Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB

[Knight47]

Hi there.
I was comparing this drive to the 980 Pro review and noticed that in the thermal testing the read speeds on the 990 quickly drops to 2GB/s(almost the speed without cache) while the 980 Pro stays at 5GB/s, the write speeds is slower too on the 990 Pro but only by like 200-300MB/s. It doesn't seem like thermal throttling, can anyone explain what's happening?

 

[W1zzard]

It doesn't seem like thermal throttling, can anyone explain what's happening?

I've noticed it too, not sure why it's happening

 

[Mussels]

Might be somethng samsung did to keep thermals low, as part of the 'dying drives' firmware fixes?

 

[Knight47]

Might be somethng samsung did to keep thermals low, as part of the 'dying drives' firmware fixes?

So they hardcoded to drop speed after a few seconds regardless of temperatures(would run too hot without fan in the test)? Now the question is, did they screw up the 980 Pro too with the read only firmware fix?

 

[chrcoluk]

My 980 pro doesnt exhibit this behaviour. So I think this is a 990 pro only thing. Samsung fighting demons at the moment.

 

[Mussels]

So they hardcoded to drop speed after a few seconds regardless of temperatures(would run too hot without fan in the test)? Now the question is, did they screw up the 980 Pro too with the read only firmware fix?

Can't say for sure of course, it's just an educated guess that they've changed something with how their caching works

 

[csendesmark]

I am thinking about replacing my system m.2 drive, which is currently a Samsung 970PRO which was really robust and was quite fast.
But started to look for a replacement.
The Samsung 990PRO is one option but the 970PRO 500GB has the same amount of TBW as the 990PRO 1TB, so I looked for other good alternatives too.
7450/6900 MB/s 600GB TBW (5 year warranty)
SEAGATE 1TB FireCuda 530
7300/6900 MB/s 1275TB TBW (5 year warranty)
LEXAR Professional NM800 1TB
5800/7400 MB/s 3000TB TBW (5 year warranty)

 

[trsttte]

I am thinking about replacing my system m.2 drive, which is currently a Samsung 970PRO which was really robust and was quite fast.
But started to look for a replacement.
The Samsung 990PRO is one option but the 970PRO 500GB has the same amount of TBW as the 990PRO 1TB, so I looked for other good alternatives too.
7450/6900 MB/s 600GB TBW (5 year warranty)
SEAGATE 1TB FireCuda 530
7300/6900 MB/s 1275TB TBW (5 year warranty)
LEXAR Professional NM800 1TB
5800/7400 MB/s 3000TB TBW (5 year warranty)

You won't find anything quite like the 970 Pro unless you go with a true pro enterprise drive. The 970 Pro was a proper pro drive with 2 bit nand, nothing in the consumer market since has matched it, even the newer 980 and 990 pro that switched to TLC.

 

[csendesmark]

You won't find anything quite like the 970 Pro unless you go with a true pro enterprise drive. The 970 Pro was a proper pro drive with 2 bit nand, nothing in the consumer market since has matched it, even the newer 980 and 990 pro that switched to TLC.

Well I hope that some manufacturer will release a 0.5 or 1TB full SLC drive with PCIe gen4 interface. It is still some time before I actually going to replace it.
My drive is just bit passed the warranty time, no issue so far. But I want fast and very reliable drive for my system drive, no need for big size, even an other half TB fair.

 

[Mussels]

You won't find anything quite like the 970 Pro unless you go with a true pro enterprise drive. The 970 Pro was a proper pro drive with 2 bit nand, nothing in the consumer market since has matched it, even the newer 980 and 990 pro that switched to TLC.

the lifespan and quality drastically dropped after the 970 pro. Nothing like it ever since then, sadly.

Well I hope that some manufacturer will release a 0.5 or 1TB full SLC drive with PCIe gen4 interface. It is still some time before I actually going to replace it.
My drive is just bit passed the warranty time, no issue so far. But I want fast and very reliable drive for my system drive, no need for big size, even an other half TB fair.

Never going to happen - it's an expensive dead technology as far as the manufacturing side is concerned.

 

[csendesmark]

Well, then I need a drive with an 500+ GB SLC cache which can assure the durability for at least 5 years.

None of these are looks like my future system drive.
The top MP700 is only due because it's hot controller.

 

[bug]

Well, then I need a drive with an 500+ GB SLC cache which can assure the durability for at least 5 years.
View attachment 315127
None of these are looks like my future system drive.
The top MP700 is only due because it's hot controller.

We all have our particular needs. But at the end of the day, we all have to settle for what's available in the market. Or simply don't buy, if we're not satisfied with the options.

 

[W1zzard]

The 970 Pro was a proper pro drive with 2 bit nand, nothing in the consumer market since has matched it, even the newer 980 and 990 pro that switched to TLC.

On some TLC drives with cache exhausted you can now write at higher speeds than 970 Pro (2.2 GB/s on avg)

 

[csendesmark]

On some TLC drives with cache exhausted you can now write at higher speeds than 970 Pro (2.2 GB/s on avg)

Actually I am fine with TLC, but I endurance is paramount.

We all have our particular needs. But at the end of the day, we all have to settle for what's available in the market. Or simply don't buy, if we're not satisfied with the options.

Sure, we cannot fabricate our SSDs.
Market will tell if there is place for a smaller but super fast and reliable SSD.
I can still can wait years if I need to.

 

[W1zzard]

but I endurance is paramount

Have you ever reached the TBW rating on any of the SSDs you've owned?

Market will tell if there is place for a smaller but super fast and reliable SSD.

There is, but the answer is TLC, which is super fast and reliable

 

[csendesmark]

Have you ever reached the TBW rating on any of the SSDs you've owned?


There is, but the answer is TLC, which is super fast and reliable

No, and I will not wait that long,
But I lost a 980PRO to having faulty NAND chips tho which is TLC

 

[Makaveli]

Have you ever reached the TBW rating on any of the SSDs you've owned?

This is a good point because most people don't even come close.

My Gen 1 Corsair 1TB MP600 Drive is rated for 1800 TBW I purchased it in 2019 so will be hit 5 years old dec 2024.

Host writes at 42.4 TB.

 

[THU31]

This is a good point because most people don't even come close.

My Gen 1 Corsair 1TB MP600 Drive is rated for 1200 TBW I purchased it in 2019 so will be hit 5 years old dec 2024.

Host writes at 42.4 TB.

My system 500 GB drive has 38 TB written after 2.5 years, and it's rated for just 170 TBW.

Most of that comes from watching Twitch and YouTube, as browsers write video data to the drive.

I don't know if I'll use it for 10 years, but it is a possibility.

 

[Makaveli]

My system 500 GB drive has 38 TB written after 2.5 years, and it's rated for just 170 TBW.

Most of that comes from watching Twitch and YouTube, as browsers write video data to the drive.

I don't know if I'll use it for 10 years, but it is a possibility.

I also do lots of Twitch and the tube maybe I should move the browser caches to another drive

 

[Mussels]

I lost a 980PRO to having faulty NAND chips tho which is TLC

That's not TLC's fault - that's samsungs.
They relied on the good name from the 970 series, while the 980 and 990 have been really, really problematic.

Many of us moved to the WD SN850 when that happened (fantastic drives) and then the SN850X came out, and it was problematic.


The final answer here is that SSD's are a crapshoot and you can't really tell what's good til they've been out long enough they're no longer for sale. Always keep backups!

I also do lots of Twitch and the tube maybe I should move the browser caches to another drive

Primocache has halved the writes on my C: drive (It's TRIM aware, so it reduces writes as a whole - not just buffers them)

 

[W1zzard]

I also do lots of Twitch and the tube maybe I should move the browser caches to another drive

Why would you sacrifice performance every day, to avoid reaching a made-up TBW number that you will never reach anyway, or that will cost $5 to replace in 10 years?

 

[Makaveli]

Why would you sacrifice performance every day, to avoid reaching a made-up TBW number that you will never reach anyway, or that will cost $5 to replace in 10 years?

I was being sarcastic that's why the smiley face at the end.

To add to your original point most of us won't hit the TBW rating and probably replace the drive before even getting half way.

And I did test it last night to see if there was a difference performance-wise in FF by moving the cache of my WD drive to the Corsair drive and saw nothing.

 

[Mussels]

Just to fill in the primocache details
lotta browsing today, downloads to other drives and not this one.

PC has been on for 10 hours.

37% reduction in writes is huge - but at 2GB a day, even a cheap SSD won't really be affected too much by this.
It's the budget low end drives used poorly that die fast, some of them are under 100TBW.

It's the artificially inflated writes that kill them - things like broken games spamming log file entries at 1KB each write on a TLC or QLC drive that's 99% full (Or users torrenting and filling those same drives) with low RAM and windows writing to em even more.

Some drives probably inflate the writes when they run out of cache too, but it's not something you could really know about other than when drives have these values inflate for little reason or suddenly die - their internal workings and logic is secretive.


These drives have been used pretty heavily, but also on systems with large amounts of RAM
Yet the worst is only at 38TBW

Ahah! found it at last
WD hide the TBW ratings on their green drives and rate them in hours/years instead, based on some mythical usage figure that is meaningless
The actual ratings can be quite worrying
WD Internal SSD Endurance and Warranty Periods

5 years, but 100TBW? Do they math that out and argue with warranty if you use more than 20TBW a year?

The SN350 series is the one I always think of and forget the model name of, because 40/60/80TBW is far, far below everyone else in that capacity - especially if it's divided by that 3 year warranty period.
Who'd want an 80TBW drive when you can get 1,200TBW in the same capacity?

 

[Cremieux]

An internal kernel timer keeps track of the time and is more accurate than using a stop watch.

What is the name of the timer you used? I can't see it anywhere in the review.

 

[Scour]

Is a review of the 990 EVO planned?