By With the 990 EVO Plus, Samsung has advanced its distinctive hybrid PCIe 4.0/5.0 host memory buffer (HMB) SSD. In the majority of situations, it provides a noticeable performance boost over the previous 990 EVO.
Features of the Samsung 990 EVO Plus
The 990 EVO Plus is a 2280 form factor (22 mm wide by 80 mm long) NVMe 2.01 SSD that uses an internal Samsung controller and stacked 133-layer TLC NAND. With the same potential bandwidth, the 990 EVO and EVO Plus can operate as two-lane (x2) PCIe 5.0 or four-lane (x4) PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs. A couple of valuable PCIe 5.0 lanes can be preserved with the correct BIOS. Well done on the duality, but do not count on PCIe 5.0’s full four-lane performance.
There is no DRAM on the SSD because primary caching is done using a host memory buffer (HMB). That does not limit sequential speed at all; in fact, newer HMB designs have outperformed DRAM-enabled PCIe 4.0 SSDs in that area. The breed is marginally harmed by random performance.
SAMSUNG 990 EVO Plus SSD 1TB, PCIe Gen 4×4 | Gen 5×2 M.2 2280, Speeds Up-to 7,150 MB/s, Upgrade Storage for PC/Laptops, HMB Technology and Intelligent Turbowrite 2.0
There are three different versions of the 990 EVO Plus: the $345 4TB model, the $185 2TB model (which I tested), and the $110 1TB model. That is far higher than the average price for HMB drives in those capacities, although it is not terrible for a business with Samsung’s juice. However, they have a five-year warranty with a typical 600TBW (terabytes that can be written) per terabyte of capacity rating (for TLC NAND).
Is the Samsung 990 EVO Plus a good purchase?
Choose the 990 EVO Plus over the 990 EVO if you have to choose between the two. The Samsung brand also has a certain cachet. But be cautious when you shop. Although the price of the 990 EVO Plus may decrease, you can now get faster for less money and just slightly compromise performance for much less money.
