SAMSUNG 990 EVO Plus SSD 2TB, PCIe Gen 4x4, Gen 5x2 M.2 2280

SAMSUNG 990 EVO Plus SSD 2TB, PCIe Gen 4x4, Gen 5x2 M.2 2280 Review & Specifications

The SAMSUNG 990 EVO Plus SSD 2TB, PCIe Gen 4x4, Gen 5x2 M.2 2280 by SAMSUNG is a NVMe solid-state drive (SSD) featuring 2000 GB of storage. It is built with TLC 236-layer NAND flash memory and utilizes a Piccolo (S4LY022) 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 7250 MB/s and 6300 MB/s respectively, while random read/write performance delivers up to 1000k and 1350k IOPS. The drive offers an endurance rating of 1200 TBW and is backed by a 5-year manufacturer warranty.

This SSD does not include a dedicated external DRAM cache chip. Instead, it relies on a small internal SRAM cache integrated into the controller, typically around 32 MB to 128 MB. Manufacturers may sometimes refer to this SRAM as "DRAM cache," but it is not the same as a discrete DRAM module. Furthermore, because it uses the NVMe interface, the SSD may also support Host Memory Buffer (HMB) — a feature that allocates a small portion of your system’s RAM (usually 64–128 MB) to act as a substitute for DRAM. While this design is cost-effective and suitable for everyday tasks, performance under heavy or sustained random I/O can be lower compared to full-DRAM SSDs. A Dynamic SLC cache is still included to help with write bursts and improve responsiveness.

This SSD module provides strong mid-range performance, achieving 71.3% 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 $184.5 per terabyte. The overall combined performance-to-price ratio, which evaluates both maximum performance and total storage capacity per dollar, is calculated at 58.0%. Based on this metric, the drive is a less favorable value in this category. Considering its performance rating of 71.3%, other SSDs at similar or lower prices may deliver better overall performance and capacity per dollar, making this drive less competitive.