The Samsung SSD 990 EVO (begins at $124.99; $209.99 for 2TB as examined) does effectively as a mainstream inside solid-state drive (SSD) for common residence and enterprise storage use. This DRAM-less SSD is reasonably priced and energy-efficient, has superior security measures, and consists of the Samsung Magician suite of SSD optimization instruments. It is a PCI Categorical (PCIe) 4.0 M.2 drive, and whereas Samsung notes that the SSD 990 EVO can run in a PCIe 5.0 slot, it could use solely two of that interface’s 4 lanes. A greater function for it’s as a workaday PCIe 4.0 stick, and as such it earns our Editors’ Alternative award.
Design: DRAM-less Retains Energy, Warmth, and Worth Down
The SSD 990 EVO is manufactured on an M.2 Sort-2280 (80mm lengthy) “gumstick” printed circuit board and makes use of the NVMe 2.0 protocol over the PCIe 4.0 bus. It combines Samsung TLC V-NAND flash reminiscence with a homegrown DRAM-less controller—the primary such controller we’ve encountered that is not made by Maxio Expertise.
Through the use of host reminiscence buffer (HMB) know-how, the drive employs the PC’s personal most important DRAM for caching. That helps Samsung preserve prices down and obtain cheap efficiency with a DRAM-free controller. In line with the tech large, the SSD 990 EVO supplies a efficiency enhance of as much as 43% and a 70% enchancment per watt in energy effectivity over its predecessor, the five-year-old SSD 970 EVO Plus. The SSD 990 EVO’s heat-spreader label helps preserve the drive cool and performing effectively, stopping thermal throttling.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)Samsung additionally highlights the SSD 990 EVO’s PCI Categorical 5.0 compatibility—as an illustration, the corporate’s product net web page lists it because the “990 EVO 5.0 NVMe SSD”—though the drive makes use of solely two of a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot’s 4 lanes, and it has rated learn and write speeds which can be half (or lower than half) of these of native PCIe 5.0×4 SSDs, which use all 4 channels. As you will notice under within the dialogue of our efficiency testing, utilizing the SSD 990 EVO in a PCIe 5.0 slot (in case your pc even has one) could provide you with a modest efficiency profit in some circumstances over utilizing it in a PCIe 4.0 slot. However do not mistake the SSD 990 EVO for a full-fledged four-lane Gen 5 SSD.
The SSD 990 EVO’s sturdiness scores, expressed when it comes to lifetime write capability in whole terabytes written (TBW), are 1,200TBW for the 2TB model and 600TBW for the 1TB. They equal these of many different PCIe 4.0 SSDs at these capacities, together with the Samsung SSD 980 Professional, the Essential P5 Plus, and the WD Black SN850X. However a couple of PCIe 4.0 drives provide considerably increased sturdiness scores; the MSI Spatium M470, for instance, is rated at 1,600TBW for 1TB and three,300TBW for 2TB. On the different excessive, the Mushkin Delta, which makes use of less-durable QLC reminiscence, is rated at simply 200TBW for 1TB, 400TBW for 2TB, and 800TBW for 4TB.
The terabytes-written spec is a producer’s estimate of how a lot knowledge may be written to a drive earlier than some cells start to fail and get taken out of service. Samsung warranties the SSD 990 Professional for 5 years or till you hit the rated TBW determine in knowledge writes, whichever comes first.
Samsung consists of its Samsung Magician suite of SSD optimization instruments with the SSD 990 EVO, which lets you streamline the info migration course of for SSD upgrades. As well as, Samsung Magician protects knowledge, screens drive well being, and supplies firmware updates. The SSD 990 EVO additionally helps AES 256-bit full-disk {hardware} encryption, and meets the TCG/Opal V2.0 safety normal for self-encrypted units.
Testing the SSD 990 EVO: A Mid-Pace PCIe 4.0 Stick
We check PCIe 4.0 inside SSDs utilizing a desktop PC with an MSI X570 motherboard and AMD Ryzen CPU, 16GB of Corsair Dominator DDR4 reminiscence clocked to three,600MHz, and a discrete Nvidia GeForce graphics card. We put the SSD 990 EVO by means of our traditional suite of solid-state drive benchmarks, comprising Crystal DiskMark 6.0, PCMark 10 Storage, and 3DMark Storage.
As Samsung prominently advertises the SSD 990 EVO’s PCIe 5.0 compatibility, we additionally ran the identical assessments with the drive within the PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot of our PCIe 5.0 testbed PC. It consists of an ASRock X670E Taichi motherboard with an AMD X670 chipset, and 32GB (two Essential 16GB DIMMs) of DDR5 reminiscence. It sports activities an AMD Ryzen 9 7900 CPU and a GeForce RTX 2070 Tremendous graphics card. The PCIe 5.0 assessments had been run on an ad-hoc foundation; though we are going to focus on their outcomes later, our official scores—these proven within the tables under—are those run on the PCIe 4.0 testbed.
Crystal DiskMark’s sequential velocity assessments present a standard measure of drive throughput, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of enormous recordsdata. On these assessments, the SSD 990 EVO barely exceeded its sequential read-speed score, whereas falling effectively under its rated write velocity. In Crystal DiskMark’s 4K learn and write assessments, which measures how lengthy it takes for an SSD to entry or save a bunch of recordsdata in 4K cluster sizes, the SSD 990 EVO’s scores had been common amongst our group of comparability drives, which consists of mainstream PCIe 4.0 SSDs with comparable sequential learn scores.
The PCMark 10 Total Storage check measures a drive’s velocity in performing a wide range of routine duties reminiscent of launching Home windows, loading video games and artistic apps, and copying each small and huge recordsdata. On this, the SSD 990 EVO carried out splendidly, matching the WD Black SN770 for the highest rating amongst our comparability group.
Whereas the PCMark 10 Total Storage rating aggregates the outcomes of a number of duties, you can even see the scores for a number of the 990 EVO’s particular person trace-based assessments. It did finest on the Home windows launching and Adobe Premiere Professional launching traces, with the excessive rating amongst our check group.
In 3DMark Storage, which measures an SSD’s proficiency in performing a wide range of gaming-related duties, the SSD 990 EVO’s rating was in the midst of the pack. As I would talked about beforehand, we additionally ran our full set of assessments with the SSD within the PCIe 5.0 slot on our PCIe 5.0 testbed. The scores from the EVO’s PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 testing had been largely very comparable, besides that on this check the drive turned in a rating of three,260, about 7% higher than its PCIe 4.0 rating.
The completely different variations of PCI Categorical are each forward- and backward-compatible with one another, within the sense you can run a PCIe 4.0 SSD in a PCIe 3.0 slot, for instance. On this case you would be restricted to PCIe 3.0 throughput speeds, which max out at about 3,500MBps. Operating the SSD 990 EVO in a PCIe 5.0 slot may provide you with a slight profit in some use circumstances over working it in a PCIe 4.0 slot. What it will not provide you with is something resembling the speeds of even the bottom tier of native PCIe 5.0×4 SSDs—which make the most of all 4 channels in a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot, in contrast to the 2 channels that the SSD 990 EVO makes use of. That first era of PCIe 5.0 SSDs—which incorporates the Gigabyte Aorus 10000, the ADATA Legend 970, and the Seagate FireCuda 540—are rated for throughput speeds of round 10,000MBps, and more moderen sticks have exceeded that. The quickest we’ve examined has a learn velocity topping 14,000MBps.
Verdict: The Go-To Mainstream Inside SSD
The Samsung SSD 990 EVO proved a succesful performer amongst mainstream PCIe 4.0 inside SSDs in our testing, with usually wonderful scores in our PCMark 10 benchmarking, which measures an SSD’s velocity in performing varied workaday duties. It has the guarantee, software program, and security measures that we’ve come to anticipate from Samsung’s SSDs. The drive’s DRAM-less structure retains its value down, the warmth spreader retains it cool, and it is extremely energy-efficient.
Samsung makes a degree of noting the SSD 990 EVO’s PCIe 5.0 compatibility in its labeling and advertising. We put it by means of its paces on each our PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 testbeds, and it carried out barely higher on considered one of our assessments when working within the PCIe 5.0 slot. Nonetheless, it could solely use two of the slot’s 4 lanes, and its total efficiency is typical of a mainstream PCIe 4.0 SSD, whichever interface you might be really working it over.
(Credit score: Joseph Maldonado)When you determine to tackle the appreciable expense of shopping for or constructing a Gen 5 rig, it is best to spring for a high-performance native PCIe 5.0×4 drive to get probably the most out of it. Certain, when you have a 990 EVO kicking round, and a desktop PC with an unused PCIe 5.0 slot, by all means use it, no less than till you may improve your SSD. Or fill the slot with any first rate PCIe 4.0 SSD—they need to additionally work.
However sufficient about what the Samsung SSD 990 EVO is not. We see it as a advantageous mainstream PCIe 4.0 SSD, good for common residence or enterprise storage wants. Its throughput scores fell effectively wanting the Essential P5 Plus, a earlier Editors’ Alternative winner, and it could not meet its personal sequential write-speed score, however it bested the Essential on PCMark 10 Total and practically all of the hint assessments. It additionally matches the P5 Plus in guarantee size, software program, and safety. With the P5 Plus now on the finish of its life, the SSD 990 Evo turns into our newest Editors’ Alternative decide for mainstream inside M.2 SSDs.
