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When it comes to SSDs, I can’t help but wonder whether the latest price spike is simply a temporary shock driven by AI demand, or whether it was inevitable all along.
For a while, we had it incredibly good. High-performance, DRAM-equipped SSDs with generous capacities and five-year warranties were selling at prices that would seem unbelievable today. Those days are clearly behind us, and I have a hard time believing pricing will ever return to those levels. We really did have it good.
What has become increasingly obvious is that the storage industry needed to evolve, and two technologies have driven that change more than any others: QLC NAND and the widespread adoption of Host Memory Buffer (HMB) SSDs. Don’t get me wrong. Both technologies had their share of growing pains. Early implementations weren’t always impressive, and skepticism was justified. But today they’ve become mainstream for one simple reason: the average SSD user simply can’t tell the difference between a modern QLC, HMB-based SSD and a premium DRAM-equipped model. That’s just a fact.
In truth, the typical user can’t distinguish between an entry-level SSD and the fastest consumer SSD on the market. I’d even argue that most experts couldn’t reliably tell the difference in normal, everyday use without benchmarks. That’s where Samsung’s Gen4 QLC DRAM-less SSD enters the picture. It isn’t trying to compete by posting record-breaking benchmark numbers. It’s designed around the reality of how most people actually use their PCs.
The Samsung 990 is something of a misnomer, in my opinion. Historically, SSD product lines have followed a predictable path: manufacturers introduce a standard model first, then follow it with a higher-performance “Pro” version. Samsung took a different approach with the 990 series.
The Samsung 990 Pro debuted in October 2022 (reviewed here), followed by the more economical 990 EVO, a TLC-based DRAMless SSD (reviewed here). In 2024, Samsung raised the bar again with the 990 EVO Plus, a faster TLC DRAMless drive (reviewed here) that quickly earned an excellent reputation for delivering strong performance without the added cost of onboard DRAM.
Traditionally, Pro-series SSDs were designed, and priced, for enthusiasts, gamers, and professional users, while the standard model targeted everyday consumers. This time, however, Samsung appears to have reversed course. The new 990 Gen4 SSD doesn’t quite match the overall performance of its Pro sibling, but it seems intended to strike a more attractive balance between speed, efficiency, and value for mainstream buyers.
The one disappointing compromise is the warranty. Samsung has reduced coverage to a three-year limited warranty, stepping back from the five-year warranty that has become the industry standard for quality consumer SSDs.
The Samsung 990 is a PCIe 4.0 (Gen4) x4, four-channel M.2 2280 SSD (22mm x 80mm) that supports the latest NVMe 2.0 protocol. At launch, it is available in 1TB and 2TB capacities, delivering sequential performance of up to 7,250MB/s read and 6,450MB/s write, along with random performance of up to 1.2 million IOPS. The drive features a single-sided, DRAMless design, relying instead on your system’s Host Memory Buffer (HMB) rather than dedicated onboard DRAM. This approach reduces manufacturing costs while still delivering performance that should satisfy the vast majority of everyday users.
All Samsung 990-series SSDs have been built around variations of what we now recognize as Samsung’s “Piccolo” controller. Looking closely at this latest version, however, you’ll notice the controller is marked “PiccoloQ,” with the “Q” almost certainly denoting its use with QLC NAND flash memory. This would lead one to believe the NAND of choice is most likely Samsung’s 9th-gen 280-layer QLC V-NAND. This controller has the number designation of S4LY028.
Examining our 2TB sample, we find a single Samsung V-NAND QLC flash package on the PCB, with an empty footprint directly beside it. That unused space certainly raises the possibility that Samsung may eventually introduce a higher-capacity 4TB model using a second NAND package. Complete SSD specs can be seen in the Samsung release republished here:
There is one thing that is perhaps a highlight of this SSD. It is single-sided. With only a total of two chips on the 990, we simply have to believe that this SSD is a very cool running SSD, especially when those listed specifications only list a high of 4.3 watt active power consumption.
The Samsung 990 Gen4 SSD comes with a 3-year limited warranty and perhaps one of the lowest TBW ratings we have seen for a while which is 400TBW for the 1TB and double that for the 2TB capacity. Don’t worry though. The typical user still won’t ever reach ‘end life’ with the 990. MSRP pricing is listed at $269.99 (1TB) and $529.99 (2TB) and availability will be present at Amazon and other e-tailers as of this report release.