Samsung 990 Pro SSD review

Samsung 990 Pro NVME M.2 SSD Review and Specifications

The successor to the 980 Pro (Gen 4) and 970 Pro (Gen 3), the Samsung 990 Pro NVME M.2 SSD was originally intended to be the host of Gen 5 on PCI Express 5.0. On this occasion, and as always, the Korean manufacturer has developed an internal controller called “Pascal”. On Samsung’s side, everything seemed ready to fully launch Gen 5… meanwhile, shortages of many electronic components, as well as COVID, slowed down production and therefore adoption by the general public during this period. new generation.

In this context, Intel has thus decided to leave the latest 13th generation processors, which are compatible with both PCI Express 4.0 and 5.0, which are unlikely to change the motherboard in the near future. There was no point in releasing a Gen 5 SSD (hence more expensive) in the near future, and the 990 Pro finally backed off to satisfy everyone by settling for PCI Express 4.0, but sublimating it one last time.

Buy the Samsung 990 Pro NVMe M.2 SSD at Amazon

Buy a suitable cooler

XXL performance

We are not going to dwell on the design of this 990 Pro, it looks like two drops of water to its elders, 980 Pro and 970 Pro, the same size (22 mm wide for 80 mm long), the same thinness, short, Whether on PC or PS5, you’ll have no problem integrating this model absolutely anywhere.

For Sony console, if the “Heatsink” version is ok
is referred to
there is no trace of the latter on the Samsung website dedicated to semiconductors, in stores or online sales sites. However, contrary to what Sony claims, it is quite possible to use this SSD as is, as it is perfectly compatible with the PS5. A sticker affixed to the top and bottom of the SSD sinks heat, and dynamic temperature management protects the SSD from possible overheating.

After that, if you really want to put luck on your side, adding a small extra physical cooler will cost you more than €8 anyway. A reasonable investment if you fear that Sony will limit the performance of the SSD.

So, how much is this Samsung 990 Pro worth in practice?

As you can see in the screenshots above or below, during our various performance tests under CrystalDiskMark or the built-in Samsung Magician software, The symbolic bar of 7000 MB / s was clearly exceeded, because we reached XXL performance of 7121 MB / s in reading (7450 ​​MB / s declared) and especially 6900 MB / s for the declared theoretical speed of 6852 MB / s.

On copies of files, either on a single file or a folder with multiple files we hover between 2.5 and 3 GB/s fairly consistently. On the temperature side, we recorded a peak of 26 degrees at rest and 53 degrees at full load. Still, it’s all good.

Finally, a quick word about the Samsung Magician program, which is still complete and easy to use. Not only will you be able to update software when needed, but you’ll also be able to run diagnostics or choose to optimize performance based on your usage. Simple, complete and effective.

Buy the Samsung 990 Pro NVMe M.2 SSD at Amazon

Buy a suitable cooler

The result