The Samsung 990 EVO Plus promises a performance boost over its predecessor, the 990 EVO. This review dives deep into its features, performance, and value proposition to determine if it lives up to the hype.
Features and Design
The 990 EVO Plus, like the 990 EVO, is a 2280 (22mm wide, 80mm long) NVMe 2.01 SSD. It utilizes Samsung’s in-house controller and stacked, 133-layer TLC NAND. A key feature is its hybrid PCIe 4.0/5.0 compatibility. It can operate as a four-lane (x4) PCIe 4.0 or a two-lane (x2) PCIe 5.0 drive, offering flexibility for future upgrades. However, don’t expect full four-lane PCIe 5.0 speeds.
Instead of onboard DRAM, the 990 EVO Plus uses a Host Memory Buffer (HMB) for primary caching. While HMB designs have proven competitive with DRAM-equipped drives in sequential performance, they can sometimes lag in random operations.
Pricing and Warranty
The 990 EVO Plus is available in 1TB ($110), 2TB ($185), and 4TB ($345) capacities. While not exorbitant for a Samsung drive, these prices are higher than some competing HMB-based SSDs. Samsung offers a five-year warranty and a 600TBW (Terabytes Written) rating per 1TB of capacity, which is standard for TLC NAND.
Performance Analysis
We put the 2TB 990 EVO Plus through rigorous testing, comparing it to the 990 EVO, Kingston NV3, and WD Blue SN5000. In CrystalDiskMark 8 sequential tests, the EVO Plus excelled, surpassing the competition.
In 4K random tests, the EVO Plus showed marginal improvement over the 990 EVO but fell behind the other competitors.
In our 48GB transfer tests, the EVO Plus was slightly slower than the 990 EVO, particularly in the 48GB folder write test. However, it significantly outperformed the 990 EVO in the 450GB write test, although it did experience a slowdown at around the 220GB mark.
Impressively, the slowdown only reached 1.2GBps, indicating the use of high-quality, modern NAND.
Final Verdict
The Samsung 990 EVO Plus is undoubtedly a faster drive than the 990 EVO in most scenarios. The Samsung brand also carries weight. However, considering the price, faster alternatives are available, and significantly cheaper options offer only slightly reduced performance. While the 990 EVO Plus is a good drive, carefully compare prices and performance before making a purchase.
