Samsung 990 Pro Review in 2026: PS5 Heatsink, vs 9100 Pro and 990 Evo Plus, Firmware and Price
The Samsung 990 Pro is still one of the fastest PCIe 4.0 SSDs you can buy, with 7,450MB/s reads, a proper DRAM cache and a five-year warranty. It is the safe choice for a gaming PC or a PS5, as long as you add a heatsink for the console. The catches in 2026: the memory shortage has pushed its price far above launch, the newer PCIe 5.0 Samsung 9100 Pro is sometimes cheaper on sale, and early drives needed a firmware fix.
Jump to your question:
- Is the 990 Pro still worth it?Yes, at the right price. Verdict
- Does it work in a PS5?Yes, with a heatsink. PS5
- 990 Pro or 9100 Pro?Compare
- 990 Pro or 990 Evo Plus?Compare
- 1TB, 2TB or 4TB?Which size
- Is the firmware bug fixed?Yes. Firmware
We did not lab-test the 990 Pro. Performance findings come from TechPowerUp and Tom’s Hardware, the firmware history from Puget Systems, PS5 requirements from Sony, and specifications from Samsung UK, read on 8 October 2026. We sell the Samsung 990 Pro.
- Samsung 990 Pro review: the verdict
- Samsung 990 Pro performance and speeds
- Samsung 990 Pro SSD for PS5: do you need the 990 Pro with heatsink?
- Samsung 990 Pro vs 9100 Pro
- Samsung 990 Pro vs 990 Evo Plus
- Samsung 990 Pro vs WD Black SN850X
- Samsung 990 Pro 1TB vs 2TB vs 4TB
- Samsung 990 Pro firmware: the health bug and the fix
- Samsung 990 Pro price in 2026
- Quick answers
The Samsung 990 Pro drives we sellThe standard 990 Pro without a heatsink in 1TB (MZ-V9P1T0BW), 2TB (MZ-V9P2T0BW) and 4TB (MZ-V9P4T0BW). Each product page shows the current price.
Samsung 990 PRO 2 TB NVMe SSD
In stock
Samsung 990 PRO 4TB PCIe NVMe SSD
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Samsung 990 Pro review: the verdict
Buy the Samsung 990 Pro if you want a fast, reliable PCIe 4.0 drive with a DRAM cache and a long warranty, for a gaming PC, a workstation or a PS5. Compare prices with the 9100 Pro first, and choose a cheaper drive if you only store games.
TechPowerUp praised its “fantastic real-life performance”, “excellent sustained write performance” and well-behaved thermal throttling. PC Guide wrote this month that it “remains one of the fastest PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs on the market”. It launched in 2022, and four years on it is still the drive many people pick when they want the safe option.
- Good: near the top speed of PCIe 4.0; DRAM cache on every size; up to 2,400TB of rated endurance; five-year warranty; efficient for its speed; Samsung Magician software.
- Not so good: much more expensive than in 2023; can throttle under very heavy loads without a heatsink; early firmware damaged drive health until Samsung fixed it.
| Samsung 990 Pro | 1TB | 2TB | 4TB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sequential read / write | 7,450 / 6,900MB/s | 7,450 / 6,900MB/s | 7,450 / 6,900MB/s |
| Random read (4KB, QD32) | 1,200K IOPS | 1,400K IOPS | 1,600K IOPS |
| DRAM cache | 1GB LPDDR4 | 2GB LPDDR4 | 4GB LPDDR4 |
| Endurance (TBW) | 600TB | 1,200TB | 2,400TB |
| Average power | 5.4W | 5.5W | 6.5W |
| Warranty | 5 years, or the TBW figure, whichever comes first | ||
| Interface and size | PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe 2.0, M.2 2280, 2.3mm thick without heatsink | ||
Samsung 990 Pro performance and speeds
Samsung rates every size at up to 7,450MB/s reads and 6,900MB/s writes, close to the 8,000MB/s limit of PCIe 4.0. In games, you will not feel a difference between it and other fast PCIe 4.0 drives.
The DRAM cache is what sets the 990 Pro apart from cheaper drives. It keeps the drive quick when it is nearly full or doing many small tasks at once. TechPowerUp found it fast in real use and steady in long writes, the moments where budget drives slow to a crawl.
It does warm up under heavy loads. TechPowerUp saw some thermal throttling when the drive was hammered, though it handled it well. Many motherboards have an M.2 heatsink that solves this. If yours does not, see our guide to SSD throttling during game downloads.
To get full speed you need a PCIe 4.0 or newer M.2 slot. In a PCIe 3.0 slot it works, but tops out at around half its rated speed.
Samsung 990 Pro SSD for PS5: do you need the 990 Pro with heatsink?
Yes, you need some form of heatsink. Sony says an M.2 SSD in a PS5 “requires effective heat dissipation with a cooling structure, such as a heatsink”. The 990 Pro models we sell do not have one, so add a slim M.2 heatsink, or buy Samsung’s heatsink version instead.
- Speed: Sony recommends 5,500MB/s or faster. The 990 Pro’s 7,450MB/s clears it easily.
- Size: with the heatsink fitted, the drive must be no wider than 25mm and no thicker than 11.25mm, with up to 8mm above the board.
- Software: update the PS5 system software before you fit the drive.
Our PS5 vs PS5 Pro guide covers how much storage each console has built in.
Samsung 990 Pro vs 9100 Pro
The 9100 Pro is Samsung’s PCIe 5.0 successor, with roughly double the sequential speed: up to 14,800MB/s reads on the 4TB model. It needs a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot to reach that, and in games the difference is small.
Tom’s Hardware called the 9100 Pro “a good drive with high performance and power efficiency” that “falls short of being truly impressive”. It launched in March 2025 at $199.99, $299.99 and $549.99 for 1TB, 2TB and 4TB.
The surprise in 2026 is price. During Amazon’s October sale, Tom’s Hardware found the 4TB 9100 Pro at $734.99 and noted the Gen 5 drives were “still, somehow, beating the Gen 4 Samsung 990 Pro on pricing”. TechRadar listed the 4TB 990 Pro at $938.99 the same week. If you have a PCIe 5.0 slot and the 9100 Pro costs the same or less, buy it. If your PC only has PCIe 4.0, or it is for a PS5, the 990 Pro is the sensible choice.
Samsung 990 Pro vs 990 Evo Plus
The 990 Evo Plus is nearly as fast on paper, 7,250MB/s against 7,450MB/s, but it has no DRAM cache. Pick the 990 Pro for heavy work; the Evo Plus is fine for a games library if it is clearly cheaper.
Samsung lists the 2TB 990 Evo Plus at 7,250MB/s reads and 6,300MB/s writes, with the same 1,200TB endurance as the 2TB 990 Pro. Instead of its own DRAM, it borrows a little of your PC’s memory (HMB). That works well for loading games, but drives without DRAM tend to slow more under long, mixed workloads such as video editing or large file copies.
Samsung 990 Pro vs WD Black SN850X
They are close rivals. The WD Black SN850X is rated at 7,300MB/s for the 1TB to 4TB models, a little below the 990 Pro, and also comes with an optional heatsink. Buy whichever is cheaper on the day.
Both are PCIe 4.0 drives sold with or without a heatsink. The SN850X also comes in 8TB, which the 990 Pro does not. Our best SSD for gaming guide compares more drives, including cheaper ones.
Samsung 990 Pro 1TB vs 2TB vs 4TB
2TB is the best size for most people. 1TB fills up fast with modern games, and 4TB makes sense for large game libraries, video work or a PS5 you never want to clear out.
- 990 Pro 1TB: 600TB endurance and 1GB of DRAM. A big game can take 150GB or more, so 1TB means regular uninstalls.
- 990 Pro 2TB: 1,200TB endurance and 2GB of DRAM. The sweet spot for a gaming PC.
- 990 Pro 4TB: 2,400TB endurance, 4GB of DRAM and the fastest random reads, at 1,600K IOPS.
Endurance is the amount of data Samsung guarantees you can write. Even the 1TB drive’s 600TB means writing more than 300GB every day for five years, far beyond normal use.
Samsung 990 Pro firmware: the health bug and the fix
Early 990 Pro drives lost health far faster than they should. Samsung fixed it with firmware 1B2QJXD7 in early 2023. If you buy one now, check the firmware in Samsung Magician and update it if needed.
Puget Systems, which builds workstations, reported that drives on the original 0B2QJXD7 firmware were degrading at an unusually fast rate. Samsung released 1B2QJXD7 to stop it. Puget noted that, according to a Samsung forum moderator, the update stops further damage but does not restore health already lost. Newer drives should ship with fixed firmware, but you can check yours in the free Samsung Magician app, which also shows drive health.
Back up your data before any firmware update. If a drive does not show up after you fit it, our SSD not detected guide walks through the fixes.
Samsung 990 Pro price in 2026
The 990 Pro costs much more than it did. TechPowerUp’s review listed the 2TB at $150. This month, PC Guide reported a 2TB deal at $389.99, about 2.6 times as much, and still called it “hundreds off the recent peak”, and TechRadar listed the 4TB at $938.99.
PC Guide blames the continuing global memory shortage. TechRadar pointed out that the cheapest 4TB drive it could find, Acer’s FA200 at £430 in the UK, cost about half as much as the 990 Pro. Our RAM and SSD prices explainer covers the AI demand behind the shortage and what to expect. Each product page on our site shows the current price.
Quick answers
Yes, if the price is right. It is one of the fastest PCIe 4.0 drives, with a DRAM cache and a five-year warranty. Check whether the PCIe 5.0 9100 Pro is cheaper first.
Yes. It is well above Sony’s recommended 5,500MB/s, but you must add a heatsink or buy the heatsink version, because Sony requires a cooling structure.
Only the heatsink. The heatsink version has the cooler pre-fitted, which suits a PS5 or a motherboard without an M.2 heatsink. The drive inside is the same.
For heavy work, yes. The 990 Pro has its own DRAM cache and is slightly faster. For storing games, the Evo Plus is close enough if it is cheaper.
The 9100 Pro if you have a PCIe 5.0 slot and it costs the same or less. The 990 Pro for PCIe 4.0 PCs and the PS5.
Install Samsung Magician, select the drive and click Update if a newer firmware is listed. Back up your data first.
Samsung rates the 1TB for 600TB written, the 2TB for 1,200TB and the 4TB for 2,400TB, with a five-year warranty. That is far more than most people ever write.
Yes, but it is limited to PCIe 3.0 speeds, around half its rated speed.
How we know
We are a UK technology retailer and we sell the Samsung 990 Pro in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB. We did not lab-test it. Performance and thermal findings come from TechPowerUp’s review, comparisons with the 9100 Pro from Tom’s Hardware, and the firmware history from Puget Systems. Specifications come from Samsung UK’s product pages for each model number we sell, PS5 requirements from PlayStation UK, and current prices from the publications named in the price section, read on 8 October 2026.
Sources
- Samsung UK, 990 Pro 2TB specifications (and the 1TB and 4TB pages).
- TechPowerUp, Samsung 990 Pro 2TB review.
- Tom’s Hardware, Samsung 9100 Pro review, March 2025.
- Tom’s Hardware, Samsung 9100 Pro price cuts, 7 October 2026.
- PC Guide, 2TB Samsung 990 Pro deal, 4 October 2026.
- TechRadar, the cheapest 4TB SSD, 7 October 2026.
- Puget Systems, Samsung 990 Pro critical firmware update, March 2023.
- PlayStation UK, how to add an M.2 SSD to a PS5.
- Samsung UK, 990 Evo Plus 2TB specifications.
- Sandisk, WD Black SN850X specifications.
Image: Samsung 990 Pro 4TB by Dinkun Chen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped to 16:9 by us.
