The Samsung SSD 980 series is starting to appear at retail outlets in Europe, as well as in an official product page on its Thai site. This appears to be Samsung following up its Samsung 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD series with a range of more affordable devices which have undergone various key specification snips to reach down to lower price points.
Samsung hasn't officially launched these 'non-Pro' SSD 980 drives but ComputerBase.de found some listed at various European retailers. Happily there are enough specs shared by the various sources to make sense of the new SSDs – though some might be unhappy about the scale of the cutbacks, hopefully the actual retail pricing will strike the right balance – you pay your money and take your choice.
First, one of the major cuts from Samsung SSD 980 Pro to SSD 980 is the lack of DRAM cache on the new cheaper models. This spec snip can have a big hit on IO performance as of course DRAM is much faster than the NAND, and the cache can, in theory, help to reduce NAND wear.
Another big spec change here is that the Samsung SSD 980 uses a PCIe 3.0x4 interface (instead of PCIe 4.0 x4). This change has a big impact on max transfer rates, as you will see in the comparative spec table below.
|
Product |
Samsung SSD 980 PRO |
Samsung SSD 980 |
|
Interface |
PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.3c |
PCIe 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.4 |
|
Form Factor |
M.2 (2280) |
M.2 (2280) |
|
Storage Memory |
Samsung 136-layer V-NAND 3-bit MLC |
Samsung 136-layer V-NAND 3-bit MLC |
|
Controller |
Samsung Elpis Controller |
Samsung Pablo Controller |
|
DRAM |
1GB LPDDR4 (1TB), 512MB LPDDR4 (500GB, 250GB) |
N/A |
|
Capacity |
2TB, 1TB, 500GB, 250GB |
1TB, 500GB, 250GB |
|
Sequential Read/Write Speed |
Up to 7,000 MB/s, Up to 5,000 MB/s |
Up to 3,500 MB/s, Up to 3,000 MB/s |
|
Random Read/Write Speed |
Up to 1,000K IOPS, 1,000K IOPS |
Up to 500K IOPS, 480K IOPS |
|
Management Software |
Samsung Magician Software |
Samsung Magician Software |
|
Data Encryption |
AES 256-bit Full Disk Encryption, TCG/Opal V2.0, |
AES 256-bit Full Disk Encryption, TCG/Opal V2.0, |
|
Total Bytes Written |
1200TB (2TB), 600TB (1TB), 300TB (500GB), 150TB (250GB) |
600TB (1TB), 300TB (500GB), 150TB (250GB) |
|
Warranty |
Five-year Limited Warranty |
Five-year Limited Warranty |
The max transfer and IOPS figures for the Samsung SSD 980 are much reduced compared to the Pro version. However, many other base features of the drive remain the same; the same NAND, and even the same endurance ratings and warranty.
As for pricing of the SSD 980 series, the 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities have been listed in Europe at €70, €90, and €150, respectively. Checking Mindfactory.de for a Euro pricing comparison, the SSD 980 Pro series in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities are listed at €75, €109, and €189, respectively.
Retailers are expecting stock of the Samsung SSD 980 devices by the end of the month. Samsung should be officially announcing these drives shortly on its global news blog.
