Samsung upgrades to 4TB for its fastest SSD

2023-08-24 22:15:20

In the Samsung range, the 990 Pro SSD is the fastest, with speeds of around 7 GB/s. If the Korean brand has not yet taken the step of PCIe 5.0 and remains faithful to the PCI-Express 4.0 standard, its high-end SSD still gains in capacity: it goes from 2 to 4 TB at most.

Without heatsink.

This is the paradox of SSDs: fast models generally offer lower capacity than average, and the 990 Pro was limited until now à 2 To (for about 150 €) when the 870 QVO, a SATA model, goes up for example at 8 TB (€366). This is partly because dense memory is often slower, but also because fast SSDs use TLC memory (3 bits per cell), which reduces the maximum capacity compared to QLC memory ( 4 bits per cell).

With heatsink.

Samsung has confirmed on X that the 4 TB version was going to land on the shelves, as indicated our colleagues from Tom’s Hardware US. This new version will be offered with or without a heatsink (the price difference can be significant) and it is perfect for a game console like the PlayStation 5 or for a Mac Pro, equipped with PCI-Express 4.0 slots. For other Macs, it will be limited to around 3.5 GB/s if you have a model that accepts M.2 models with an adapter. Externally, you can only really take advantage of it with an external Thunderbolt 3 box (the limit of which is around 2.8 Gb/s) or with a USB 4 box. The first references are starting to be available and we will offer you a test soon, but the limit is a little higher, around 3.2 GB/s. A fast model also has the advantage of saturating a slower interface in most cases, even when the pSLC cache is empty.

Finally, let’s hope Samsung is done with its wear and tear issues and associated data loss.

Samsung fixes the 990 Pro SSD bug… but you need an Intel PC or Mac


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