Samsung has finally announced its long-awaited 980 PRO NVMe M.2 SSDs, which offer sequential read speeds of up to 7,000 MB/s and write speeds of up to 5,000 MB/s thanks to their blazing-fast PCIe 4.0 interface. Coming in 2TB, 1 TB, 500 GB, and 250 GB flavors, the drives also feature nickel-coated controllers and heat spreader labels to tame higher temperatures.
You can check out the official store listings for Samsung’s 980 PRO NVMe M.2 SSDs here. The 250 GB version will cost $89.99, but we’re not sure what the MSRPs of the higher capacities are. Additionally, the 2 TB model may not be available until the end of the year.
Key Specifications
| Category | Samsung SSD 980 PRO |
| Interface | PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.3c |
| Form Factor | M.2 (2280) |
| Storage Memory | Samsung 1xx-layer V-NAND 3-bit MLC |
| Controller | Samsung Elpis Controller |
| DRAM | 1GB LPDDR4 (1TB) 512MB LPDDR4 (500GB, 250GB) |
| Capacity4 | 1TB, 500GB, 250GB |
| Sequential Read/Write Speed | Up to 7,000 MB/s, Up to 5,000 MB/s |
| Random Read/Write Speed (QD32) | Up to 1,000K IOPS, 1,000K IOPS |
| Management Software | Samsung Magician Software |
| Data Encryption | AES 256-bit Full Disk Encryption, TCG/Opal V2.0, Encrypted Drive (IEEE1667) |
| Total Bytes Written | 600TB (1TB) 300TB (500GB) 150TB (250GB) |
| Warranty5 | Five-year Limited Warranty6 |
Original Press Release:
Samsung Electronics, the world leader in advanced memory technology, today unveiled the company’s first consumer PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid state drive (SSD) – the Samsung SSD 980 PRO. The new 980 PRO is designed for professionals and consumers who want cutting-edge performance in their high-end PCs, workstations and game consoles.
“Over the years, Samsung has continuously challenged the limits of high-speed flash memory storage solutions,” said Dr. Mike Mang, vice president of Memory Brand Product Biz at Samsung Electronics. “The new 980 PRO SSD reflects our continuing commitment to delivering exceptional products consumers have come to expect from Samsung.”
Optimized for handling data-intensive applications, the 980 PRO is ideal for consumers and professionals who work with 4K and 8K contents, and play graphics-heavy games. All the key components, including the custom Elpis controller, V-NAND and DRAM, are completely designed in-house to deliver the full potential of PCIe 4.0. This allows the 980 PRO to provide sequential read and write speeds of up to 7,000 MB/s and 5,000 MB/s respectively, as well as random read and write speeds of up to 1,000K IOPS, making it up to two times faster than PCIe 3.0 SSDs and up to 12.7 times faster than SATA SSDs.
In addition to enhanced performance, the 980 PRO comes with outstanding thermal control solutions for improved reliability. While most of today’s high-performance NVMe SSDs rely on external copper heatsinks to diffuse heat, Samsung’s 980 PRO employs a nickel coating on the controller as well as a heat spreader label on the back side of the SSD for efficient thermal management. These innovative heat-dissipating functions also allow the drive to maintain its compact and slim M.2 form factor. Samsung’s Dynamic Thermal Guard technology further ensures that the drive’s temperature stays at the optimal level, minimizing performance fluctuations over the long haul.
The Samsung SSD 980 PRO comes in 1TB, 500GB and 250GB models, and will be available worldwide starting this month, while the 2TB capacity model will be available by the end of this year. The 980 PRO’s manufacturer’s suggested retail prices start at $89.99 for the 250GB model. For more information, including warranty details, please visit samsung.com/SSD or samsungssd.com.