SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4

SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4 Review & Specifications

The SAMSUNG 980 PRO SSD 2TB PCIe NVMe Gen 4 by Samsung is a NVMe solid-state drive (SSD) featuring 2000 GB of storage. It is built with TLC 128-layer NAND flash memory and utilizes a Samsung Elpis (S4LV003) controller to manage data access, wear leveling, and overall performance. Interface and NVMe standard details for this SSD are not specified. Please consult the product documentation or specifications for accurate interface compatibility and performance expectations.

NVMe SSD Performance

Sequential read and write speeds reach 7000 MB/s and 5100 MB/s respectively, while random read/write performance delivers up to 1000k and 1000k IOPS. The drive offers an endurance rating of 1200 TBW and is backed by a 5-year manufacturer warranty.

This SSD includes a dedicated 2048 MB DRAM cache module running at 1866 MHz. This discrete DRAM chip serves as a high-speed buffer between the controller and NAND flash, significantly reducing latency and improving random read/write performance. DRAM allows the controller to store the Flash Translation Layer (FTL), which is essential for efficient address mapping and wear leveling. Combined with a 230 GB Dynamic + 6 GB Static SLC write cache, it offers excellent burst speeds and consistent performance under heavy workloads.

This SSD module offers entry-level performance in our synthetic benchmark, scoring 70.0% relative to the fastest NVMe SSDs in our database. However, this classification doesn't always reflect real-world capability. Many drives in this range — especially those with DRAM cache, and even some newer, efficient DRAM-less models — can still deliver responsive performance in general computing, gaming, light creative work, and casual development environments. Unless your workload involves large file transfers or sustained heavy I/O, this level of performance is more than adequate.

Cost-Effectiveness

From a cost-per-storage perspective, this SSD provides moderate value at $96.0 per terabyte. The overall combined performance-to-price ratio, which evaluates both maximum performance and total storage capacity per dollar, is calculated at 51.0%. Based on this metric, the drive is a less favorable value in this category. Considering its performance rating of 70.0%, other SSDs at similar or lower prices may deliver better overall performance and capacity per dollar, making this drive less competitive.