Details of Samsung’s 990 EVO, the world’s first hybrid PCIe interface SSD, were inadvertently postedearlier this month. Now Samsung has made the drive official as it launches it as part of its vaunted EVO SSD line. This drive stands out with hybrid functionality, running in either the x4 PCIe 4.0 or x2 PCIe 5.0 modes, a first for an M.2 SSD. The bandwidth remains the same in both cases, with performance up to 5,000 / 4,200 MB/s for sequential read/write throughput and 700K/800K random read/write IOPS.This positions it as a budget drive competing against the likes of theTeamgroup MP44Lor popularWD Black SN770, but the 990 EVO has the advantage of an efficient 5nm controller and Samsung’s refined 133-Layer V6P TLC NAND flash.
As noted, the 990 EVO can run in either PCIe 4.0 x4 or 5.0 x2 mode. Samsung says the new hybrid design with a PCIe 5.0 x2 interface, an oddity with any consumer SSD, is designed “to meet current computing needs while anticipating future requirements.” That doesn’t give us an entirely clear reasoning behind the new feature, but it hints that future platforms may be designed specifically to leverage the slimmer PCIe 5.0 x2 interface.
In the case of future platforms, Samsung says that running with just two lanes of 5.0 would result in no performance loss compared to the PCIe 4.0 x4 interface and perhaps some improvement in power efficiency. This combination and single-sided design should make this SSD a good pick forlaptopsor thePS5.
However, Samsung’s MSRP for the drive challenges the budget moniker. At launch, the drive is expected to run $124.99 and $209.99 for the 1TB and 2TB models, respectively. We suspect the street prices will be significantly lower, as with the4TB 990 Prolaunch, despite the imminent risk ofskyrocketing SSD prices.
The drive has the normal five-year, 600TB of writes per TB capacity warranty and is supported by Samsung’s excellent Magician and Data Migration software. It also supports encryption. On the hardware end, the drive is using a new version of Samsung’s V6 TLC NAND flash, the earlier of which was used on the980 Pro, a driveplaguedby issues. Improvements to the flash I/O speed allow the 990 EVO to hit 5 GB/s efficiently. Samsung has also used earlier-generation flash on itsT9 portable SSD, which, in part, may be in response toNAND flash industry woes.
The 990 EVO’s performance and design make it feel more like a successor to the980than the970 EVOor970 EVO Plus. The lack of DRAM and its less-than-maximum PCIe 4.0 performance may be disappointing to enthusiasts, but the 980 Pro and 990 Pro already fill that space. This drive also doesn’t compete directly with theCrucial T500orLexar NM790but rather seems aimed at providing a sufficiently high level of performance with excellent efficiency. We’ll have to see if this analysis aligns with reality in our upcoming review.
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Shane Downing is a Freelance Reviewer for Tom’s Hardware US, covering consumer storage hardware.
