Site Title

Samsung 980 PRO SSD

MSRP 90 USDExt score 81%User rating 90%

Product Gallery

Photo 0of Samsung 980 PRO SSDPhoto 1of Samsung 980 PRO SSDPhoto 2of Samsung 980 PRO SSD

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.

<

>

X

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***

Ext 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
Read More

Price Comparison (incl. referral links)*

Specifications

1TB250GB500GB2TB

Connectivity

PortsPCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.3c

Construction

Form FactorM.2 (2280)

Function

ProcessorSamsung Elpis Controller
SecurityAES 256-bit Full Disk Encryption, TCG/Opal V2.0, Encrypted Drive (IEEE1667)

Performance

Durability600 TB150 TB300 TB
I/O SpeedRandom 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 | Capacity1 GB512 MB512 MB
Memory | TypeLPDDR4
StorageSamsung 1xx-layer V-NAND 3-bit MLC

Production

Availability2020-092020-092020-092020-12
Debut2020-09-22

Related Products

Thumbnail of Gigabyte AORUS Gen4 AIC SSD (2021)

Gigabyte AORUS Gen4 AIC SSD (2021)

Thumbnail of MSI SPATIUM M480 PCIe 4 M.2 SSD

MSI SPATIUM M480 PCIe 4 M.2 SSD

Ext 74%
Thumbnail of MSI SPATIUM M470 PCIe 4 M.2 SSD

MSI SPATIUM M470 PCIe 4 M.2 SSD

Ext 66%
Thumbnail of Gigabyte AORUS Gen4 7000s SSD

Gigabyte AORUS Gen4 7000s SSD

Ext 76%
Thumbnail of Samsung 870 QVO SATA III 2.5-inch SSD

Samsung 870 QVO SATA III 2.5-inch SSD

Ext 76%
Thumbnail of Samsung 870 EVO 2.5" SATA SSD

Samsung 870 EVO 2.5" SATA SSD

Ext 73%
Thumbnail of Samsung 980 SSD

Samsung 980 SSD

Ext 69%
Thumbnail of Gigabyte M30 PCIe NVMe SSD

Gigabyte M30 PCIe NVMe SSD

Thumbnail of MSI SPATIUM M370 PCIe 3 M.2 SSD

MSI SPATIUM M370 PCIe 3 M.2 SSD

3rd-Party Review Videos

External Reviews

pcmag[1]

Sentiment Score 88%
Reviewers from pcmag have found the following***:
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]

Sentiment Score 82%
Reviewers from pcworld have found the following***:
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]

Sentiment Score 71%
Reviewers from techadvisor have found the following***:
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]

Sentiment Score 88%
Reviewers from techradar have found the following***:
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]

Sentiment Score 77%
Reviewers from tomshardware have found the following***:
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.
likes
Like

References

1. ^ Samsung SSD 980 Pro Review. [pcmag]. https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/samsung-ssd-980-pro. 2020-09-22. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
2. ^ 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.
3. ^ Samsung 980 Pro review. [techadvisor]. https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/review/samsung-980-pro-3796837/. 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
4. ^ Samsung 980 Pro review. [techradar]. https://www.techradar.com/reviews/samsung-980-pro. 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
5. ^ 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.

Neofiliac places the utmost respect for your privacy. We use no cookie whatsoever beyond that needed for the proper functioning of the website.

The MSRP provided on this page may not apply to all regions equally. For the current price, please refer to the Price Comparison section.

*This page contains affiliate links to third-party merchants such as Amazon, eBay, and Rakuten. When you make a purchase using the supplied links, we will receive a commission.

***These key takeaways ("pros" and "cons") and summaries are identified from third-party review by our AI using advanced language models.

Comments

Please login before adding comments.