Right this moment we’re trying on the Samsung 990 EVO 2TB NVMe SSD. I’m very enthusiastic about this drive, because it has a trick. The 990 EVO has two modes of operation; it will probably both be a Gen 4 drive with x4 PCIe lanes, or it may be a Gen 5 drive with x2 PCIe lanes. The utmost PCIe bandwidth in both configuration is actually equivalent, however the Gen 5 configuration makes use of half the lane depend, which is a prospect I discover interesting if it would result in extra M.2 slots on motherboards sooner or later. That is additionally the primary main replace to the EVO sequence of drives for the reason that Gen 3 970 EVO drive, so I’m wanting to see this drive in motion.
If you’re simply seeking to purchase the drive, you could find it right here. (Amazon Affiliate)
Samsung 990 EVO 2TB SSD
The Samsung 990 EVO 2TB is available in a single-sided M.2 2280 (80mm) type issue.
Samsung very vertically integrates the 990 EVO. It’s powered by an in-house Samsung controller referred to as “Piccolo” and options Samsung’s 133-layer TLC. One change to the EVO lineup is that the 990 EVO is DRAM-less, whereas the earlier 970 EVO had a DRAM cache. This isn’t significantly shocking to me, as Samsung has additionally launched the Samsung 980, which additionally lacks a DRAM cache.
The bottom of the Samsung 990 EVO 2TB has a product label and nothing else.
Samsung 990 EVO SSD Specs
The Samsung 990 EVO is offered at 1TB and 2TB capability factors.
Samsung is just ranking the 990 EVO at 5000MB/s sequential learn and 4200MB/s sequential write. This efficiency level sits within the center between top-end Gen 3 and Gen 4 efficiency and is a pleasant candy spot for a drive concentrating on a modest improve over a Gen 3 drive. After all, uncooked efficiency will not be this drive’s main occasion trick, as we are going to see in a second. Endurance is on course at 600 TBW per 1TB of capability, which supplies us 1200 TBW on my 2TB drive. Lastly, the industry-standard 5-year guarantee can be included.
Usually, I solely put up one CrystalDiskInfo screenshot to point out primary info like PCIe hyperlink pace and NVMe revision. Right here, you possibly can see the 990 EVO working in PCIe 5.0 mode on x2 lanes.
Right here, you see the 990 EVO working in PCIe 4.0 on x4 lanes. NVMe 2.0 is supported in both case. That is the massive occasion trick for the drive. It may well function in Gen4 x4 or Gen5 x2 modes since each present roughly the identical bandwidth.
All testing, besides as famous in any other case, was carried out with the drive configured to run at PCIe 5.0 x2.
Check System Configuration
We’re utilizing the next configuration for this check:
- Motherboard: MSI MAG X670E Tomahawk
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7900X (12C/24T)
- RAM: 2x 16GB DDR5-6000 UDIMMs
Our testing makes use of the Samsung 990 EVO 2TB because the boot drive for the system, put in within the M.2_1 slot on the motherboard. This slot helps as much as PCIe Gen 5 x4. The drive is stuffed to 85% capability with information, after which some is deleted, leaving round 60% used house on the quantity.
PCIe 4.0 testing was carried out with the M.2_1 slot hardcoded to Gen 4.
Subsequent, we’re going to get into our efficiency testing.
