The computer components market has witnessed a loud, yet ambiguous release. The authoritative German publication ComputerBase has published an independent review of the new 2TB Samsung 990 solid-state drive. This is the first model in the 990 family without any additional suffixes in its name, which immediately sparked interest among enthusiasts and professionals.

Technical Specifications and Test Bench

The new drive operates via the PCIe 4.0 x4 interface and boasts claimed sequential read and write speeds of 7250 and 6450 MB/s, respectively. To verify the drive's actual capabilities, experts used a powerful test bench featuring a Ryzen 9 7900 processor, an ASUS B650E-F STRIX GAMING WiFi motherboard, DDR5-5200 CL38 RAM, and a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card.

Performance Issues in Real-World Tasks

The test results proved contradictory. In SLC (Single-Level Cell) mode, the Samsung 990 write speed is around 5000 MB/s; however, after filling one-third of the free space on the drive, it catastrophically drops to 220–320 MB/s.

In the read test, where the game Shadow of the Tomb Raider was installed on the drive followed by loading a folder into a RAM disk, the new model demonstrated the weakest results among all PCIe 4.0 drives tested in the ComputerBase laboratory. In terms of speed, it ranked between the older Samsung 960 Pro and the Crucial P5 with the outdated PCIe 3.0 interface.

In the test copying a 195 GB folder, the Samsung 990 managed to outperform other models in its own lineup but failed to catch up with competing solutions from other brands.

Synthetic Benchmarks and Thermal Performance

In synthetic benchmarks, the situation looks different. In 3DMark Storage and PCMark 10 Quick Storage tests, the fresh SSD showed decent performance, comparable to the 2TB Samsung 990 Evo.

The maximum power consumption of the Samsung 990 is around 5 W. The controller temperature without an installed heatsink approaches 100 °C, yet the heat does not negatively affect performance. With a heatsink, the controller does not heat up above 80 °C.

Review Conclusion

ComputerBase experts concluded that the Samsung 990 performs well only in synthetic benchmarks, while in real-world tasks it often noticeably lags behind analogues with similar pricing. This casts doubt on the expediency of purchasing the new model for those seeking maximum speed in daily work.