Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB

Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB Review & Specifications

The Samsung 990 Pro 1 TB by Samsung is a NVMe solid-state drive (SSD) featuring 1000 GB of storage. It is built with 3D TLC NAND flash memory and utilizes a Samsung S4LV008 (Pascal) controller to manage data access, wear leveling, and overall performance. This SSD features the PCIe 4.0 x4 interface, supporting a theoretical maximum throughput of 16 GB/s. Combined with the advanced NVMe 2.0 standard, it offers high efficiency, low latency, and advanced scalability. It is offered in the M.2 2280 form factor. PCIe 4.0 is backward compatible with older PCIe slots, but speeds will adjust accordingly.

NVMe SSD Performance

Sequential read and write speeds reach 7450 MB/s and 6900 MB/s respectively, while random read/write performance delivers up to 1400k and 1550k IOPS. The drive offers an endurance rating of 600 TBW and is backed by a 5-year manufacturer warranty.

This SSD includes a dedicated 1024 MB DRAM cache module running at 4266 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 Dynamic and static SLC write cache, it offers excellent burst speeds and consistent performance under heavy workloads.

This SSD module provides strong mid-range performance, achieving 77.6% of the highest score in our benchmark. It delivers excellent responsiveness and load times for a wide variety of tasks, making it ideal for mainstream gaming setups, content creation, software development, and multitasking-oriented workflows. Unless you're working with large-scale real-time data or intensive write-heavy workloads, this level of performance is more than sufficient for demanding users.

Cost-Effectiveness

From a cost-per-storage perspective, this SSD offers below-average value at $239.4 per terabyte. The overall combined performance-to-price ratio, which evaluates both maximum performance and total storage capacity per dollar, is calculated at 48.6%. Based on this metric, the drive is a less favorable value in this category. Considering its performance rating of 77.6%, other SSDs at similar or lower prices may deliver better overall performance and capacity per dollar, making this drive less competitive.