Recently released, Samsung’s 990 Evo is the company’s latest consumer SSD and the inaugural one to formally embrace PCIe 5.0 support. Although positioned as a mid-range option relative to the 990 Pro, it stands alone in the company’s SSD lineup for adopting the latest protocol, albeit with minimal impact on speed.
The Samsung 990 Evo pledges sequential read speeds reaching 5,000MB/s and write speeds up to 4,200MB/s, notably trailing behind the 990 Pro. Nonetheless, it marks a substantial improvement from the preceding 970 Evo Plus, which caps at 3,500MB/s reads and 3,300MB/s writes. Despite being a DRAM-less SSD, it incorporates HMB, enabling access to your system’s DRAM for enhanced performance.
Simultaneously, the Samsung 990 Evo demonstrates increased power efficiency, with a commitment to delivering up to 70% more performance per watt than its precursor. This significant enhancement could be a compelling factor in favor of the 990 Evo over the more power-intensive 990 Pro. Additionally, it’s noteworthy that a speed of 5,000MB/s is already exceptionally fast.
Certainly, you might question why a PCIe 5.0 SSD caps at 5,000MB/s. This is because it diverges from the usual four lanes utilized by SSDs. While in PCIe 4.0 systems, it employs four lanes, in PCIe 5.0-supported PCs, only two lanes are utilized. Consequently, there’s no speed boost in PCIe 5.0 systems, but it does free up additional PCIe 5.0 lanes on your CPU for other components that may require them.
You can purchase the Samsung 990 Evo SSD now, with options in 1TB or 2TB configurations. The starting price for the base model is $124.99, and the larger capacity model is priced at $209.99, positioning it slightly under the 990 Pro’s MSRP. Despite its reduced performance, it has the potential to be one of the best SSDs available.
Source: Samsung