Samsung, the leading brand in all things memory and flash storage has announced the newest update (the first since 2016) to their mainstream SSD line up. The Samsung 970 Pro and 970 Evo make up the third generation of the most well recognized and best selling consumer SSDs on the market.
Samsung 970 Evo, The Best Mainstream SSD on the Market Announced Along With The Enthusiast Samsung 970 Pro
While not being the top of the line they do remain incredibly high performing with up to 3,500 MB/s reads, 2,500 MB/s writes, 500K IOPS random read and 480K random writes, it is no slouch and can keep up with pretty much any SSD on the market today. The EVO uses TLC memory and both the Evo and Pro use Samsung's new Phoenix controller which is Nickel coated.
The Samsung 970 PRO and EVO are designed based on the M.2 form factor standard and with the latest PCIe Gen 3×4 lane interface. The 970 series maximizes the potential of NVMe bandwidth, delivering unparalleled performance for processing large volumes of data, including 3D, 4K graphics work, high-end games, and data analytics.
"Samsung has led the NVMe SSD industry since its inception, and the company continues to define the latest standards of consumer storage with unprecedented performance of the 970 PRO and EVO SSDs, the 970 series sets a new bar in all aspects for the NVMe SSD market with groundbreaking performance, superior reliability and best-in-class capacity."
Un-Soo Kim, senior vice president of Brand Product Marketing, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics.
The 970 Pro still uses MLC memory and only comes in 2 capacities, 512GB and 1TB while the Evo has capacities ranging from 250GB to 2TB, it seems at this point Samsung wants to push the cheaper, easier to manufacture Evo series to consumers, since most manufacturers have almost totally abandoned MLC NAND due to its higher cost. Also to note Samsung has not released an MLC based SM981 drive so we should expect it abandons MLC on the OEM side.
In addition to the advancements in performance levels, the 970 PRO and EVO deliver exceptional endurance and reliability. Featuring a five-year warranty, or up to 1,200 terabytes written - 50 percent higher than those provided for the previous generation. The Dynamic Thermal Guard technology safeguards against overheating by automatically monitoring and maintaining optimal operating temperatures, this combined with the nickel coated controller should help to avoid thermal throttling, though I would still look for a motherboard with a nice heat spreader for optimal performance.
Pricing And Availability
The 970 EVO will launch with prices slightly lower than the launch MSRP for the older 960 EVO. A very serious industry-wide shortage of flash memory kept prices high at times higher than launch prices, but now prices have steadily been improving due to NAND flash manufacturers having their 64L 3D NAND production hitting full stride. The drives will be released on May 7th with manufacturer's suggested retail prices starting at $329.99 and $119.99 USD.
| Category | 970 PRO | 970 EVO |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | PCIe Gen 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3 | |
| Form Factor | M.2 (2280) | |
| Storage Memory | Samsung 64L V-NAND 2-bit MLC | Samsung 64L V-NAND 3-bit MLC |
| Controller | Samsung Phoenix Controller | |
| Cache Memory | 1GB LPDDR4 DRAM (1TB) 512MB LPDDR4 DRAM (512GB) |
2GB LPDDR4 DRAM (2TB) 1GB LPDDR4 DRAM (1TB) 512MB LPDDR4 DRAM (250GB/500GB) |
| Capacity | 512GB and 1TB | 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB |
| Sequential Read/Write Speed | Up to 3,500/2,700 MB/s | Up to 3,500/2,500 MB/s |
| Random Read/Write Speed | Up to 500,000/500,000 IOPS | Up to 500,000/480,000 IOPS |
| Device Sleep | 5mW | |
| Management Software | Samsung Magician Software | |
| Data Encryption | Class 0 (AES 256), TCG/Opal v2.0, MS eDrive (IEEE1667) | |
| Total Byte Written | 1,200TB (1TB) 600TB (512GB) |
1,200TB (2TB) 600TB (1TB) 300TB (500GB) 150TB (250GB) |
| Warranty | Five-year Limited Warranty | |
