Samsung unveils high-performance 990 PRO SSD

Samsung Electronics, a global provider in advanced memory technology, announced the 990 PRO, the company’s high-performance NVMe SSD based on PCIe 4.0. Delivering lightning-fast speeds and high-power efficiency, the new SSD is optimized for graphically demanding games and other intensive tasks — including 3D rendering, 4K video editing, and data analysis.

“With continuing innovations in gaming, 4K and 8K technology as well as AI-driven applications, consumers’ need for high-performance storage is growing exponentially,” said KyuYoung Lee, VP of the Memory Brand Product Biz Team at Samsung Electronics. “The 990 PRO provides an optimal balance of speed, power efficiency and reliability, making it an ideal choice for avid gamers and creative professionals seeking uninterrupted work and play.”

Immersive gameplay
Featuring Samsung’s latest V-NAND and a new proprietary controller, the 990 PRO series offers the highest speed currently available from the PCIe 4.0 interface.

The SSD delivers sequential read and write speeds of up to 7,450 megabytes per second (MB/s) and 6,900 MB/s, respectively, while random read and write speeds come in at up to 1,400K and 1,550K IOPS,² respectively. With up to a 55% improvement in random performance over the 980 PRO, the 990 PRO is particularly well-suited for heavy gaming and creative and productivity tasks.

High-performance NVMe SSDs are also critical in reaping the full benefits of the latest game console and gaming technologies. Powered by NVMe, the 990 PRO brings faster loading times to PCs and consoles for a more immersive gaming experience.

When tested with Forspoken, Luminous Productions’ forthcoming action role-playing game supporting the latest game-loading technology, the map loading time was about one second, compared to four seconds for a SATA SSD and 28 seconds for a hard disk drive (HDD).

Thermal control
Built on a low-power architecture, Samsung’s newly designed controller dramatically improves the SSD’s power efficiency by up to 50% compared to the 980 PRO. Additionally, the 990 PRO employs a nickel coating on the controller and a heat spreader label on the drive for reliable thermal management.

Samsung’s Dynamic Thermal Guard technology further ensures that the drive’s temperature stays in the optimal range.

The 990 PRO with Heatsink version offers an additional layer of thermal control while its RGB lights add more style to the drive. It’s also an excellent solution for laptop and desktop upgrades as well as for build-your-own PCs, providing a significant performance boost while using less power for increased battery life and thermal management.