Samsung launches flagship 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 SSD that can hit a blistering 7,000 MB/s

[Humza]

What just happened? Samsung appears to have sneakily launched its fastest consumer SSD to date: The 7GB/s PCIe NVMe 980 Pro series. The m.2 drive was spotted earlier at CES 2020 with rumors of a late summer launch. Samsung is now listing the drive on its Singapore website and, as expected, has launched it in three storage capacities of 250GB, 500GB and 1TB. There's plenty of technical info this time around, but Samsung has still not revealed the drive's price, release date or availability in other markets.

Samsung gave us an exciting glimpse of the 980 Pro SSD at CES 2020, briefly revealing the drive's underlying technology, read/write speeds and storage capacities. While rumors of a late summer launch have now proved correct, Samsung, in the meantime, managed to find another 500 MB/s increase in the drive's read speeds, pushing it to an impressive 7,000 MB/s at launch.

Famed leaker, Ice Universe, initially revealed details about the 980 Pro, including a new custom Elpis controller and the drive's underlying storage technology. Users also extracted additional information from the 980 Pro's official listing on Samsung's Singapore website, which appears to have now been pulled and is currently redirecting to the site's homepage.

Samsung released 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 SSD, Read speeds up to 7,000 MB/s, new custom Elpis Controller, 3-bit MTC. pic.twitter.com/shLwcsCCXw

— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) August 29, 2020

Unlike the 970 Pro with its 2-bit MLC memory, Samsung has gone for 3-bit MLC storage (also called TLC) in the new 980 Pro. The change has significantly reduced the 980 Pro's endurance rating over its predecessor, halving it to 600 TBW for the 1TB model as compared to 1,200 TBW for the 1TB 970 Pro.

It shouldn't worry most users, though, as they'll be getting a 5-year/TBW limited warranty across all three models and unprecedented levels of performance from this drive, provided they have a PCIe 4.0 capable PC with Ryzen inside to fully take advantage, until Intel's 11th-gen Rocket Lake CPUs and supporting boards arrive later this year.

Capacity	Max Read (MB/s)	Max Write (MB/s)	4KB Random Read/Write (IOPS)	DRAM Cache	Endurance Rating (TBW)	Power Consumption (Max/Avg/Idle)
250 GB	6,400	2,700	500,000 / 600,000	512 MB	150	7W / 5W / 35mW
500 GB	6,900	5,000	800,000 / 1 million	512 MB	300	7.4 W/ 5.9W / 35mW
1 TB	7,000	5,000	1 million / 1 million	1 GB	600	8.9W / 6.2W / 35mW

For now, Samsung is mum about the drive's availability and price. Its closest rivals (PCIe 4.0, TLC-based) are the slightly slower Corsair MP600 and the Sabrent Rocket, both of which currently cost around $200 for the 1TB version. Samsung's SSDs usually demand a premium over their competition and the 980 Pro should be no different.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/86565-samsung-launches-flagship-980-pro-pcie-40-ssd.html

 

[Irata]

It‘s about time.

 

[QuantumPhysics]

Let's see where prices are in Black Friday sales.

 

[VitalyT]

Now when the competition is going from 2TB toward 4TB and even 8TB M.2 drives, Samsung has decided to bring 250GB-1TB versions, priced at a high premium. Not sure who they are going to lure into this. The speed advantage is nice, but it's not gonna cut it. They are completely behind the curve now.

 

[fps4ever]

This should keep the "weekend benchmark gurus" drooling for a while.

 

[Lionvibez]

The 600 TBW is very low for a "pro" drive, Capacity at 1TB max and they are no longer using MLC now TLC memory.

I have the Corsair 600MP 1TB and it has 1,800 TBW.

I'm more exited to see the new drives now that will be using the Phison E18 controller towards the end of the year.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Now when the competition is going from 2TB toward 4TB and even 8TB M.2 drives, Samsung has decided to bring 250GB-1TB versions, priced at a high premium. Not sure who they are going to lure into this. The speed advantage is nice, but it's not gonna cut it. They are completely behind the curve now.

People will buy them as boot drives without checking to see if the random 4k read/write is any higher then previous generations. I'd bet good money that its about the same as previous SSDs.

I'd be much more interested in a sabarent 4TB or 8TB rocket drive and eliminate sata SSDs entirely from my system.

 

[Jpe1701]

People will buy them as boot drives without checking to see if the random 4k read/write is any higher then previous generations. I'd bet good money that its about the same as previous SSDs.

I'd be much more interested in a sabarent 4TB or 8TB rocket drive and eliminate sata SSDs entirely from my system.

Wccftech is saying 1000000 iops

 

[pcnthuziast]

Tfw the 256gb model is well over a hundred bucks...

 

[netman]

Get rid of the 256 GB drive with pathetic write speed and add a 2 TB drive...!

 

[Lionvibez]

Looks like I spoke to soon this is what I was looking for.

on the Phison's new E18 controller on nvme 1.4

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/7484...lus-ssd-packs-insane-7gb-sec-reads/index.html

Just need them to list the TBW

 

[BSim500]

Samsung "PRO" now in TLC! And the marketing / branding dumbing down continues...

 

[Lew Zealand]

Samsung "PRO" now in TLC! And the marketing / branding dumbing down continues...

SLC or go home. Accept no substitutes!

 

[Lionvibez]

SLC or go home. Accept no substitutes!

Change to that to MLC or TLC.

There are no SLC options in the consumer space and hasn't been for quite awhile.

 

[Lew Zealand]

And soon there will be no MLC options. Because there's no problem with TLC in the consumer space, which Samsung displays here and Sabrent already did.

 

[BigMeatyClackers]

Disappointed to see that endurance is halved to double the speed. I can't wait to pickup a used 970 pro after joe gamer "upgrades" to 980.

 

[Lionvibez]

And soon there will be no MLC options. Because there's no problem with TLC in the consumer space, which Samsung displays here and Sabrent already did.

You may only see SLC and MLC options only in the enterprise space and consumer will stay at TLC and QLC.

Always come down to economies of scale and profits margins.

 

[Evernessince]

And soon there will be no MLC options. Because there's no problem with TLC in the consumer space, which Samsung displays here and Sabrent already did.

It really depends on the price. If professionals are wearing the lower endurance drives out too quickly it may make more sense for them to stick to MLC options. That said, if the price is lower where it makes sense to simply replace more frequently, that's also an option.

The problem here is that Samsung is reducing endurance while keeping the same PRO moniker. I don't expect these to be cheap given the PCIe 4.0 support and branding.

I don't know, I feel like a MLC option with twice the write endurance would be very popular for professional that heavily write to their SSDs.

 

[Lionvibez]

It really depends on the price. If professionals are wearing the lower endurance drives out too quickly it may make more sense for them to stick to MLC options. That said, if the price is lower where it makes sense to simply replace more frequently, that's also an option.

The problem here is that Samsung is reducing endurance while keeping the same PRO moniker. I don't expect these to be cheap given the PCIe 4.0 support and branding.

I don't know, I feel like a MLC option with twice the write endurance would be very popular for professional that heavily write to their SSDs.

Or at least some proper wear leveling on the drives.

Why is the other PCIe 4.0 drivers with the PS5016-E16 controller and TLC memoy able to offer 1,800 TBW. Samsung is a far larger company with more money and resources. To me they got cheap this round and expect brand loyalty to get them sales.

 

[MaitieS]

Isn't that a bit ironic how behind Samsung is? When I bought 512GB 950 Pro in 2016 I had 400TBW and 980 Pro has even less? Is it a joke?

+ what is the difference between EVO & PRO now?

For the past few years Samsung showed how greedy they are. They will definitely price this whole thing big meanwhile the overall product is a pure downgrade and tbh. I really don't care about their "amazing speed" when everything else is horrible. I am already excited for benchmarks.

 

[Lionvibez]

Isn't that a bit ironic how behind Samsung is? When I bought 512GB 950 Pro in 2016 I had 400TBW and 980 Pro has even less? Is it a joke?

+ what is the difference between EVO & PRO now?

For the past few years Samsung showed how greedy they are. They will definitely price this whole thing big meanwhile the overall product is a pure downgrade and tbh. I really don't care about their "amazing speed" when everything else is horrible. I am already excited for benchmarks.

If they push the EVO line to QLC then they have totally lost it.

 

[Soaptrail]

Do we really believe Intel's 11th gen is arriving this year? I am not holding my breath!

 

[Thanthan]

Disappointed to see that endurance is halved to double the speed. I can't wait to pickup a used 970 pro after joe gamer "upgrades" to 980.

If the drive performance lets the drive efficiently use the New parts of game engines written for the ps5 ssd then that would indeed be an upgrade for Joe. Of course that remains to be tested, but it doesnt seem unlikely.

 

[R35K0]

Now when the competition is going from 2TB toward 4TB and even 8TB M.2 drives, Samsung has decided to bring 250GB-1TB versions, priced at a high premium. Not sure who they are going to lure into this. The speed advantage is nice, but it's not gonna cut it. They are completely behind the curve now.

HAHAHHAHHAHAHHA COD MW is 205 gb on my hdd right now, even if you get the 1tb these days thats like 4 games max. You also need space for other stuff like windows etc. Shadow play itself takes so much space. I have 2 4tb ssd drives and im running out of space. I am thinking of getting the gigabyte 8tb pci card, 1tb is not practical for someone that works and plays on the same pc

 

[KingAlistair]

The endurance doesn't matter, if a competing drive is half price, you buy twice as much and voila you have the same endurance. That is why MLC is redundant. Buy a cheaper but twice as large drive. TLC and QLC is here to stay.