Optimized for handling data-intensive applications, the new Samsung 980 PRO SSD is ideal for professionals who work with 4K and 8K content. But you need to have PCIe 4.0.

Samsung Electronics America unveiled the company’s first consumer PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid-state drive (SSD) – the Samsung 980 PRO. The new 980 PRO is designed for professionals and consumers who want cutting-edge performance in their high-end PCs, workstations and game consoles. The promise of next-level SSD performance is there, but one note of caution: you need to have PCIe 4.o to take full advantage of the new drive.

Optimized for handling data-intensive applications, the 980 PRO is ideal for consumers and professionals who work with 4K and 8K content and play graphics-heavy games. All of the key components, including the custom Elpis controller, V-NAND and DRAM, are completely designed in-house to deliver the full potential of PCIe 4.0. This allows the 980 PRO to provide sequential read and write speeds of up to 7,000 MB/s and 5,000 MB/s respectively, as well as random read and write speeds of up to 1,000K IOPS, making it up to two times faster than PCIe 3.0 SSDs and up to 12.7 times faster than SATA SSDs.

Test system configuration

To better understand the numbers provided by Samsung it is important to know the test system configuration for the Samsung 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid-state drive (SSD) . Here is the key info about the PC used: AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-Core Processor [email protected], DDR4 2666MHz 16GBx2, OS-Windows 10 Pro 64bit, Chipset-ASUS-X570-ROG CROSSHAIR VIII FORMULA.

As always, it is important to note that performance may vary depending on the SSD’s firmware version and the system hardware & system configuration. Performance measurements, says Samsung, “are based on IOmeter 1.1.0. The write performances were measured with Intelligent TurboWrite technology being activated. The sequential write performances after Intelligent TurboWrite region are: up to 500 MB/s(250GB), 1,000MB/s(500GB) and 2,000 MB/s(1TB).” The data related to how faster the drive is related to SATA SSDs is also based on a comparison made with the sequential read speed of Samsung PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs and SATA SSDs.

In addition to enhanced performance, the 980 PRO comes with, the company claims, “outstanding thermal control solutions for improved reliability.” While most of today’s high-performance NVMe SSDs rely on external copper heatsinks to diffuse heat, Samsung’s 980 PRO employs a nickel coating on the controller as well as a heat spreader label on the back side of the SSD for efficient thermal management. These innovative heat-dissipating functions also allow the drive to maintain its compact and slim M.2 form factor. Samsung’s Dynamic Thermal Guard technology further ensures that the drive’s temperature stays at the optimal level, minimizing performance fluctuations over the long haul.

2TB will be available by the end of 2020

“Over the years, Samsung has continuously challenged the limits of high-speed flash memory storage solutions,” said Dr. Mike Mang, vice president of Memory Brand Product Biz at Samsung Electronics. “The new 980 PRO SSD reflects our continuing commitment to delivering exceptional products consumers have come to expect from Samsung.”

The Samsung SSD 980 PRO comes in 1TB, 500GB and 250GB models, and will be available worldwide starting this month, while the 2TB capacity model will be available by the end of this year. The 980 PRO’s manufacturer’s suggested retail prices start at $89.99 for the 250GB model, $149.99 for the 500GB model, and $229.99 for the 1TB model. For more information, including warranty details, follow the link to Samsung’s webpage dedicated to storage.