PCIe 5.0 is here and we're already seeing a flurry of SSDs and RAM kits being rolled out with blazingly fast transfer speeds. Samsung released the new 990 Evo to replace the aging 970 Evo with improved performance and power efficiency, taking advantage of PCIe 5.0 support with two lanes available. Continuing to work with older-generation motherboards will position this SSD as a go-to choice for many consumers looking for a value-focused drive, so long as you're not paying the listed MSRP.

Samsung states the 990 Evo is capable of hitting speeds of up to 5,000 MB/s and 4,200 MB/s for read and write, respectively. These are a far cry from other PCIe 5.0 x4 SSDs we've seen appear on the market, not to mention some of the more expensive PCIe 4.0 drives. Still, with up to 800,000 IOPS to work with on the 2TB Samsung 990 Evo, this family of solid-state drives should provide decent performance for general data storage, some lighter games, and an OS if you won't be hammering the drive hard with apps and more.

I found the speeds of the Samsung 990 Evo 2TB to be satisfactory, although not for the MSRP. Samsung has already reduced the price of both the 1TB and 2TB models, making them more appealing against the Samsung 990 Pro range. Temperatures and power usage are also pretty good for a PCIe 5.0-capable drive. So long as you pick one up at a discounted price, you'll have a good-value SSD for storing just about everything.

About this review: XDA-Developers purchased the SSD for this review and Samsung had no input to its contents.

Price, specs, and availability

The Samsung 990 Evo series of SSDs starts at $125 for 1TB. The 2TB, which we're reviewing today, costs $210 at MSRP. Samsung has since discounted the drive to $150, bringing it below the superior Samsung 990 Pro at $180. It was a strange price to launch the 990 Evo at since the discounted 990 Pro is a much better storage drive for an OS, games, and general files, yet manages to cost less against the Evo's MSRP. It's easier to recommend the drive at its new $150 price, though I'll still reference the MSRP throughout the review.

The 2TB Samsung 990 Evo we have in for review has a transfer rate of up to 5,000 MB/s and 4,200 MB/s for read and write, respectively. It can handle 1,200 TBW (terabytes written), essentially allowing you to write a full drive's worth of data 600 times before Samsung expects you to experience a degradation in performance or capacity. The mean time before failure comes in at 1.5 million hours, which we've come to expect from Samsung's higher endurance SSDs. A warranty of five years covers both the 1TB and 2TB models.

Design and features

The best storage software

The Samsung 990 Evo is a basic-looking SSD. Although this family of drives is usually positioned as a more value-focused proposition for storage, the 990 Evo was priced high and as such it sports a sleek all-black design. It's a relatively bare black PCB with a few NAND modules and a heat spreader sticker. The 990 Evo replaces the 970 EVO Plus, a highly-rated SSD with excellent performance at a reasonable price. It's an exciting time for flash storage as SSDs begin to support the PCIe 5.0 standard with some mind-blowing speeds.

The 990 Evo replaces the 970 EVO Plus, a highly-rated SSD with excellent performance at a reasonable price.

Samsung's 990 Evo is one of those drives that's stuck in between the generations. It attempts to become a PCIe 5.0 drive but manages to handicap itself with just two PCIe 5.0 lanes and a maximum transfer rate of just 5,000 MB/s, which falls short of the fastest PCIe 4.0 drives on the market. The Samsung 990 Pro is a PCIE 4.0 SSD yet manages to hit speeds of more than 7,000 MB/s. So long as you keep in mind that the Samsung 990 Evo has the performance of a mid-range PCIe 4.0 SSD, you'll be able to position it within Samsung's SSD catalog and choose accordingly.

Storage performance

Decent performance for a mid-range SSD

Unlike some other SSD brands, Samsung has the luxury of using its hardware and software inside its storage products. The Samsung 990 Evo is no exception, rocking the Samsung Piccolo S4LY022 controller and Samsung TLC NAND chips. That's all there is to this SSD as it's a simple drive with no DRAM and some heatspreading to help combat higher temperatures. Samsung states this as a PCIe 5.0 x2 capable drive and indeed it will run with a compatible M.2 slot, but you will only be able to enjoy PCIe 4.0 speeds with the restricted bandwidth and channel support (PCIe 5.0 x2 vs. PCIe 5.0 x4).

Running CrystalDiskMark, I was able to achieve almost the same results for reading and writing as marketed by Samsung.

Without a dedicated DRAM for the controller, the Samsung SSD has to rely on the host PC's system memory for caching. According to Samsung, this provides a 70% per watt improvement in power efficiency over its predecessor, the 970 Evo Plus. Couple this with the restricted PCIe 5.0 lane allocation and we can expect to see slower speeds than what's possible with other PCIe 5.0 (and PCIe 4.0) drives. Running CrystalDiskMark, I was able to achieve almost the same results for reading and writing as marketed by Samsung.

4,965 MB/s was the average across 10 tests for reading data and writing came in at 3,821 MB/s, falling short of the stated 4,200 MB/s. Compared to other consumer-grade storage options at this price point, Samsung has an uphill battle and it doesn't have the high ground. 3DMark's Storage benchmark gives a good idea of how the drive will perform with gaming and the results weren't terrible with a 739 MB/s bandwidth and 43 μs for latency averaged across two test runs.

Competition

This is where Samsung loses out big time, especially with MSRP. The 2TB model launched at $210. Western Digital's 2TB WD_Black SN850x costs around $140 and offers impressive performance. There's even a 4TB version of the SN850x should you require even more data capacity. This is something Samsung doesn't yet offer with the 990 Evo. Then there's Samsung's own 990 Pro, a PCIe 4.0 drive with similar speeds as the WD_Black SN850x and costs around $20 more than the new 990 Evo.

Should you buy the Samsung 990 Evo?

You should buy the Samsung 990 Evo if:

• You find it discounted at a more reasonable price.
• You need a fast enough SSD without costing a fortune.
• You prefer to use an SSD that doesn't get too hot.

You shouldn't buy the Samsung 990 Evo if:

• You want the best-performing PCIE 4.0 SSD.
• You want to enjoy PCIe 5.0 levels of performance.
• You want high-capacity drives.

I find it difficult to recommend the Samsung 990 Evo, not because it's a terrible SSD but because it doesn't make sense in 2024. Samsung markets the 990 Evo as a PCIe 5.0 SSD, yet only offers two of four available lanes. The controller doesn't have any dedicated DRAM, requiring the use of the modules installed on the motherboard. This helps keep costs down, but at launch, Samsung didn't pass these savings to the consumer with an obscene MSRP for the 1TB and 2TB models.

The Samsung 990 Evo performs well enough for a mid-range PCIe 4.0 drive, but it falls short of some of the more premium SSDs, including Samsung's own 990 Pro. Then there's the PCIe 5.0 support, which should unlock better performance, but it doesn't. You won't notice a massive difference between running the drive on a PCIe 4.0 or PCIe 5.0 slot, which is a shame as it's not the huge improvement over the predecessor we were expecting. Sure, 5,000 MB/s is better than 3,500 MB/s, but this bump in performance comes at a cost.

The Samsung 990 Evo performs well enough for a mid-range PCIe 4.0 drive, but it falls short of some of the more premium SSDs.

Samsung's 990 Pro is a PCIe 4.0 drive, yet manages to offer an additional 2,000 MB/s for reading data with a $30 price difference. Competition is rife for PCIe 4.0 drives too with some excellent powerful NVMe SSDs costing less than the 990 Evo yet managing to achieve better results. This puts the 990 Evo in a difficult position and makes it hard for me to recommend. Again, this isn't a terrible SSD, and buying one will allow you to load an OS, apps, games, and more without much issue, but there are better options out there.