Samsung launches 990 Evo Plus SSDs: 5nm controller and 45% speed boost

Samsung 990 Evo Plus
(Image credit: Samsung)

While the industry eagerly awaits Samsung's release of retail SSDs with a PCIe Gen5 interface (akin to the PM9E1 for PC makers), the company decided to refresh its lineup of PCIe Gen4 drives with the 990 Evo Plus family. The new lineup promises performance close to the legendary 990 Pro at a lower price. 

The 990 Evo Plus family will come in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB configurations and will feature sequential read/write performance of up to 7,250/6,300 MB/s and random read/write speeds of up to 1,050K/1,400K IOPS. From a performance point of view, the new SSDs are considerably faster than the original 990 Evo offerings (and offer a 4TB model that is absent from the 990 Evo lineup). However, they are still slower than the company's flagship 990 Pro drives. Nonetheless, we can still say that we are dealing with some of the best PCIe Gen4 SSDs around. 

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Product990 Evo Plus 1TB990 Evo Plus 2TB990 Evo Plus 4TB990 Evo 1TB990 Evo 2TB990 Pro 2TB/4TB
Form FactorM.2 2280 (Single-Sided)M.2 2280 (Single-Sided)M.2 2280 (Single-Sided)M.2 2280 (Single-Sided)M.2 2280 (Single-Sided)M.2 2280 (Single-Sided)
Interface / ProtocolPCIe 4.0 x4 or 5.0 x2 / NVMe 2.0PCIe 4.0 x4 or 5.0 x2 / NVMe 2.0PCIe 4.0 x4 or 5.0 x2 / NVMe 2.0PCIe 4.0 x4 or 5.0 x2 / NVMe 2.0PCIe 4.0 x4 or 5.0 x2 / NVMe 2.0PCIe 4.0 x4 / NVMe 2.0
Controller???Samsung PiccoloSamsung PiccoloSamsung Pascal
DRAMN/A (HMB)N/A (HMB)N/A (HMB)N/A (HMB)N/A (HMB)LPDDR4
Flash Memory236-layers 8th Gen V-NAND236-layers 8th Gen V-NAND236-layers 8th Gen V-NAND133-Layer TLC (V6P)133-Layer TLC (V6P)176-layer TLC
Sequential Read7,150 MB/s7,250MB/s7,250MB/s5,000 MB/s5,000 MB/s7,450 MB/s
Sequential Write6,300 MB/s6,300 MB/s6,300 MB/s4,200 MB/s4,200 MB/s6,900 MB/s
Random Read850K1,000K1,050K680K700K1,400K
Random Write1,350K1,350K1,400K800K800K1,550K
SecurityTCG Opal 2.0TCG Opal 2.0TCG Opal 2.0TCG Opal 2.0TCG Opal 2.0TCG Opal 2.0
Endurance (TBW)600TB1,200TB2,400TB600TB1,200TB1,200TB/2,400TB
Warranty5-Year5-Year5-Year5-Year5-Year5-Year

"The 990 Evo Plus is built for laptop and desktop PC users seeking faster processing speeds and expanded storage capacity," said Hangu Sohn, Vice President of Memory Brand Product Biz Team at Samsung Electronics 

Samsung's 990 Evo Plus SSDs use the company's 8th Generation V-NAND (3D TLC NAND) and a DRAM-less controller made using a 5nm-class process technology (we assume this is SF5 aka 5LPP production node, though this is speculation at this point) that is covered with a nickel heatspreader. The controller is NVMe 2.0 compliant and connects to the host using a PCIe 4.0 x4 or PCIe 5.0 x2 interface. So, from one point of view, this is a PCIe Gen5 controller, but it only delivers performance in a PCIe Gen4 ballpark.  

As far as security capabilities are concerned, the drive supports AES 256-bit full drive encryption and TCG/Opal 2.0 capabilities. 

Samsung's 990 Evo Plus drives have a five-year limited warranty or total bytes written (600 TB to 2400 TB, depending on the exact SKU). 

The 990 Evo Plus will be offered to consumers globally with a recommended retail price of $109.99 for the 1TB version, $184.99 for the 2TB version, and $344.99 for the 4TB version. The new 990 Evo Plus SSDs are not yet available but should be in the coming days.

Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

TOPICS
  • pointa2b
    Just as I buy a 1TB 990 EVO for my new PC... oh well. :LOL:
    Reply
  • 8086
    pointa2b said:
    Just as I buy a 1TB 990 EVO for my new PC... oh well. :LOL:
    1TB didn't cost you much. So go buy the newer version for your boot drive and use the old drive for documents and older games.
    Reply
  • Notton
    $345 for the 4TB version? hopefully marketplace prices are cheaper than that.
    Lexar NM790 is a way better deal.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    I really wish we could get some industry uptake on the whole PCIe x2 M.2 slot thing. While I hate M.2 I've long accepted it's here to stay so being able to add more M.2 slots with minimal downside would be fantastic.
    Reply
  • Amdlova
    Guys on bestbuy have Some seagates 530R 2TB for only 129usd Grab before fades away

    And have an endurance of 2400TB SPEED 7400/6900mb/s
    Reply
  • nrdwka
    Would be nice to have sata-like speed nvme ssd but with extremely low power consumption and extremely low heat output.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    nrdwka said:
    Would be nice to have sata-like speed nvme ssd but with extremely low power consumption and extremely low heat output.
    Apart from maybe the cables, whats wrong with actual SATA drives?
    Reply
  • Ryrynz
    nrdwka said:
    Would be nice to have sata-like speed nvme ssd but with extremely low power consumption and extremely low heat output.

    SATA is slow AF, wtf u talking about? Nerf the performance down so much the chip is basically just above ambient? WUT. Why do you need an SSD to be stone cold?
    Why am I even replying..
    Reply
  • kookykrazee
    Notton said:
    $345 for the 4TB version? hopefully marketplace prices are cheaper than that.
    Lexar NM790 is a way better deal.
    On Samsung site the base price for the 990 PRO 4TB is $280, I get a small "governmental discount" so $260 and finally thinking of pulling the trigger on the PRO once because I have $220 in rewards :)
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    Ryrynz said:
    SATA is slow AF, wtf u talking about? Nerf the performance down so much the chip is basically just above ambient? WUT. Why do you need an SSD to be stone cold?
    Why am I even replying..
    Not every storage space needs to be uber speed.

    My main system has 6x drives. all 1TB each.
    Samsung 980 Pro, Intel 660p, and 4x SATA III SSD.

    Works just fine for me.
    Reply