Samsung 980 PRO SSD
Product Gallery
Product Overview
Samsung 980 PRO SSD is the company's new flagship range of high performance NVMe solid state drives. It is Samsung's first consumer PCIe 4.0 SSD series, designed for professionals, enthusiasts, and gamers in high-end PC, workstation, and gaming console applications.
All 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, two times faster than PCIe 3.0 SSDs and up to 12.7 times faster than SATA SSDs.
The 980 PRO also comes with new 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.
Ratings
What we found**
Pros
- Strong sequential and sequential write performance
- Strong SLC cache performance
- Slim and lightweight design
Cons
- Only one CPU core to stress the drive
- Lack of SLC caching
What external reviewers found***
External score 81% (not directly comparable across industries)
Pros
- Excellent write performance
- Good value for money
- Compact and lightweight
- High-quality build quality
Cons
- Pricey for a PCIe 4 SSD
- No PCIe 3.0 support
- High cost per gigabyte
- Limited compatibility with AMD motherboards
- No heatsink
- No multi-stack design
Price Comparison
Specifications
| 1TB | 250GB | 500GB | 2TB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Connectivity | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ports | PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.3c | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Construction | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Form Factor | M.2 (2280) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Function | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Processor | Samsung Elpis Controller | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Security | AES 256-bit Full Disk Encryption, TCG/Opal V2.0, Encrypted Drive (IEEE1667) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Performance | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Durability | 600 TB | 150 TB | 300 TB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I/O Speed | Random Read: Up to 1,000K IOPS / Random Write: 1,000K IOPS / Sequential Read: Up to 7,000 MB/s / Sequential Write: Up to 5,000 MB/s | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Memory | Capacity | 1 GB | 512 MB | 512 MB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Memory | Type | LPDDR4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Storage | Samsung 1xx-layer V-NAND 3-bit MLC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Production | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Availability | 2020-09 | 2020-09 | 2020-09 | 2020-12 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Debut | 2020-09-22 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Launch Comparison
Clear List
3rd-Party Review Videos
External Reviews
pcmag[1]
Reviewer score 88%The Samsung SSD 980 Pro is our new top recommendation for people who demand the fastest storage technology available for consumer PCs. The main drawback is a relatively high cost per gigabyte, although we consider the premium reasonable given the exceptional performance on offer. Samsung's software for internal SSDs includes the Samsung Magician utility and Data Migration app.
Find the original article here.
Pros
- Fast sequential read and write speeds
- High-quality build quality
Cons
- High cost per gigabyte
- Limited compatibility with AMD motherboards
pcworld[2]
Reviewer score 82%At $400, the Samsung 980 Pro is a very good deal. The drives carry a five-year limited warranty. If you throw enough data at the 980 Pro, write speeds will drop from 2.25GBps to around 1.75GBps. It's not the best deal for 4K or 8K editing workloads.
Find the original article here.
Pros
- High-quality build quality
- Excellent write performance
- Good value for money
Cons
- Pricey for a PCIe 4 SSD
techadvisor[3]
Reviewer score 71%The Samsung 980 Pro is available in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities. In the UK these have an MSRP of £82.99, £135.99 and £207.99 respectively. It looks pricey compared to PCIe 3.0 NVMe drives, but competitive products from Gigabyte and Sabrent are both around $200 for the 1TB capacity, making the Samsung prices track with them.
Find the original article here.
Pros
- Excellent performance
- Competitive price
Cons
- No heat spreader
- No heatsink
techradar[4]
Reviewer score 88%The Samsung 980 Pro is the first Samsung SSD to take advantage of PCIe 4.0. It comes in three storage capacities: 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB. There will also be a 2TB model launching sometime in 2020, but we don't know how much that will cost. It's backed by a 5-year warranty, and the TBW rating is set to 300TB.
Find the original article here.
Pros
- Fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD we’ve tested
- 5-year warranty
Cons
- No PCIe 3.0 support
tomshardware[5]
Reviewer score 77%The Elpis controller features a DRAM-based multi-core Arm architecture built on Samsung's 8nm manufacturing process node. The drive also supports Active State Power Management (ASPM), Autonomous Power State Transition (APST), and the L1.2 ultra-low power mode. Samsung's V6 V-NAND reportedly features up to 136 layers, up 40% from the 970 EVO Plus's 92-layer count. There are just two NAND packages onboard the 980 Pro's PCB, which applies to all capacities.
Find the original article here.
Pros
- Low power consumption
- Competitively priced
- Compact and lightweight
Cons
- No multi-stack design
User Reviews
Justin Wright · 06 Apr 2021
4.5
| Innovation | |
| Design | |
| Quality | |
| Value |
This is the fastest SSD I've used.
And in my experience Samsung's PRO SSDs have been very reliable.
2 likes
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References
- ^ Samsung SSD 980 Pro Review. [pcmag]. https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/samsung-ssd-980-pro. 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
- ^ Samsung 980 Pro NVMe SSD review: PCIe 4.0 for the win. [pcworld]. https://www.pcworld.com/article/3575330/samsung-980-pro-nvme-ssd-review.html. 2020-09-23. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
- ^ Samsung 980 Pro review. [techadvisor]. https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/samsung-980-pro-3796837/. 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
- ^ Samsung 980 Pro review. [techradar]. https://www.techradar.com/reviews/samsung-980-pro. 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
- ^ Samsung 980 Pro M.2 NVMe SSD Review: Redefining Gen4 Performance (Updated). [tomshardware]. https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-980-pro-m-2-nvme-ssd-review. 2021-02-17. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
The MSRP provided on this page may not apply to all regions equally. For the current price, please refer to the Price Comparison section.
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These key takeaways ("pros" and "cons") and summaries are identified from third-party reviews. They may differ from the original texts.
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