Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB

[chrcoluk]

2TB version no. But 1TB 990 Pro is worth it as it's the fastest 1TB PCIe 4.0 model out there i believe. Phison, Innogrit, WD and Solidigm controllers wont achieve their full performance until 2TB and my XPG Gammix S70 Blade 4TB based on Innogrit controller still loses to 1TB 990 Pro in some benchmarks.

As for sensors then yes Samsung has sensors for both NAND and Controller. You can easily detect which one is which by putting a load on the drive. The controller is usually marked as #2 and is always hotter than #1. Especially during load.

Hwinfo64 is not the best with drive sensors unfortunately. I have 3 Gen4 drives in my system and the only way to determine which on is which i have to place a load on one drive and see which temps go up and then rename that on is Hwinfo64.

CDM settings are different than in the review. Settings: Default (instead of NVMe SSD). Profile: Default. VBS: Dsabled. Drive not empty.
X570 Primary M.2 slot.

View attachment 308261

This is one of reasons I want TPU to review SN850X (specifically 2TB model), the only other reviewer I know off that tests sustained writes only had the 1TB model, the 2TB reviews on the net were rushed one's. Also for the TPU findings on power consumption as the standard SN850 seems to lack a low power mode. However my SN850X when I enable NVME low power state does drop 8C. (980 Pro drops 11C on controller in same state). (hidden power scheme setting in windows independent of PCIE ASPM).

 

[fb020997]

I wanted to buy it, but then on prime day I scored a Hynix Platinum P41 2TB for 99€ (including the 22% VAT we have here in italy). 40€ cheaper than the 990, and 10 to 20€ cheaper than other often dramless 2tb nvmes. Couldn’t resist! Upgraded from an SN850 1tb, zero daily use perform increases but went from 100gb to ~950gb free!

 

[ARF]

I like the Lexar NM790 - extremely impressive and cheaper than the rest PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD.

Performance

• Up to 7400MB/s sequential read
• Up to 6500MB/s sequential write
• Great longevity

The NM790 shows how far module design has come in the past couple of years since it uses almost half the power of Lexar’s previous NM800PRO design with a 6W overhead, requiring only 3.5W.
To compare that power draw to other popular designs, the Samsung 990 Pro 2TB can demand up to 5.8W, the Kioxia Exceria Pro needs up to 8.9W, and the Kingston KC3000 2TB wants a worrying 9.9W.

Lexar NM790 SSD review: Excellent and affordable

A highly affordable Gen 4 NVMe that PS5 and PC owners should both be keen to purchase

www.techadvisor.com

 

[Mussels]

Looks like a better choice than any PCI-E 5.0 NVME drives out there

standard SN850 seems to lack a low power mode

It defaults to low power, gaming mode has to be enabled in their software

 

[W1zzard]

I like the Lexar NM790

Review coming soon, same hardware design as the Netac NV7000-T (MAP1602 + YMTC 232 layer)

 

[THU31]

I like the Lexar NM790 - extremely impressive and cheaper than the rest PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD.

And it's pretty cheap too. Normal price for 2 TB is about $110 over here in Poland (that includes all the taxes), and it was actually on sale for ~$90 a few weeks ago. A pity I wasn't able to buy it at the time.

 

[b1k3rdude]

To truly get proper comparison you have to test out all three drives on the first M.2 slot.

View attachment 308324

I tested all the drives in the first slot and I did winder if Win11 would speed things up or not.

I see you have 3 shots 1x win10, 1xwin11 but what was the third shot from where the r/w's were 104/309mb/s?

 

[chrcoluk]

It defaults to low power, gaming mode has to be enabled in their software

Well I posted that based on the TPU data and my own testing, on the TPU data the sn850 doesnt respond to when w1zzard enabled ASPM, on my sn850x if I enable NVME power saving states via the hidden power scheme settings, my 980 PRO drops its idle temps considerably, but the sn850x doesnt budge outside of normal variance. Idle temps probably arent that important, but its just an observation I made.

I think we getting a TPU sn850x review soon so be interesting to see the results on that.

Here is a link to some info on the NVME power states.

NVMe

Outlines best practices for power management for NVMe storage devices

learn.microsoft.com

What I adjusted to test was the ""Primary Transition Latency Tolerance" as well as secondary as they default to 0 (off) for all the power schemes except power saving, although enabling secondary adds noticeable latency when browsing the drive, so I only briefly tested that.

W1zzard tested via toggling ASPM, which I suspect does the same thing on the controller if enabled as NVME drives seem to be designed to go in to power saving if the data link is in a low power state.

Using just the primary my 980 pro when tested went from 56C controller idle temp down to 48C, the sn850x from 44C to 43C which is small enough to be just a normal fluctuation.

For w1zzard's data

Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB Review

Samsung 990 Pro is the company's flagship M.2 NVMe SSD. Compared to the 980 Pro, it comes with an improved controller and more modern flash. Our review confirms: this is the fastest PCI-Express 4.0 drive you can buy right now, beating the competition from WD, Phison and Solidigm.

www.techpowerup.com

Check the ASPM enabled vs disabled in top two graphs (this isnt on the actual sn850 review, I think he only started adding this on later reviews, but he added the data for the drive on later reviews).

Now the drive could be always activating low power state regardless of the windows setting (which is what I think you suggested). I accept that.

TPU's graphs the SN850 stays at 1.5w which seems high for a low power mode, but of course thats the older model. (980 pro on his data goes from 0.7w down to 0.03w)

Hope that explains my comment.

 

[Ujh]

How can you compare a 2tb drive with a 1tb one? Saying that a 50 dollars 1tb 980 Pro is a better value than a 75 dollars 990 pro?

I paid the 1tb 980 pro € 167, while the 2tb 990 pro € 147... Both discounted.

 

[chrcoluk]

How can you compare a 2tb drive with a 1tb one? Saying that a 50 dollars 1tb 980 Pro is a better value than a 75 dollars 990 pro?

I paid the 1tb 980 pro € 167, while the 2tb 990 pro € 147... Both discounted.

I think the only different would be double TBW on 2TB vs 1TB and possibly increased sustained write performance on the 2TB depending on design of the SSD.

 

[W1zzard]

Check the ASPM enabled vs disabled in top two graphs (this isnt on the actual sn850 review, I think he only started adding this on later reviews, but he added the data for the drive on later reviews).

Correct

What I adjusted to test was the ""Primary Transition Latency Tolerance" as well as secondary as they default to 0 (off) for all the power schemes except power saving, although enabling secondary adds noticeable latency when browsing the drive, so I only briefly tested that.

Any idea if notebooks use different settings that might let the drive enter the lowest state (unlike my own testing) ?

 

[chrcoluk]

Correct


Any idea if notebooks use different settings that might let the drive enter the lowest state (unlike my own testing) ?

No idea, Microsoft's document which I linked to just says its not used by default, and they went in to no more detail, but I observed its preconfigured in the power saving scheme, so I am guessing laptops usually use that scheme by default so would then utilise it. Thanks for confirming my interpretation of your data.

 

[W1zzard]

so I am guessing laptops usually use that scheme by default

But that would require an OEM to preload that profile? i.e. a fresh OS install won't have it? Or do you suspect that MS uses different settings per device type?

 

[chrcoluk]

But that would require an OEM to preload that profile? i.e. a fresh OS install won't have it? Or do you suspect that MS uses different settings per device type?

Yeah I think the OEM would preconfigure/preload it, the OS installer allows OEM's to preconfigure things like the power scheme, so they can make these adjustments but no idea if there would be any automated change based on device type, I think the OEM preloading it is more likely. What I observed is the NVME power states are active by default on "power saving" scheme/profile and that I am assuming on battery devices that profile is the out of the box profile as would make sense. Would need someone with a Windows notebook to confirm.

 

[W1zzard]

Would need someone with a Windows notebook to confirm.

I have a new Framwork laptop on which I installed Windows 11 myself, and a Razer AMD laptop, which came with the OS preinstalled.

What do you need?

 

[chrcoluk]

I have a new Framwork laptop on which I installed Windows 11 myself, and a Razer AMD laptop, which came with the OS preinstalled.

What do you need?

Ok you open the settings, click power/sleep and then additional power settings, this should bring up the control panel showing the active plan (schemes are called plans on that).

Or if that doesnt work on windows 11, typing 'powercfg /l' in a command prompt will show a * next to the active plan.

 

[W1zzard]

No need to dump the whole power plan?

 

[chrcoluk]

No need to dump the whole power plan?

You could do if you want, it would show if the actual power plan itself has changed from the defaults I see here, but what I asked you to do would confirm the default plan (assuming you havent changed it since install).

powercfg /export will export it to a file.

In another Microsoft document, they stated the reason most scheme settings are hidden is because they not designed to be adjusted by end users but instead by system manufacturers. so on OEM installations there is always the chance there is some stuff changed on each plan.

 

[Forge]

Even for that, you don't need a RAID setup, you can just use a junction point in Windows.

You don't need to do that, either. Why do something that takes effort and might cause issues, when there's a way *built into Steam itself* to add additional drives? My steam library sprawls across four disks, and the OS and chipset RAID are disabled. No junctions, no hardlinks, just "add to library" and it's managed. I can even move games from one drive to another entirely within the Steam interface.

 

[Mussels]

Well I posted that based on the TPU data and my own testing, on the TPU data the sn850 doesnt respond to when w1zzard enabled ASPM, on my sn850x if I enable NVME power saving states via the hidden power scheme settings, my 980 PRO drops its idle temps considerably, but the sn850x doesnt budge outside of normal variance. Idle temps probably arent that important, but its just an observation I made.

I think we getting a TPU sn850x review soon so be interesting to see the results on that.

Here is a link to some info on the NVME power states.

NVMe

Outlines best practices for power management for NVMe storage devices

learn.microsoft.com

What I adjusted to test was the ""Primary Transition Latency Tolerance" as well as secondary as they default to 0 (off) for all the power schemes except power saving, although enabling secondary adds noticeable latency when browsing the drive, so I only briefly tested that.

W1zzard tested via toggling ASPM, which I suspect does the same thing on the controller if enabled as NVME drives seem to be designed to go in to power saving if the data link is in a low power state.

Using just the primary my 980 pro when tested went from 56C controller idle temp down to 48C, the sn850x from 44C to 43C which is small enough to be just a normal fluctuation.

For w1zzard's data

Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB Review

Samsung 990 Pro is the company's flagship M.2 NVMe SSD. Compared to the 980 Pro, it comes with an improved controller and more modern flash. Our review confirms: this is the fastest PCI-Express 4.0 drive you can buy right now, beating the competition from WD, Phison and Solidigm.

www.techpowerup.com

Check the ASPM enabled vs disabled in top two graphs (this isnt on the actual sn850 review, I think he only started adding this on later reviews, but he added the data for the drive on later reviews).

Now the drive could be always activating low power state regardless of the windows setting (which is what I think you suggested). I accept that.

TPU's graphs the SN850 stays at 1.5w which seems high for a low power mode, but of course thats the older model. (980 pro on his data goes from 0.7w down to 0.03w)

Hope that explains my comment.

SN850 and SN850x are different ofc.

I just know from having an 850, that gaming mode had to be enabled manually and that disables power saving.

 

[rbgc]

+ New NVMe 2.0 controller
+ Redesigned to improve random read performance
+ Low latency
+ Optimization for DirectStorage and PS5 usage

 

[bug]

+ New NVMe 2.0 controller
+ Redesigned to improve random read performance
+ Low latency
+ Optimization for DirectStorage and PS5 usage

One can only imagine how dumb Samsung thinks their target audience is when they slap "Pro" on a product and proceed to explain how it's optimized for games

 

[rbgc]

One can only imagine how dumb Samsung thinks their target audience is when they slap "Pro" on a product and proceed to explain how it's optimized for games

Maybe sometime you will read something about NVMe 2.0 and improved random read perf benefits for DirectStorage. But with your response "One can only imagine how dumb..." I don't expecting it.

 

[THU31]

Maybe sometime you will read something about NVMe 2.0 and improved random read perf benefits for DirectStorage. But with your response "One can only imagine how dumb..." I don't expecting it.

I'd be curious to see it tested in Ratchet & Clank, where even the best Gen4 drives are slightly slower than PS5.

Either way, Gen5 is a long way from becoming popular and affordable.

 

[Mussels]

Maybe sometime you will read something about NVMe 2.0 and improved random read perf benefits for DirectStorage. But with your response "One can only imagine how dumb..." I don't expecting it.

Most of the time you can read those things and they're just marketing fluff.
Everything You Need to Know About the NVMe 2.0 Specifications and New Technical Proposals - NVM Express
I looked it up - the key feature of NVME 2.0 is support for mechanical drives on NVME.