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The new Samsung SSD 980 (nope, no “EVO” today folks) enters the field of internal solid-state drives with some pretty stiff goals to meet. Its older brother, the PCI Express 4.0-based Samsung SSD 980 Pro ($229 for 1TB), blew out our testing benchmarks across the board when we reviewed it back in September of last year, and even though the PCI Express 3.0-based Intel SSD 670p ($154.99 for 1TB), launched last week, gives the SSD 980 some healthy competition, the SSD 980 has come right in and stolen the first-place performance and value crown for PCI Express 3.0 drives back for Samsung once again.
We tested the top-end $129.99 1TB version; models start at $49.99. It doesn’t win every 4K shallow-depth random-read benchmark outright, but given the price, it takes enough victories back from the Intel SSD 670p (which just got its hands on our Editors’ Choice award last week, poor thing) to take our top spot as the best drive in its category today. It earns our latest Editors’ Choice win among mainstream PCI Express 3.0 M.2 SSDs for its performance, its pricing, and some solid software options, to boot.
The SSD 980 Specs: Stepping It Down for Savings
The Samsung SSD 980 is a four-lane PCI Express (PCIe) 3.0 drive manufactured on an M.2 Type-2280 (80mm long) design. It employs the NVMe protocol over the PCIe 3.0 bus, and it features an in-house Samsung controller. It’s based on what the company calls its own sixth-generation, “up to 136-layer”, three-bit multi-level-cell (MLC) V-NAND flash, and it’s available in three storage-volume sizes: 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB. (Check out our SSD dejargonizer to make sense of that acronym torrent, if need be.)
Samsung has re-ignited the debate over what an SSD should cost these days, and it enters the midrange with an MLC drive that carries a surprisingly high durability rating for its product class. Here’s a breakdown of the specs and pricing by capacity…
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The Samsung SSD 980 joins the ranks of midrange PCIe 3.0 drives like the ADATA SX8200 Pro (a continued favorite around PC Labs, despite the company’s recently reported issues with component swapping(Opens in a new window)) and the $149 Crucial P5 at the 13 to 15 cents per gigabyte mark for the 1TB size variant. (The Samsung comes in at 13 cents per gigabyte at its launch list price of $129.99; the 250GB and 500GB versions are a bit costlier per gig, especially the smallest-capacity drive.)
The SSD 980 doesn’t set new bounds for low pricing among 1TB PCIe 3.0 SSDs, coming in about a third or a fourth higher than budget-focused options like the TLC-based Crucial P2 ($99 for 1TB) or the Silicon Power UD70 ($109 for 1TB).
Given the usual Samsung SSD family naming schemes of “Pro,” “EVO,” and “QVO” models, top to bottom, we asked Samsung about any plans to release an “SSD 980 EVO” in the future, or whether this suffix-less 980 drive was made to take over that venerated name of old. After all, the “EVO” and “EVO Plus” badge is usually reserved for Samsung’s mainstream entries, and this drive shapes up as just that. (The lower-end models in a given line are now the QVOs.) When quizzed about it, our rep replied that the company “…can’t share any future plans. Samsung is not saying that it’s a replacement to any drive at this time. The TurboWrite and power efficiency of the 980 was compared to 970 EVO for benchmarking.”
The Samsung SSD 980 is rated for 600 terabytes written (TBW) at the 1TB size variant, which, while a common meeting point for 1TB QLC or TLC drives, is a surprising feat for the famously less-durable MLC. Samsung continues to iterate and tune its own silicon, and the sixth generation looks, at least on paper, to be the best version yet.
Samsung pairs the SSD 980 with the same software suite we loved as a part of the Samsung SSD 980 Pro launch, Samsung Magician(Opens in a new window), along with the company’s Data Migration(Opens in a new window) app. Samsung Magician touts all the familiar SSD-management tools we’ve come to expect in SSD software packages worth their salt these days. But it also does so with a modern aesthetic flair that looks years ahead of its closest competition. (Read that as: It looks current for 2021, since SSD software doesn’t evolve much.)
Testing the Samsung SSD 980: When Winning Runs in the Family
We test all of our Serial ATA (SATA) and PCI Express 3.0 SSDs on PC Labs’ main storage testbed, which is built on an Asus Prime X299 Deluxe motherboard with an Intel Core i9-10980XE Extreme Edition CPU. We use 16GB of DDR4 Corsair Dominator RAM clocked to 3,600MHz, and the system employs Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition as its discrete graphics card. (See more about how we test SSDs.) PCIe 4.0 SSDs are tested on a different, AMD Ryzen-based testbed with 4.0 support.
PCMark 10 Overall Storage Test
First up is the overall PCMark 10 storage test, from UL, running the full storage suite. This score represents how well a drive does throughout the entire PCMark 10 run. It’s the sanctioned score presented by UL’s software at the end of each run. After that are some more granular measures derived from PCMark 10’s background “traces.” These following PCMark 10-derived tests represent a simulation of how quickly a drive is capable of launching a particular program (or, in the first case, booting Windows 10). The Windows 10 trace simulates the full Windows 10 operating system startup procedure and records how quickly the drive can feed the kind of data requested.
After that is a game-launching test set, which simulates how quickly a drive can read shallow-depth small random 4K packages; 4K is one of the more commonly used file-block sizes for game installations, though that composition does depend on the title you’re playing.
The drives are also put through a very important test for creative types. As anyone who regularly works in programs like Adobe Premiere or Photoshop can tell you, a constant pinch point is the time it takes for these programs to launch.
Finally, the PCMark 10 copy tests are also derived from PCMark 10 traces. At first, these numbers might look low compared with the straight sequential-throughput numbers achieved in benchmarks like Crystal DiskMark 6.0 and AS-SSD, charted further down. But that’s due to the way this score is calculated and the nature of (and differences between) the source data sets.
Samsung loads up a one-two punch in our PCMark 10 run, starting out with a second-place finish for the best overall score we’ve seen in a drive yet. The first-place trophy holder? The Samsung SSD 980 Pro. Looks like winning runs in the family, so far.
In booting Windows 10, the Samsung SSD 980 just barely misses the mark set by the SSD 980 Pro, and it leapfrogs over the equally impressive figure posted by the Intel SSD 670p. The three-title game launching set was a bit spottier, with Intel gaining some points in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, but the Samsung drive traded blows down the line on tests like the Adobe program launches or outright copy tests. It was a very near-run thing.
Sequential Speed and Copy Tests
Moving on from PCMark 10-derived numbers, the Crystal DiskMark 6.0 sequential tests simulate best-case, straight-line transfers of large files. After that is a series of file and folder transfers done in the SSD benchmarking utility AS-SSD. This trio of tests involves copying large files or folders from one location on the test drive to another.
Though the Samsung SSD 980 has pulled some pretty impressive rabbits out of its hat thus far, even the fastest performing PCIe 3.0 drives hit their theoretical ceiling once we get to these “best case scenario” tests. Even still, the SSD 980 once again outpaces the Intel SSD 670p, while also going back and forth with the Crucial P5 on sequential read and write in CrystalDiskMark 6.0 runs.
Samsung Snatches Victory Back From Intel
Samsung’s SSD 980 must have seen Intel’s win just last week with the SSD 670p, and simply couldn’t let it stand. Samsung has been on a hot streak in the SSD world for years now, racking up wins most recently in the premium PCIe 4.0 segment with the release of its SSD 980 Pro, and now it takes another bow in PCIe 3.0 with the SSD 980.
Are we surprised at this point? Not really. Samsung has the R&D and facilities to control all the aspects of SSD creation and production. Most other drive sellers must work with, and rely on, other entities for some subset of drive components: controllers, NAND flash, or other drive elements. Samsung proven itself, time and time again, to be a leader in both technology and performance when it comes to SSDs, and if its last two launches are any indication, that freight train shows no signs of slowing.
Now, whether the Samsung SSD 980 will be supplanted by a “Samsung SSD 980 EVO” at any point in the future? That remains a mystery. For now, buyers of midrange and low-end SSDs alike should shortlist the Samsung SSD 980 before they consider any other options. It’s another “best in class” for Samsung. And even if no EVO ever comes to pass, Samsung now fields a lineup of SSD lumber powerful enough that any opposing team should dread facing it.
4.5
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Samsung’s SSD 980 M.2 drive provides a stellar mid-tier option for new or returning fans of the company’s SSDs, squeaking the most performance possible out of PCI Express 3.0 in 2021.
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Source link : https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/samsung-ssd-980