What you need to know
- The Samsung 990 Pro is now available for preorder through Samsung and Newegg.
- The SSD has read/write speeds of 7,450 MBps and 6,900 MBps, which approach the maximum possible speeds of a PCIe Gen 4 drive.
- Samsung 990 Pro SSDs start at $170 for the 1TB model and range up to $310 for a 2TB model with a heatsink.
Samsung has a new flagship SSD on the way. Preorders for the Samsung Pro 990 opened this week, with prices starting at $170. The drive succeeds the popular Samsung 980 Pro and improves on it in several key areas, including speed, efficiency, and heat management. The end result is one of the best SSDs you can buy.
Our senior editor Chuong Nguyen ran the drive through its paces in our Samsung 990 Pro review. He came away impressed, giving the SSD a 4.5/5 for its speedy performance and the number of options it's available with. You can order the SSD with or without a heatsink. The version with the heatsink can be used in PCs or consoles, making it quite versatile.
"With the 990 Pro, Samsung made some big updates to make its cult-favorite 980 Pro flagship solid-state drive even better. While the 980 Pro is a reliable drive that delivers solid speeds, the 990 Pro elevates that experience with performance that leaves all its rivals in the dust," said Nguyen.
The Samsung 990 Pro has read and write speeds of 7,450 MBps and 6,900 MBps, respectively. According to Samsung, the new SSD beats out the Samsung 980 Pro in read speeds by 6.5% and write speeds by 38%.
The new drive also promises 50% better power efficiency when used in laptops in comparison to the previous generation.
All of the improvements seen in the Samsung 990 Pro come despite that the fact that the SSD uses PCIe Gen 4 rather than the newer PCIe Gen 5. Samsung highlights that the 990 Pro (7,450 MBps) approaches the maximum read speed of PCIe Gen 4 (8,000 MBps).
