Samsung unleashes new budget SSD, but it’s not what it seems

Samsung has simply launched its first Evo-branded funds SSD for the reason that 970 Evo Plus got here out 5 years in the past, which you’d suppose could be excellent news for budget-conscious PC builders. In spite of everything, the brand new Samsung 990 Evo has PCIe 5 compatibility listed in its specs, and it’s cheaper than the Samsung 990 Professional. Nevertheless, there are a few catches that mark this SSD as one to keep away from for desktop PC customers.

With loads of silicon experience at its disposal, Samsung has maintained an excellent fame within the land of SSDs. Two of its drives are listed in our best gaming SSD information, and the Samsung 990 Pro dominated benchmarks within the PCIe 4 period. Nevertheless, the brand new Samsung 990 Evo has a number of purple flags.

Let’s begin with that declare of PCIe 5 compatibility. “It’s designed to be suitable with each PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 4.0 interfaces,” says Samsung, “guaranteeing it may be put in into all kinds of methods whereas sustaining optimum efficiency.”

Nevertheless, if you dig deeper it turns into obvious that it solely makes use of two lanes in PCIe 5 mode, giving it precisely the identical bandwidth as 4 PCIe 4 lanes. Which may technically be PCIe 5 compatibility, however the finish result’s no totally different from placing a normal 4x PCIe 4 SSD in a PCIe 5 M.2 connector – you continue to get a most throughput of 8GB/s.

All of which is educational anyway, as the highest sequential learn pace of the 990 Evo is just 5,000MB/s anyway, with a prime sequential write pace of 4,200MB/s. That’s not solely considerably slower than the Samsung 990 Professional, which shares the identical mannequin quantity, but additionally method slower than the getting old Samsung 980 Pro. In my very own assessments, the Samsung 980 Professional learn pace tops out at 6,843MB/s in CrystalDiskMark, with a write pace of 4,984MB/s, with each figures a good method in entrance of the numbers Samsung claims for the 990 Evo.

And that brings us to the following drawback with Samsung’s new drive – its value. The 990 Evo has launched at $124.99 for a 1TB drive, and $209.99 for a 2TB drive, and each these costs are greater than you’ll pay for the quicker Samsung 980 Professional for the time being, which at present goes for $84.99 for a 1TB drive. Not solely that, however the 990 Evo costs are method greater than these of the WD Black SN850X proper now, which tops our greatest SSD information and reads at as much as 7,300MB/s, with costs additionally beginning at simply $84.99 for the 1TB mannequin.

On the plus facet, Samsung is making some good claims for the vitality and thermal effectivity of this drive, saying that it it improves “energy effectivity of as much as 70% when in comparison with the 970 Evo Plus.” That’s excellent news for laptops, the place energy and thermal envelopes are tight, however it’s largely irrelevant for desktops.

All of which is a disgrace, as there’s positively room for a keenly priced PCIe 4 SSD for the time being, which might take over the reins from the Samsung 980 with its PCIe 3 interface. Within the meantime, be sure you learn our best SSD information in case you’re looking out for a brand new storage improve.