Within the framework of Gamescom 2022 in Cologne, Samsung has announced its new 990 Pro NVMe SSD, a high-performance storage unit that is specially designed to speed up and improve the performance of video games, both for PC lovers and those who have a console. Since the only one compatible with this format is PS5, it is interesting news, especially for owners of this platform.
Based on PCIe 4.0, this new product from the Korean brand incorporates the latest V-NAND and a proprietary controller, sequential read and write speeds of up to 7,450 megabytes per second (MB/s) and 6,900 MB/s, respectively, while the random read and write speeds reach up to 1,400K and 1,550K IOPS, respectively. This represents an improvement of about 55%, in random performance, compared to the previous Samsung model the 980 Pro.
Instant loading of Forspoken maps
In the press release, Samsung ensures that “the 990 PRO offers faster loading times to PCs and consoles for a more immersive gaming experience. Nice words, but what about the facts? The same brand indicates a very interesting benchmark since this new unit has been tested with the next Square Enix title, forspoken, exclusive for PS5 with launch also on PC. We assume that the data is from the PC version – since, although “console” is mentioned, the version of the game tested is not specified – but the result of this 999 Pro, the map loading time was approximately one secondcompared to four seconds for a SATA SSD and 28 seconds for a hard disk drive (HDD).
Faster and more efficient
The manufacturer also highlights the energy efficiency 50% of this new 990 Pro compared to its previous version thanks to elements such as low consumption architecture, nickel coating on the controller or a heat diffusion label on the unit, which also gives it better thermal management reliable supported by the brand’s own Dynamic Thermal Guard technology. It will have a version with a heat sink that improves this aspect and RGB lights for a touch of style.
Rounding out its features is 1, 2, or 4GB LPDDR4 DRAM, depending on drive model, AES 256-bit full disk encryption, and TCG/Opal V2.0
Prices and availability
It will go on sale in October of this same 2022 with prices according to its capacity of:
- 1TB – €211.99
- 2TB – €387.99
There will also be a 4 TB version but it will not arrive until 2023, with no date or price yet defined for its launch.
