doesn’t make sense, and you tin prevention immoderate money pinch a slower thrust while achieving akin levels of gaming performance.

Performance extracurricular of games is simply a different matter, however, which is wherever nan 990 Pro genuinely stands out. If you want to study much astir SSD capacity and really it varies betwixt applications, make judge to cheque retired our SSD buying guide.

Pricing and specs

Samsung has remained nan go-to marque for NVMe SSD for galore years, and it’s clear why. You’re getting adjacent to nan maximum bandwidth of a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface, pinch Samsung touting sequential publication speeds of up to 7,450MB/s. My testing backs up Samsung’s claims, making this 1 of nan fastest PCIe 4.0 SSDs you tin presently buy.

Unlike astir different SSDs connected nan market, Samsung is utilizing its ain in-house NAND and controller for nan 990 Pro, which mostly makes it little prone to hardware swaps aft launch. Other SSD brands that outsource NAND and controllers tin tally into proviso issues and switch retired components, sometimes astatine nan costs of advertised speed. Thankfully, that’s not nan lawsuit here. You’re besides getting mini magnitude of DDR4 arsenic a cache, speeding up nan capacity of nan drive.

Pricing is wherever things get interesting. This exemplary of nan 990 Pro is heavy targeted toward nan PS5 owed to having its ain heatsink. That spot of other metallic drives up nan price. At 2TB, you tin prevention $10 by going pinch nan 990 Pro exemplary without a heatsink. And if you spell up to 4TB, you’ll prevention $30. That’s compared to Samsung’s ain 990 Pro, too. If you shop for a thrust for illustration nan WD Black SN850X, you’ll get akin speeds for overmuch little money — sans nan heatsink.

Most modern motherboards person heatsinks for nan SSD drives, and successful fact, nan other heatsink size tin interfere pinch your different components. This is really a thrust built for different applications, specified arsenic nan PS5 Pro, aliases a mini PC pinch capable abstraction but nary heatsink, specified arsenic nan Minisforum AtomMan G7 Ti.

Software and features

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Samsung whitethorn person accelerated drives, but it besides has fantabulous guidance software. I wouldn’t blasted you for ignoring nan bundled package pinch astir SSDs, but Samsung Magician has a batch of options, and it’s worthy taking up a spot of abstraction to instal nan application.

You get immoderate high-level stats, specified arsenic thrust health, and you tin execute a benchmark and diagnostic to spot really your thrust is performing. More importantly, Samsung gives you a ton of options to tweak nan capacity of your drive. You tin move connected TRIM to fto deleted blocks aboveground again for writing, arsenic good arsenic forestall nan SSD from sleeping for maximum performance. Samsung besides has over-provisioning options to summation nan life span of nan drive.

Beyond performance, you person encryption options, information migration, and a due erase function. This will restructure each of nan information connected nan thrust truthful it can’t beryllium recovered pinch forensics.

Performance

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Setting nan scene, CrystalDiskMark shows that nan 990 Pro pinch heatsink really reaches a spot supra Samsung’s advertised speeds, some for sequential sounds and writes. We’re getting adjacent to maxing retired nan disposable bandwidth connected a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface, astatine slightest for sequential sounds and writes. That’s not what your thrust is going to beryllium doing astir of nan time, however.

Looking astatine existent applications provides immoderate important context, arsenic nan margins betwixt nan 990 Pro 2TB and a overmuch cheaper (and slower) thrust for illustration nan WD Blue SN5000 shrink considerably. In ample record transfers, which you tin spot successful my AJA Video Systems test, nan 990 Pro reigns supreme. There are immoderate insignificant differences betwixt nan 1TB and 2TB models I tested, but not a large capable quality to note.

In games, however, nan 990 Pro 2TB pinch heatsink really fell down nan pack. Both nan SN5000 and regular 990 Pro posted amended results successful 3DMark — which really loads games done nan benchmark — and Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail. The 2TB 990 Pro isn’t acold behind, and erstwhile we’re talking astir margins of half a second, you’ll ne'er announcement a meaningful quality successful performance. On paper, however, it’s a spot behind.

Should you bargain nan Samsung 990 Pro?

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If you’re looking for 1 of nan fastest SSDs connected nan marketplace for your PC, nan Samsung 990 Pro hits that people squarely. There’s nary uncertainty that nan Samsung 990 Pro is simply a accelerated SSD, but I’m not judge going pinch this circumstantial exemplary is nan correct telephone for nan PS5. There are a mates of important reasons why.

First, nan heatsink. There are only a fewer instances wherever an SSD calls for a heatsink, and moreover successful those cases, you astir apt won’t scope damaging temperatures without one. If you scheme connected putting nan 990 Pro wrong a PC, prevention yourself immoderate money and spell pinch nan heatsink-free model.

The bigger rumor is nan velocity for gaming. This thrust is heavy targeted toward nan PS5, which is simply a level that really can’t return advantage of nan other velocity connected offer. In games, moreover nan objectively slower SN5000 is putting up akin results, and you tin prime up that thrust for $120 — a cleanable $60 little than nan 990 Pro 2TB pinch heatsink.

The champion usage lawsuit for a thrust this accelerated isn’t gaming — astir PCIe 4.0 SSDs are plentifulness for gaming, pinch only insignificant differences successful loading speed. The 990 Pro really shines erstwhile it comes to ample record transfers, wherever its sustained velocity advantage really shows up clearly. In that context, nan 990 Pro is worthy spending up for.