Samsung 990 PCIe 4.0 SSD appears in 1TB and 2TB variants
Samsung has listed a new 990 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, but this is not another EVO or PRO model. The drive appears under the standard 990 name, with 1TB and 2TB capacities listed on Samsung Canada’s website. These listings have since been removed.
Samsung 990 drops DRAM for HMB
According to Samsung’s own specification listing, the 990 uses HMB (not to be mistaken with HBM), or Host Memory Buffer, as its cache memory. The company lists a Samsung in-house controller and Samsung V-NAND, but it does not list a dedicated DRAM cache.
The 1TB model is listed with up to 7,150 MB/s sequential read speed and up to 6,450 MB/s sequential write speed . The 2TB model is listed with up to 7,250 MB/s read speed and the same 6,450 MB/s write speed. Samsung also lists up to 850K random read IOPS and up to 1,200K random write IOPS for the 2TB model.
Source: Samsung
Lower endurance than 990 PRO
The warranty is another difference. Samsung lists the 2TB model with a 3-year limited warranty or 800 TBW. The 1TB listing shows a 3-year warranty or 400 TBW, according to the Samsung Canada page indexed by search. That puts the endurance below Samsung’s higher-end 990 PRO series.
Source: SHI
Samsung has not confirmed pricing or a launch date. However, the SSD has already appeared at some resellers as an “entry level NVMe” product. SHI lists both the 1TB and 2TB models on backorder, but the listed prices look like placeholder B2B pricing and should not be treated as retail MSRP.
Source: Samsung (removed)
