Big SSDs! Samsung teases their 4TB 990 PRO SSD

Samsung’s flagship SSD will soon have a 4TB model

It may be a PCIe 4.0 drive, but it is hard to argue that Samsung’s 990 PRO isn’t a fast SSD. Yes, PCIe 5.0 drives are now available, but these drives primarily focus on maximum sequential speeds, which are rarely fully utilised on modern PCs.

With their 990 PRO series of SSDs, Samsung delivered a 55% increase in random I/O performance over their older 980 PRO SSD models, giving buyers a substantial speed boost without moving to PCIe 5.0. Sequential read/write speeds also saw a huge increase with the 990 PRO, effectively maximising the potential of PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots. Now, Samsung have confirmed that they are working on a high capacity model of their 990 PRO SSD, offering users 4TB of fast PCIe 4.0 storage.

Power-wise, the 990 PRO’s new controller offers users up to a 50% increase in power efficiency over the Elipis controlled used in their 980 PRO SSD. This reduction in power draw results in less heat production and lower SSD thermals, This change is beneficial for all users, especially those who work their SSDs hard during productivity tasks.

Samsung are marketing their 4TB 990 PRO SSD has being the “Same blazing-fast storage with double the max capacity for gaming, video, 3D editing, and more.” Don’t expect this drive’s extra NAND to give it any additional performance, but expect it to deliver the same levels of SSD performance as its 2TB counterparts. Full specifications for Samsung’s 990 PRO series below. Note that the 1TB model of this drive offers slightly lower random read IOPS than its 2TB and 4TB counterparts.

Sadly, Samsung has not revealed the pricing or the release date of their planned 4TB 990 PRO SSD model, though we can expect to hear more about this new SSD soon.

While it may not offer the fastest levels of sequential performance, Samsung’s 990 PRO is still an incredibly fast SSD, and unlike many of today’s PCIe 5.0 SSDs, this drive does not run crazy hot or require beefy cooling solutions to operate at maximum performance levels, which makes this drive appealing to those who need a fast drive, but don’t want to deal with the downsides of early PCIe 5.0 storage devices.

You can join the discussion on Samsung’s planned 4TB 990 PRO SSD on the OC3D Forums.