Samsung formally introduced its 990 EVO PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 SSDs in the present day, after it was leaked earlier this month when it was unintentionally listed on Samsung’s personal web site. The 990 EVO is technically Samsung’s first PCIe 5.0 SSD, although it isn’t a top-end drives able to double digit GB/s. As an alternative, the 990 EVO is the successor to the 970 EVO Plus from 5 years in the past, and provides mid-range PCIe 4.0 efficiency in addition to a novel hybrid PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 interface configuration.
Samsung shall be providing 1TB and 2TB fashions of the SSD 990 EVO, ditching the decrease capability 250GB and 500GB fashions that it beforehand supplied with the 970 EVO Plus. These fashions carry MSRPs of $124.99 and $209.99, respectively, which is considerably costlier than the 970 EVO Plus at $94.99 for the 1TB and $179.99 for the 2TB mannequin on the time of writing.
Then again, Samsung boasts that the 990 EVO has a 43% enchancment in efficiency over the 970 EVO Plus, although that’s solely a comparability of the 2 drives’ rated sequential learn efficiency. The brand new SSD 990 EVO’s 5,000MB/s is 42.8% greater than the three,500MB/s of the 970 EVO Plus. Samsung additionally claims the 990 EVO is 70% extra energy environment friendly, although the corporate did not reveal precise figures in its press launch. On condition that the 970 EVO Plus has simply hit its fifth birthday, it is not stunning that the 990 EVO could be quicker and extra environment friendly.
The 990 EVO could be thought of a PCIe 4.0-class SSD have been it not for the truth that it may be configured for both 4 PCIe 4.0 lanes, or two PCIe 5.0 lanes. The bandwidth between each interfaces is similar at roughly 8GB/s, that means the 990 EVO could not hit the speeds that PCIe 5.0 x 4 SSDs can even when its controller and NAND have been succesful.
Samsung principally cited compatibility causes when discussing its motivations for together with each PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 lanes, however a PCIe 5.0 reference to 4 lanes would have been backwards appropriate with PCIe 4.0 units anyhow. Enabling solely a pair of PCIe Gen 5 lanes is probably going a transfer to avoid wasting energy. Nevertheless, it is not clear how a lot of the 70% larger effectivity determine hinges on utilizing two lanes as a substitute of 4.
Whereas the 990 EVO is aggressive with Samsung’s personal 970 EVO Plus, it is not clear the place it’ll slot in inside the wider market. There are lots of PCIe 4.0 SSDs that supply comparable or higher rated efficiency than the 990 EVO for a cheaper price, although we’ll must see the place road costs in the end shake out as soon as availability ramps. Nonetheless, there’s extra to storage efficiency than what spec sheets say, and the rated efficiency and potenital effectivity of the 990 EVO could make it very potent in laptops and different units the place energy effectivity is paramount.
