CES 2020: Samsung 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 SSD Makes An Appearance
by Billy Tallis on January 7, 2020 8:35 PM EST
Samsung's booth at CES 2020 includes our first look at their next flagship consumer SSD, the 980 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD. This would appear to be Samsung's first client/consumer SSD to support PCIe 4.0, which has until now only been rolled out to their high-end enterprise drives.
Since this just a low-key preview instead of a formal announcement with a press release, information is limited. The exhibit shows only sequential performance numbers: 6500 MB/s reads, 5000 MB/s writes. That's a bit better than what we currently see with PCIe 4.0 drives using the Phison E16 controller, but by the end of this year we should start seeing the Phison E18 and other controllers offering sequential speeds around 7GB/s, so the 980 PRO may have little or no time to set throughput records for the consumer SSD market.
The available capacities will range from 250GB to 1TB, which strongly indicates that Samsung us still using 2-bit MLC for the PRO line rather than switching to 3-bit TLC NAND flash as the rest of the industry has done for their flagships. The fate of Samsung's flagship SSD product line was a bit unclear when Samsung updated the 970 EVO with new NAND as the 970 EVO Plus but did not introduce an accompanying 970 PRO Plus.
Samsung was unable to locate any employees at their sprawling "booth" who could answer our technical questions, so we don't have confirmation of which generation of V-NAND this uses (probably the 5th gen. 92L), nor do we have any details on the controller. We also don't have a timeline for retail availability. UPDATE: Samsung says to expect more information in Q2 of this year.
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Nizzen - Wednesday, January 8, 2020 - link
Try Adata sx8200pro 1TB :)75+MB/s 4k random read @QD=1
I'm getting 78MB/s with overclocked Intel cpu and 4000c16 memory.
Nizzen - Wednesday, January 8, 2020 - link
Want even more? Try Intel 900p/905p with 300+ MB/s 4k rr @QD=1DnaAngel - Thursday, April 23, 2020 - link
Been done: https://imgur.com/a/pAJdjCMMr.Vegas - Wednesday, January 8, 2020 - link
250GB SSD shouldn't exist this day and age, even 500GB is borderline but its perfect for pure OS drive.I kinda want this SSD, but i wonder which will perform better 480GB Optane or the 500GB/1TB 980 Pro.
If this SSD cheaper then my optane, maybe ill sell it, get the 500GB 980Pro and have some extra money left
Korguz - Friday, January 10, 2020 - link
actually.. they should... 250 gigs is a good size for win10.. and other programs.. with a larger drive to install games too.. and mechanical hdds for other things that dont need speed....Mr.Vegas - Wednesday, January 8, 2020 - link
Guys, you are missing ONE HUGE point here, its Samsung PRO SSD!970PRO when filled 0 to 100% loses just a tiny bit of speed, something unimportant, unlike TLC drives it doesn't need complicated RAM cache algorithms and SLC cache layers.
When you run a benchmarks on standard SSD, even new gen PCIe 4.0, the more you fill them the lower the speed.
What it means is that this 980PRO will be doing the same and we will get FULL SPEED from 0 to 100% fill.
jmadden5124 - Wednesday, January 8, 2020 - link
Its disappointing that they're only making a 1TB drive as the highest capacity when other companies have 2TB drives. I expect more from Samsung.Korguz - Friday, January 10, 2020 - link
quote from mr tallis :" There have been enough leaks about a 2TB 970 PRO that it clearly exists, but they can't make up their minds about when and whether to release it. "
yetanotherhuman - Thursday, January 30, 2020 - link
A real flagship. Top end drives should always be MLC, 2-bit per cell.Anymoore - Thursday, February 6, 2020 - link
1TB used up easily with games over 100 GB, speed is not helping.