PCIe 5.0 SSDs are becoming more common, with blisteringly fast transfer speeds that come with finger-melting temperatures. While most storage manufacturers went off tilting at windmills, aiming for the maximum throughput that PCIe 5 x4 can provide, Samsung decided to release the 990 Evo, a midrange SSD that replaces the aging 970 Evo in the lineup. That brought improved performance and efficiency, but it had rather pedestrian speeds, even when using a Gen 5 x2 connection.

Still, being able to run at Gen 5 x2 or PCIe 4.0 x4 is useful for older devices, and Samsung is now back with the 990 Evo Plus. This M.2 NVMe SSD keeps the same lane configurations of the earlier device while increasing speeds to 7,250MB/s and 6,300MB/s for read and write, respectively. It's not a speed demon, but it has a respectable price, uses Samsung components throughout, and can keep pace with the best PCIe 4.0 drives. This is the drive Samsung should have released earlier, and it is now a decent value while not falling prey to the thermal issues of most PCIe 5.0 SSDs.

About this review: Samsung sent us the 990 Evo Plus (2TB) for the purposes of this review, and the company had no input into its contents.

Price, specs, and availability

The Samsung 990 Evo Plus SSD was launched on September 25, 2023. It's available from major retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Newegg and directly from Samsung.com. It has storage capacities of 1TB ($110), 2TB ($185), and 4TB ($345). That's lower than the MSRP of the Samsung 990 Evo while being faster in all metrics. All versions are DRAM-less and feature Samsung's new 5nm SSD controller. This is one of the few SSDs that use the manufacturer's own designs for controllers, NAND, and software, and that should make for a more coherent whole.

What I like about the Samsung 990 Evo Plus

Single-sided SSD performance that's close to Gen 4 maximums

The Samsung 990 Evo Plus is a basic-looking, single-sided SSD. Samsung doesn't do green PCBs for consumer-level SSDs, so you get an all-black PCB with a few NAND modules, the new 5nm controller, and some stickers for dissipating heat. It's unclear if this is replacing the 990 Evo in the lineup, but that drive is heavily discounted right now, so it might be clearing stock.

Unlike the previous 990 Evo, this new drive takes advantage of the two PCIe 5.0 lanes, with a maximum read speed of up to 7,250MB/s, and write speeds up to 6,300MB/s. With PCIe 5.0 SSDs that use four lanes regularly going above 14,000MB/s, the 990 Evo Plus is where it should be speed-wise. With four-lane Gen 5 drives being too hot to use in laptops or other thin devices, this is a decent way to get performant SSD speeds without increasing thermals over that of Gen 4 drives.

CrystalDiskMark is the first program we reach for when testing new drives, and that's no different today. What is different is that Samsung is marketing the 990 Evo Plus as x4 when used on a PCIe 4.0 interface and x2 when on a PCIe 5.0 interface. To see if there were any differences in transfer speeds, we used a PCIe expansion card and changed the PCIe settings in BIOS to ensure the drive was in a PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 4.0 slot at the time of testing. That expansion card also serves as a heatsink, which is more important when using a Gen 5 SSD than when in Gen 4 mode, but it should ensure peak performance, whichever PCIe version is used.

Testing was fairly close to the claimed speeds, although we couldn't quite get there in our multiple rounds of testing. But it's not just straight-line speeds that matter, as one could argue that random reads and writes are more important overall for general computing use. In that regard, the 990 Evo Plus acquitted itself well, trading blows with both the fastest PCIe 5.0 and PCIe 4.0 SSDs we've tested. In fact, it's not far off Samsung's own 990 Pro, which is currently their flagship SSD until they release a PCIe 5.0 x4 model.

We also checked the performance in the 3DMark Storage Benchmark, as the Samsung 990 Evo Plus would be a good option for replacing the SSD in the ROG Ally X or adding extra storage to the PlayStation 5. It performs similarly to other DRAM-less NVMe SSDs and didn't differ more than the margin of testing error in either Gen 5 x2 or Gen 4 x4 modes.

What I didn't like about the Samsung 990 Evo Plus

It's better, but not good enough for the price bracket

The Samsung 990 Evo Plus won't make any waves, but that's okay because it's not designed to. It's the middle child of Samsung's range, showing what an NVMe SSD with Samsung's new 5nm controller could do once they release a Gen 5 drive that uses four lanes instead of two.

The only problem with that positioning is that Samsung's premium 990 Pro SSD has been out for a while, so the prices are often lower than MSRP. As of the time of writing, the 990 Pro is $110 for 1TB, which makes it the same price as the 990 Evo Plus, just faster when in a PCIe 4.0 slot. The price mismatch continues, with a 2TB 990 Pro going for $170 and a 4TB for $307. That's cheaper than the 990 Evo Plus on the two higher capacities, and you get faster speeds on both sequential and random tasks.

When you look at the competition, the pricing picture makes less sense. Western Digital's 2TB WD_Black SN850x is often $140-150 for 2TB of capacity, and that's one of the fastest PCIe 4.0 drives. Yes, it won't connect as a Gen 5 drive like the 990 Evo Plus will, but Gen 4 with four lanes is more than enough for most users.

Should you buy the Samsung 990 Evo Plus?

You should buy the Samsung 990 Evo Plus (2TB) if:

• If you need a fast drive for a device where normal PCIe 5.0 thermals will be an issue.
• You want to use a drive with Samsung's controller and NAND.
• You need a single-sided SSD for laptop use.

You shouldn't buy the Samsung 990 Evo Plus (2TB) if:

• You want the fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD performance.
• You want PCIe 5.0 x4 performance levels.
• You want more than 4TB of capacity.

The Samsung 990 Evo Plus makes much more sense than the previous iteration. Its performance numbers are as expected for either PCIe 4.0 x4 or PCIe 5.0 x2 use. It's getting much closer to the speeds of the more premium Samsung 990 Pro or any of the other top Gen 4 SSDs, like the WD SN850x. The only thing that's really missing is DRAM cache, but then again, that's not really a feature found on mid-range drives. The other thing in its favor is that it's a single-sided SSD, which makes compatibility with PC gaming handhelds, laptops, and game consoles easy, while the 5nm controller does a good job without getting toasty hot.

As such, it's a worthy replacement for the 970 Evo in the lineup, but it shouldn't be marketed as a PCIe 5.0 SSD, not with only two of four lanes available. PCIe is backward compatible anyway, so a Gen 4 drive can go into a Gen 5 slot with no issues, so it's a little odd why this drive needs PCIe 5.0 at all. It's not a terrible SSD, just terribly confusing.