Samsung launches high-performance SSD 990 Pro 4TB

It minimizes in-game stalls and reduces loading time for high-spec games, with improved power efficiency

Jeong-Soo Hwang 2

2023-09-07 10:30:44 hjs@hankyung.com

Korean chipmakers

Samsung Electronics Co. announced on Thursday that it is set to release a 4-terabyte (TB) SSD in its high-performance 990 Pro series.

The SSD is designed to meet the needs of gamers and creative professionals who require substantial, high-quality storage space.

The launch of the 4TB SSD comes on the heels of Samsung's release of 1TB and 2TB versions in Oct. last year. The company now aims to release this high-capacity 4TB model in Oct. this year, offering more storage solutions for gamers, creators, and tech experts.

There will be two models of the 4TB SSD: the standard 990 Pro 4TB and an enhanced version, the 990 Pro with Heatsink 4TB, which comes with additional cooling features.

The 4TB 990 Pro is engineered for near-maximal performance on a PCIe 4.0 interface. It features impressive sequential read and write speeds of up to 7,450 megabytes per second (MB/s) and 6,900 MB/s, respectively.

The SSD also supports boosted random read and write speeds of up to 1,600K and 1,550K input/output operations per second (IOPS), positioning it as the fastest SSD among consumer products utilizing a PCIe 4.0 interface. This results in minimized in-game stalls and faster loading of high-resolution videos, enhancing the user's gaming and multimedia experience.

Compared to the previous 980 Pro series, the new 4TB SSD offers a 50% improvement in power efficiency.

It incorporates a nickel-coated controller and features a heat-spreader label for consistent temperature management. An accompanying heatsink further improves thermal performance, making the SSD suitable for high-demand computing and gaming applications.

The 4TB 990 Pro benefits from Samsung's 8th-generation V-NAND technology and 1TB high-density NAND memory stacking. This is the first time Samsung has incorporated 8th-generation V-NAND into its consumer SSDs.

The introduction of 8th-generation V-NAND technology in consumer SSDs by Samsung has significantly accelerated the development of the 8th-generation V-NAND SSD market, industry watchers said.

According to market research firm Omdia, Samsung Electronics holds a 39.1% share of the client SSD market as of the first quarter of this year and has maintained its global leadership position in the consumer SSD market since 2013.

Write to Jeong-Soo Hwang at hjs@hankyung.com