A New Samsung 990 SSD Emerges, but It’s Neither EVO nor PRO
Samsung appears to be preparing a new addition to its SSD lineup, and it’s not what you might expect. The company briefly listed a Samsung 990 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD on its Canadian website before the pages were removed. The drive, available in 1TB and 2TB capacities, drops the familiar EVO and PRO branding and takes a different approach to performance and pricing.
DRAM-Free Design with HMB Technology
Unlike Samsung 990 PRO, this new 990 SSD does not include a dedicated DRAM cache. Instead, it relies on Host Memory Buffer (HMB) technology, which borrows a small portion of your system’s RAM for caching duties. This approach helps keep costs down while still delivering impressive performance on paper.
Performance: Near-Flagship Speeds
Despite its budget-oriented design, the 990 SSD offers strong sequential read and write speeds that sit at the upper end of the PCIe Gen 4 spectrum:
- 1TB Model: Up to 7,150 MB/s read, 6,450 MB/s write
- 2TB Model: Up to 7,250 MB/s read, 6,450 MB/s write
Random performance is also respectable, with the 2TB variant rated for up to 850K read IOPS and 1.2M write IOPS.
Lower Endurance and Shorter Warranty
The cost-cutting measures become more apparent in the endurance and warranty department. The 1TB model is rated for 400 TBW (Terabytes Written) , while the 2TB version offers 800 TBW. Both carry a 3-year limited warranty——shorter than the 5-year coverage typically found on Samsung’s PRO series. This suggests the drive may use QLC NAND rather than the more durable TLC flash found in higher-end models.
Positioning: An Entry-Level PCIe 4.0 Option
The new 990 SSD appears to be Samsung’s answer to the growing demand for more affordable storage options. Early reseller listings have already tagged it as an “entry-level NVMe” product. If it does use QLC NAND, it would give Samsung a proper budget tier below the EVO Plus and PRO lines.
Samsung 990 PRO SSD – AMAZON
Pricing and Availability
Samsung has not yet announced an official release date or pricing. One early Canadian listing suggested a price of roughly $336 for the 1TB model, but that figure has drawn criticism as being too high for a DRAM-less QLC drive. It’s best to treat any current pricing as placeholder B2B figures until Samsung makes an official announcement.
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Bottom Line
The Samsung 990 PCIe 4.0 SSD looks set to offer impressive read speeds at a more accessible price point, thanks to its DRAM-less HMB design. However, the reduced endurance and shorter warranty mean it’s best suited for everyday users and gamers rather than heavy content creators or professionals who write large amounts of data regularly. For those looking for a budget-friendly PCIe 4.0 drive that still delivers near-flagship read performance, this new 990 could be an interesting option—once Samsung confirms the final pricing and release date.