The best SSD just got even better, because Samsung unveils its 990 EVO Plus
Samsung has launched its 990 EVO Plus SSD, designed for gamers, creatives and professionals.
The 990 EVO Plus seems to be a worthy successor to its predecessor, the 990 EVO (which already has a place in our list of the best SSDs). It is more energy efficient, supports PCIe4.0, has larger storage capacity and is more reliable. Samsung claims it’s 50% faster than its predecessor, with lightning-fast read speeds of up to 7,250 MB/s and write speeds of up to 6,300 MB/s.
In terms of energy efficiency, it delivers a phenomenal 73% more efficiency than the EVO 990, a feat Samsung attributes to its 8th generation V-NAND technology, 5-nanometer controller and nickel-coated heat shield.
In other words, 8th generation V-NAND technology can process more information faster because it can store more data in a smaller space, which means better performance and faster access to data; the highly efficient 5nm controller uses less power and processes data faster, improving performance on tasks like transferring files or loading games. To top it all off, the nickel-coated heat shield keeps overheating to a minimum, ensuring the 990 EVO Plus remains reliable and fast during heavy use.
An upgrade in every respect
The SSD comes in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities, again better than its predecessor, whose maximum capacity model offered 2TB of storage. The 4TB model offers random read speeds of 1,050K and random write speeds of 1,400K, measured in IOPS (input/output operations per second). Samsung mentions that these speeds are close to what you would get in an SSD with a DRAM cache.
The 990 EVO Plus also features Samsung’s newly improved TurboWrite 2.0. This feature was first seen in Samsung’s 840 EVO; it speeds up writes by initially using some of the SSD’s space-saving but slower triple-level cell (TLC) memory in single-level cell (SLC) mode.
Also included is Samsung’s successful Magician Software, which contains tools to optimize and improve the functionality of Samsung’s SSDs. It can monitor drive health, protect valuable data and adjust performance optimization.
The 990 EVO Plus will be available in 1TB for $110.00 (£106, AU$139), 2TB for $185 (£178, AU$279) and 4TB for $345 (£326, AU$579).
