Leak: Samsung 990 SSD makes compromises to lower price despite DRAM crisis

Samsung currently offers two PCIe 4.0 SSDs in the 990 series, the 990 Evo Plus ($250 for 1 TB on Amazon) and the 990 Pro, both of which use TLC NAND. Only the more expensive Pro model features a DRAM cache. Now, Overclocking found a new Samsung 990 SSD on Samsung’s website that completely omits any model suffix. ComputerBase was able to find more details about its specifications from a retailer.

According to this information, the Samsung 990 is available with either 1 TB or 2 TB of storage. The M.2-2280 SSD is connected via PCIe 4.0. Samsung advertises transfer rates of 7,150 MB/s for reading data and 6,450 MB/s for writing data, making the SSD similarly fast to the other models in the 990 series. To reduce costs, however, Samsung has made two compromises. First, the SSD does not include a DRAM cache. Instead, it uses a Host Memory Buffer (HMB), which is a small portion of the system’s RAM. This can lead to higher latency and lower performance under sustained load.

Second, the SSD uses QLC NAND instead of TLC NAND. This primarily affects the drive’s lifespan. With a capacity of 1 TB, the Samsung 990 achieves a lifespan of only 400 TBW, while the 2 TB model reaches 800 TBW. By comparison, the Samsung 990 Evo Plus achieves a 50 percent longer lifespan of 600 and 1,200 TBW, respectively. The SSD is said to consume only 3 mW of power in standby mode, during read operations, power consumption rises to up to 4.3 watts. It is not yet known when or at what price the Samsung 990 SSD will be released.