Samsung 980 PRO Review - Samsung's First PCIe Gen4 SSD

Meet the Samsung 980 PRO, the first Gen4 M.2 NVMe SSD worth buying? Shopping:

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Notes:
- The SSDs you see in the graphs have been re-tested on a new platform. You cannot compare the numbers in this video with previous SSD reviews. I will have a full SSD comparison/roundup in the near future, or just ask for advice if you have questions.
- When I talk about real world performance impact, I'm talking about realistic (and common) consumer workloads: Loading Games, 1080p video editting, 4K video editting, Photoshop, Lightroom, etcetera. Of course it IS possible to show differences when working with huge 8K files for example. I try to be nuanced, but there is a limit :)
- Questions? Most test results make it into the video to avoid clutter, so just ask if anything is unclear!

You can also follow me here :)

Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
2:04 - Capacities, Pricing
2:41 - Design, Thermals
3:34 - Enabling Write Caching, No More Driver
4:21 - No more 2-bit MLC NAND, Warranty Concerns
6:32 - Performance
8:00 - "Real World" Impact
9:33 - Talking about Future Benefits
10:36 - Final Thoughts

Disclosure:
- This product was provided by Samsung. As per my own guidelines, they don't get any say about anything in this video or any of my other reviews. It's not sponsored by them, they also didn't get to preview this video beforehand, or any other nonsense like that. My reviews reflect my own views, nothing more, nothing less.
- Amazon links I provide are (typically) affiliate links. Using these does not cost you anything at all. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This means they do provide me with a small commission when you decide to buy a product at no extra cost to you.

#SAMSUNG #980PRO #SSD

[BenRacicot]

"If you ask a significant price premium for a premium product at least make sure that the price is the only real downside worth talking about" - Brilliant

[wbedard]

I thought you really nailed it with your closing statement about pricing should be the only downside/complaint regarding "Pro" gear.

[mingyi]

It feels like this is supposed to be called the 980 Evo instead of the 980 Pro given that it is TLC instead of MLC.

[RX-Ez-]

One of the most thorough reviews for the 980 Pro. You've answered a lot of my questions in regards to future proofing my current build. I now know what to do. Excellent work!

[spideydouble]

Samsung should have dropped the PRO line when dropping MLC. It’s basically a 980 EVO.

[AdamMrachek]

Such a great review! Your in-depth technical explanations combined with "real world" performance is just so helpful. Thank you!

[ivo]

this is as near to perfection you can get on a YouTube channel: beautiful calming setup, great knowledge on the product and explained to perfection, and it sure helps that you are very easy on the eyes too. Stunning review in every way!!!

[hollandthomas]

I have been waiting for so long for a review on the 980 pro, I am so glad somebody actually did it as everyone else seems to be uploading their 15th video on the 3080.

[StefanAlexandruGeogloman]

I'm a subscriber for only a few months now but I must admit this. Your videos are GREATt! Good information - all that's needed to know, good quality video and audio (thank god!), and a lovely look and voice! Keep these videos coming, I'm here watching them all. 😃

[amitroygoodboy]

12:35 every manufacturer should keep in mind this sentence!

[Obie]

I guess the laws of diminishing returns is in play... Currently have two systems with M.2 NVME in them. Samsung 960 pro 512gb and the other has the 970 Evo plus 256. The 980 having the performance cache isn't what I'm really looking for. I'm happy with my purchases. I'll wait for updates or better things. Thanks for the informative review Techtesters.

[toddhudson]

Terrific review! Your hard drive reviews are very thorough. Not only from a tech spec aspect on it but also from a financial perspective. You've given me some food for thought since I was at first all set and ready to purchase this drive thinking that it would greatly increase read/write speeds and boost my system. But now I think I'm going to put a pause on this one for now and wait and see when new tech comes out maybe then it might be worth it. Fingers crossed. ;)

[RakeshD]

Ur review is super detailed. Not all reviewers do this. This is an excellent video you've made.

[Anonym-gggt]

Great job! This review explains the pros and cons so well. Keep up the good work!

[testpattern]

waiting on the 2TB version later this year

[woghole]

This is the most comprehensive review of the 980 pro i have seen. All my questions answer in one go thankyou. Just ordered 250GB for my W11 OS.

[EbonySeraphim]

Despite the use cases that show where the 970 Evo Plus out performs, I would read those result and suggest to anyone with confidence "The 980 Pro is the best performing nVME drive" and of course people will need to work out their own cost limitations; AND universally understand that any SSD is way better than a HDD, and between them all there is little difference in gaming. The remaining and most relevant distinction between the 980 Pro and others, including its predecessors, is clear.

If you properly analyze the graph displayed @ 7:45, it should be obvious that the Samsung 980 Pro is STILL faster at completing work than the 970 Evo Plus up through probably 70~80 seconds. The 980 Pro screams ahead of the 970 Evo Plus being almost twice as fast for 27 seconds, then it slows down to maybe 70% of the speed of the 970, but is still transferring data and holds at that new point (I've seen other benchmark where the 980 Pro doesn't slow down further). While the 970 is "catching up", it wouldn't actually catch up unless the transfer operation extended past 70 seconds. That means it takes somewhere around 200GB or more in order for the 970 Evo Plus to have been faster than a 980 Pro. So, there's a situation where the 970 is faster, but I don't see that one happening very often even for a video editor.

This seems to be an "in denial" review of what is pretty solidly a better drive. It may not be quite the full domination like AMD's Zen3 did to Intel six months ago and into the foreseeable future; but those "real world" tests are not quite real at all. Reading or writing 16GB worth of 4k block sizes (let's just call them file sizes) is ridiculous. I am a software engineer who finds myself working with plenty of directories full of hundreds or thousands of files occasionally but having this scenario has never happened 1) these directories never add up to 16GB in a state where I have to copy them because I should be deleting built binaries and intermediate compiler and linker files that's bloating it to that size anyways. 2) Anyone needing to do this operation should sensibly be tar/gzip (or 7zip for Windows) before transmission for backing up, moving, or copying such a directory. My point is, it's interesting to see that the Samsung 970 Evo Plus performs well in these read/write scenarios, but those are contrived stress tests also (I admit, the others are synthetic benchmarks too). Anyone doing digital media work and editing - pictures, video, audio - is not working with files that small at all. At best, supporting files that small constantly needing IO performance may be specific to a web server serving up various files at random (though most certainly some should be cached in memory, or hell...cached by another web server specific tool); or possibly the specifics of a terribly implemented database or that databases worst case scenario for disk access.

[TCPUDPATM]

Great review! You used all the benchmarks without getting lost in them.
And your conclusion - so eloquently put! Love it.

[CknSalad]

I'd just wait for the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus. Also, waiting for Western Digital and Sandisk.

[TecnoguiaCol]

Very honest and detailed review. Thanks for that!! Greetings from Colombia :)