Samsung launches new SSD 990 PRO series on Gen 8 V-NAND

Samsung Electronics 4TB 990 PRO. [Courtesy of Samsung Electronics]

Samsung Electronics on Thursday announced the launch of a new 4-terabyte (TB) model in its SSD 990 PRO series. The 990 PRO series consists of high-performance PCIe 4.0 SSDs powered by Samsung’s eighth-generation V-NAND (V8) technology and an improved proprietary controller.

The 4TB 990 PRO is designed to meet the needs of gamers, creative professionals, and tech enthusiasts who require high-capacity, high-performance SSDs. It is optimized for handling large data volumes, such as 3D/4K graphics work, data analytics, and high-quality games, making it suitable for modern PCs, laptops, game consoles, and computing systems.

This SSD offers impressive performance, with sequential read speeds of up to 7,450 megabytes per second (MB/s) and write speeds of up to 6,900 MB/s. The top-tier performance and storage space also boasts enhanced random read and write speeds of up to 1,600K and 1,550K IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) respectively.

One notable feature is its power efficiency, which has been improved by up to 50 percent compared to the previous 980 PRO series. Samsung Electronics said it added a nickel coating on the controller and a heat spreader label to maintain optimal temperature levels, ensuring consistent performance over time. The 990 PRO with Heatsink is equipped with a slim heatsink to support sustained high-performance computing and gaming while preventing overheating, making it compatible with the latest game consoles.

Samsung also offers the Samsung Magician software for optimal SSD performance, allowing users to keep firmware, drivers, and settings up to date while customizing power and performance settings to suit their preferences. Samsung Magician will be updated to version 8.0 this month, which will integrate SSDs, portable SSDs, memory cards, and USB flash drives.

Samsung’s expansion into the 8th generation V-NAND SSD market for consumer use has been well-received, and the company maintains its position as the leading brand in the client SSD market, holding a 39.1 percent market share as of the first quarter of 2023 according to data from Omdia. With the increasing demand for high-capacity SSDs, Samsung aims to lead the growth of the NAND market.

According to the market tracker, sales of SSDs and HDDs in PCs will grow from $8.7 billion and $1.6 billion respectively, this year to $13 billion and $1 billion in 2027, with the revenue gap widening from 6 times this year to 13 times in 2027.

This shift to high-performance SSDs will inevitably lead to increased demand for high-capacity SSDs.

Omdia forecasts that the share of high-capacity SSDs of 4TB or more in PCs will grow steadily from 1 percent this year to 6 percent in 2027.

“As the demand for high-resolution content such as 4K video and ultra-fast data-processing speeds continues to grow, high-performance NVMe2 storage has become a core requirement,” according to Sohn Han-gu, Corporate Vice President of the Memory Brand Product Biz Team at Samsung Electronics.