The Samsung 990 Pro, one of the best SSDs, was launched last year in 1TB and 2TB flavors. Making good on its promise to release a 4TB version, Samsung has confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that the speedy PCIe 4.0 SSD will hit the market soon.
Samsung's position on PCIe 5.0 SSDs is a bit complex. While the company has some enterprise drives that leverage the PCIe 5.0 interface, it has yet to launch a consumer PCIe 5.0 SSD. The Samsung 990 Pro, an M.2 2280 drive, is still on the PCIe 4.0 interface and is currently the brand's fastest consumer drive. The company has followed up with a 4TB variant, doubling the Samsung 990 Pro's 2TB capacity. Samsung doesn't always offer the 4TB capacity with all its SSDs. For example, the Samsung 980 Pro, the predecessor to the Samsung 990 Pro, maxed out at 2TB.
You wanted it so badly, we had no choice but to deliver. The 4TB 990 PRO by #SamsungSSD is coming. Same blazing-fast storage with double the max capacity for gaming, video, 3D editing, and more. Stay tuned for more details. pic.twitter.com/B3iRso9Q3pAugust 24, 2023
The Samsung 990 Pro 4TB will arrive in a bare drive (MZ-V9P4T0BW) and heatsink (MZ-V9P4T0CW) versions. The SSD's form factor and design allow it to live inside many devices, including laptops, desktops, and consoles like the PlayStation 5. Therefore, the Samsung 990 Pro 4TB isn't just an SSD for PC consumers. It's a drive that PlayStation 5 owners can look forward to due to its ample capacity and blistering performance.
While the manufacturer hasn't listed the Samsung 990 Pro 4TB on its website, the drive is already mentioned in the product brochure. Similar to the other capacities, the new Samsung 990 Pro 4TB utilizes Samsung's in-house Pascal SSD controller, which features an Arm design. The company produces Pascal on the 8nm process node. As for the NAND, the drive employs the same Samsung 176-layer TLC NAND as the other drives. The difference is that the die sizes are larger to hit 4TB.
Samsung 990 Pro Specifications
| Model | Pricing | Capacity | Sequential Read (MB/s) | Sequential Write (MB/s) | Random Read (IOPS) | Random Write (IOPS) | Cache Memory (LPPDR4) | Endurance (TBW) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MZ-V9P4T0CW / MZ-V9P4T0BW | ? / ? | 4TB | 7,450 | 6,900 | 1,400,000 | 1,550,000 | 4GB | 2,400 |
| MZ-V9P2T0CW / MZ-V9P2T0BW | $149.99 / $169.99 | 2TB | 7,450 | 6,900 | 1,400,000 | 1,550,000 | 2GB | 1,200 |
| MZ-V9P1T0CW / MZ-V9P1T0BW | $84.99 / $89.99 | 1TB | 7,450 | 6,900 | 1,200,000 | 1,550,000 | 1GB | 600 |
The Samsung 990 Pro 4TB SSD's advertised performance mirrors that of the lower capacity 2TB version. The drive delivers sequential read and write speeds, hitting 7,450 MB/s and 6,900 MB/s, respectively. Meanwhile, the random performance is at 1,400,000 IOPS reads and 1,550,000 IOPS writes. The figures may look low compared to the PCIe 5.0 standard, but the Samsung 990 Pro can hang with some PCIe 5.0 drives on the market.
Besides the capacity, the difference between the 4TB and 2TB models is the size of the cache memory and the endurance. The Samsung 990 Pro 4TB has a 4GB LPDDR4 DRAM cache and a 2,400 TBW rating, twice that of the Samsung 990 Pro 2TB. As expected, Samsung backs the Samsung 990 Pro 4TB with a limited five-year warranty.
Pricing on the Samsung 990 Pro has improved significantly over the last few months. The 2TB bare drive had a $289.99 MSRP but retails for as low as $169.99 nowadays. The heatsink versions are typically more expensive than the bare drive models and have identical performance. The MSRP for the Samsung 990 Pro 4TB is unknown, but it shouldn't remain a mystery for long since Samsung has already started teasing the upcoming SSD.
