Samsung has released its first workstation-focused PCIe 4.0 NVMe Solid State Drive (SSD), the Samsung SSD 980 PRO.
The M.2 form factor SSD delivers sequential read and write speeds of up to 7,000 MB/s and 5,000 MB/s respectively.
According to Samsung, this makes it up to two times faster than PCIe 3.0 SSDs and up to 12.7 times faster than SATA SSDs.
High sequential read/write speeds like these won’t benefit everyone: Users of CAD software looking to upgrade from PCIe 3.0 or even SATA SSDs are unlikely to benefit much.
It’s really only those working with colossal datasets typically used in workflows such as high-end viz, 8K video, point cloud or simulation that will probably get real value.
In addition, that you’ll need a 3rd Gen AMD Threadripper or 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen -based workstation to be able to realize the full potential of the SSD. All Intel-based motherboards are still on PCIe 3.0.
The Samsung SSD 980 PRO comes in 1 TB, 500 GB and 250 GB models and will be available from early October while a 2 TB capacity model will be available by the end of this year.
The 980 PRO’s suggested retail price starts from £82.99 for the 250GB model.
All drives come with a five-year warranty and boast a write endurance of 150 TB, 300 TB, 600 TB and 1,200 TB respectively for the 250GB, 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB models.
