Samsung follows up 990 Pro, 990 Evo and 990 Evo Plus SSDs with vanilla 990 1

Samsung, like many other tech manufacturers, has reached something of a cul-de-sac in its naming conventions. Thus far, it has released the 990 Pro (a flagship PCIe 4.0 drive), the 990 Evo Plus (a high-end PCIe 4.0 drive) and the 990 Evo (a mid-range PCIe 4.0 drive), and now it's adding on a model that's even harder to find on Google: the 990 SSD.

As you might expect from the barebones naming scheme, this PCIe 4.0 drive is intended to be a more affordable option, with QLC NAND flash and an HMB cache instead of the TLC and DRAM cache you'd expect to see on premium models. However, its use of latest-gen Samsung components for its flash memory and controller allow it to hit the second-highest sequential speeds of the four different 990 models.

The vanilla 990 tops out at 7250MB/s in its largest 2TB guise, with the 1TB model resting at 7150MB/s. Random performance is also strong, at 850K IOPS reads and 1.2M IOPS writes for 2TB, again reduced on the 1TB model to 700K IOPS and 1.1M IOPS respectively. This might be a good choice for laptops and gaming handhelds too, given that Samsung claims that power efficiency "improved by up to 38 percent" versus the flagship 990 Pro.

If you bought an SSD today, what size would you be looking for?

Unfortunately, real-world testing hasn't been as kind, with Tom's Hardware reporting "mediocre power efficiency" in their review and PC Mag being disappointed by the drive's 3DMark gaming test results and high price.

Speaking of which, the 990 SSD is on sale now with a UK RRP of £212 for 1TB or £412 for 2TB. For context, the 990 Pro 1TB currently costs £161, the 990 Evo costs £219 and the 990 Evo Plus costs £183. That makes the original 990 Pro the best performing option and also the cheapest, such is the weird state of the SSD market right now due to intense demand from AI companies.

Hopefully the vanilla 990 will reach a price that's more suited to its performance before too long, but for the meantime we'd recommend sticking with existing models. The WD SN850/SN850X, Samsung 990 Pro and 9100 Pro, Lexar NM790, Kioxia Exceria Plus G4 and Crucial P310 are the shortlist of drives that I've tested and recommend depending on pricing.

Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.