Samsung 990 PRO Video Review by Techtesters

Video Review published by Techtesters
date : 2023-09-26 16:07:37
Video Stats: 60583 views, with 2358 and 0

Titre Original: Samsung 990 Pro 4TB NVMe SSD Review

Text of the video

Photo 1: Samsung 990 PRO Video Review by Techtesters


About a year ago Samsung launched their 980 Pro Gen 4 nvme SSD but only in one and two terabyte capacities and
now they finally released a four terabyte version as well so I thought this would be a great moment to test this new capacity but also to revisit the 980 Pro in general because a lot has happened since it was launched so let's see how it holds up let's touch up on some of the issues that Samsung had to deal with in the past year and let's see if it's still worth getting or not let's begin just like with a smaller capacity Samsung will be selling this four terabyte model either with or without a heatsink and I have the non-hitsync version right here it does come with a very thin heat spreader on top but do remember that some form of a proper heatsink is always recommended with fast drives like this one but the really interesting thing here is that the drive is entirely single-sided
now most four terabyte nvme ssds have components on both sides while this one has everything on top and they is very important for some laptops for example that don't fit dual sided drives and it also makes it easier to combine it with motherboard and some third-party heatsinks as well looking at the specs not much has changed it still has everything that we expected a high-end SSD should have so it is a gen 4x4 nvme SSD it has dram cache it uses SLC caching there is a five year long warranty and Samsung continues to have extensive support for Hardware encryption which is a very nice bonus the four terabyte version does have some advantages over the smaller capacities it has larger DRM cash for example and its SOC buffer is also much larger it goes up to 442 gigabytes assuming you have a lot of empty space on your drive just like before Samsung doesn't disclose details about their controller or exact memory specs because they are one of the manufacturers that actually make all of the parts themselves so the controller color and the memory are Samsung designed and Samsung built but they do make it clear that this uses TLC memory not qlc but let's look at that performance and as always I'm going to start with the PC Mark 10 quick Benchmark and for those of you that don't know it yet it is a collection of tests that replicate all those little things we do with our PCS every single day so things like working with documents opening photos loading games and so on and this is a very useful Benchmark for anyone that is looking for a secondary drive or an extra SSD for those simple little tasks the 9i pro was already the fastest Gen 4 Drive in the list with the one and two terabyte models performing basically the same but the four terabyte version actually manages to perform a bit better than both though it did end up behind the Gen 5 ssds which all score higher in this test
Photo 2: Samsung 990 PRO Video Review by Techtesters
but let's look at the more intense full PC Mark 10 Suite that imitates a more serious and more intense and more constant use of your system and this is a great Benchmark for anyone that is looking for a new main drive or for anyone that needs to run some applications that can be very heavy on the SSD the four terabyte 990 Pro managed to outperform the smaller capacities and every other Gen 4 Drive I've tested so far but the Gen 5 drives did remain nicely ahead in this test and the result is very similar if we look at latency the four terabyte version of the 980 Pro is faster than the smaller 980 Pros as well as other Gen 4 ssds but it did remain behind Gen 5 drives
now the consistency test isn't that relevant for a lot of you because it simulates an extreme multi-hour workload that most users don't really do but for a high-end Drive especially it is very good to see how it holds up when really stressed basically to its limits for a very long period of time and this is where the 990 Pro continues to shine many ssds there are even some Gen 5 drives really start dropping when stressed in this way but the 990 Pro held up very well the two terabyte version did that last year but the four terabyte version does it even better
now ending up in second place just a bit behind the Gen 5 t700 drive again this doesn't matter for most of you but for anyone that has some Niche use cases that cause these extreme SSD workloads this drive is the one to go for because if you do need it for this you will very much so appreciate its higher capacity
now the 3D Mark storage Benchmark includes a lot of gaming related tasks so things like loading games installing games recording gameplay and just moving games around and this is a very nicely balanced test to look at if you're going to use this drive mainly for gaming and here the four terabyte model dropped quite a bit in the rank King for some reason we retested both capacities a couple of times and the result was always the same it still does well but it did drop below the transcend 250 for example which generally costs less but let's check out the sequential read and write performance
now those values don't truly represent real life views as well as previous tests but it is still good to see if the drive manages to get to speeds that are claimed in their spec sheet and in sequential rights the four terabyte 990 Pro ends up being the fastest Gen 4 drive yet again although the entire top part of the graph is basically running into the limits of the Gen 4 slot with only Gen 5 ssds managing to get past that 7 gigabyte barrier and if we look at these sequential reads it is pretty much the same story it isn't at the top but the entire top part
Photo 3: Samsung 990 PRO Video Review by Techtesters
is basically bottlenecked by the Gen 4 slot so between all those drives it doesn't really matter matter they're all the same Samsung's own specs say that the drive should ideally operate between 0 and 70 degrees but without a heatsink this SSD can definitely get much hotter than that when stressed within minutes the outside temperature was around 80 degrees but one of the internal sensors reported almost 100 degrees so at that point it did start throttling and slowing down so a heat sink is an absolute must for this drive just as it has been with every other fast Gen 4 ssdf tested so far if you have a motherboard with a heatsink it will be completely enough but if your motherboard doesn't have one for some reason you can just grab the heatsink version from Samsung and if that one is not available in your region or it costs much more than the non-heating model you can just grab a third-party heatsink from Amazon for example it will only cost you about 10 or 10 euros and it will be completely enough for this drive I will leave a few suggestions and a few links in the description of this video so if you're interested you can go ahead and check those out another strong feature of Samsung is their magician software and it is one of the few software packages that actually feels like a proper modern application it lets you check the drive's health sword features like data migration and setting up Hardware encryption but it also regularly reminds you to install firmware updates and Samsung constantly pushes updates that do increase performance and stability over time which doesn't mean that it was all smooth sailing for Samsung and their software a few months after the launch of the one and two terabyte versions of the 990 Pro some people started reporting rapid drops of their drive's health even with very little use of the actual Drive and it took Samsung a good few weeks to just respond to that issue and when they did I would say their statement wasn't that great in my opinion they acknowledged the problem and they just released a firmware fix that prevents this issue from happening again which is great for people that plan to buy this drive but I would say it did nothing to help people that already got reduced Drive Health ratings and I tried asking a couple of times what they were planning to do with that but I got no answer in return and keep in mind all they had to do was release a much clearer statement that would explain what happened and how are they fixing it which would help them regain a bit of trust that was lost with this issue and I do think that offering the first wave of buyers something like an extra year warranty for example just to prove their confidence in their own product would have been a very simple but a very effective bonus and considering the fact fact that SSD failures are very unlikely nowadays that
Photo 4: Samsung 990 PRO Video Review by Techtesters
would have cost them very little and it would have made them look like the good guy anyway I personally haven't had any problems with my drives and I use several two terabyte models in my main PC and I do think that it is very likely that this is an issue with health reporting in the software rather than ssds actually getting degraded but it still cannot ignore this situation and I think Samsung needs to hear this so they can improve the way they respond to possible issues in the future because issues do happen it is completely normal but how you handle the issue is what counts in the end
now Samsung ssds usually launch with very very high price tags and it takes quite a bit of time for the prices to come down to let's say reasonable levels but that isn't the case with this drive I haven't seen any listings in the US but here in in the Netherlands you can pre-order this four terabyte model for 309 Euros today
now that is the same price as the sn850x or mp600 Pro and it is cheaper than the KC 3000 or the fury Renegade
now technically you can get some four terabyte drives for 200 Euros or less but those are budget qlc drives that cannot really compete with this high-end TLC drive
now transcends a 250 series remains a good TLC option for a slightly better price but Samsung is not that much more while performing better especially when we look at the more intense workloads
now the only drive that does better in those intense workloads Is the Gen 5 crucial t700 but as you can see here that one will cost you more than twice as much and considering that most workloads don't really benefit from a Gen 5 drive or at least not yet I would personally Take 2 4 4 terabyte to 990 Pros instead of one t700 so I think the four terabyte 980 Pro is in a really good spot at the moment assuming the price will be as competitive in other regions as it is here in the Netherlands I would say if you're looking for a high-end high capacity drive or you need a proper workstation drive it does look like the best option available right
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Testing the Samsung 990 PRO 4TB. Get yours: https://geni.us/Gm5T4q (affiliate)
Sponsor: Seasonic Prime PSUs are awesome! Get yours: https://geni.us/hqKXxw

Some other SSDs in this comparison: (affiliate links)
Crucial P3 Plus - https://geni.us/GZAL
Crucial P5 Plus - https://geni.us/GKGp9Xx
Crucial T700 - https://geni.us/4Ss4W3O
Corsair MP700 - https://geni.us/0yVN
Corsair MP600 PRO LPX - https://geni.us/bD6WeE1
Gigabyte Aorus 10000 - https://geni.us/Q62Srt
Kingston NV2 - https://amzn.to/3ZwNdra
Kingston KC3000 - https://geni.us/czu8
Kingston Fury Renegade - https://geni.us/wmPXz
WD Black SN850x - https://geni.us/LvFJ

Heatsink tips for non-heatsinked SSDs: (affiliate links)
For PC & PS5 - United States - QIVYNSRY Heatsink (~$8) https://amzn.to/326gLUi
For PC & PS5 - Europe - be quiet! MC1 Heatsink (~?13) https://amzn.to/3ftPcHL

Lego Used: (affiliate links)
Lego Bonsai (10281) - https://geni.us/pndxCfB
Lego Groot (76217) - https://geni.us/VjkzA
*No Lego was harmed in the making of this video.

If you want to support what I do, check these out:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Techtesters
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NadaOverbeeke
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techtesters.eu/

Timestamps:
0:00? - Introduction
0:30 - Samsung 990 Pro 4TB Overview
2:08 - Performance in Light Use
2:55? - Performance in Heavier Use (OS Drive, Video Editors, etc)
3:25 - Latency
3:40 - Performance in Extreme Use (Consistency Test)
4:38 - Gaming Performance
5:13 - Sequential Performance
6:00 - Thermal Performance
7:07 - Samsung Magician Software
7:30 - Samsung's Questionable Handling of Early 990 Pro Firmware Issues
9:35 - Pricing & Final Thoughts

Disclosure:
- This product was provided by Samsung for the purpose of testing. As per my own guidelines, they don't get any say about anything in this video or any of my other reviews. It's not sponsored by them, they also didn't get to preview this video beforehand, or any other nonsense like that. My reviews reflect my own views, nothing more, nothing less.
- Amazon links I provide are (typically) affiliate links. Using these does not cost you anything at all. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means they do provide me with a small commission when you decide to buy a product, at no cost to you.

#Crucial #T700 #SSD

Vidéo-Test de Samsung 990 PRO par Techtesters