Samsung launches 980 PRO NVMe SSD with improved read and write speeds

Samsung has launched its brand new PCIe 4.0 NVMe solid state drive (SSD), the Samsung SSD 980 PRO. The SSD, as the South Korean tech firm says, is designed for professionals and consumers for high-performing PCs, workstations and game consoles. The SSD is also said to be ideal for consumers who work with 4K and 8K contents or play graphic heavy games. 

The SSD 980 PRO has its Elpis controller, V-NAND and DRAM designed in-house so the PCIe 4.0’s power can be utilised to its full potential, says the firm. This makes the SSD powerful enough to deliver read and write speeds of up to 7,000 MB/s and 5,000 MB/s respectively. It is said to have random read and write speeds of up to 1,000K IOPS, which also makes it twice as powerful as PCIe 3.0 SSDs and up to 12.7 times faster than SATA SSDs.

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As for thermal controlling, the new SSD by Samsung uses nickel coating on the controller as well as a heat spreader label on the back side unlike others that use external copper heatsinks to diffuse heat. It is also because of the nickel coating and heat spreader, the SSD 980 PRO is able to maintain the M.2 form factor. There’s also Samsung’s Dynamic Thermal Guard technology to take care of the thermals.

You can get the SSD 980 PRO in 1TB, 500GB and 250GB models. It is said to be available worldwide starting this month. The 2TB capacity variant will be coming later this year. The suggested retail prices start at $89.99 for the 250GB model.

“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.”