Samsung unveils new SSD, optimised for 4K and 8K contents

Samsung has announced the SSD 980 PRO, the company's first consumer PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD.

Designed for consumers and professions using 4K and 8K contents, as well as graphic-heavy games, Samsung says its new SSD is optimised for handling data-intensive applications and can provide 'cutting-edge performance in high-end PCs, workstations and game consoles'.

"Over the years, Samsung has continuously challenged the limits of high-speed flash memory storage solutions," says Samsung vice president of electronics memory brand product biz Mike Mang.

"The new 980 PRO SSD reflects our continuing commitment to delivering exceptional products consumers have come to expect from Samsung.

The device comes in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB models, with stock becoming available worldwide starting this month. A 2TB model will be available by the end of the year.

The 980 PRO SSD is capable of sequentially reading and writing speeds of up to 7,000 MB/s and 5,000 MB/s respectively, as well as random read and write speeds of up to 1,000K IOPS, making it up to two times faster than PCIe 3.0 SSDs and up to 12.7 times faster than SATA SSDs, according to the company.

This is possible through its custom-designed Elpis controller, V-NAND and DRAM. The 980 PRO achieves max speeds on PCIe 4.0 and may vary in other environments, according to Samsung.

Since high-performance SSDs usually require high-performance thermal control, the device also features improved thermal control solutions, which includes a nickel coating on the controller as well as a head spreader label on the back side of the SSD for efficient thermal management. This is in contrast to the external copper heatsinks commonly featured in many other high-performance NVMe SSDs.

These innovative heat-dissipating functions also allow the drive to maintain its compact and slim M.2 2280 form factor. Samsung's Dynamic Thermal Guard technology further ensures that the drive's temperature stays at the optimal level, minimising performance fluctuations over the long haul.

The small size of the 980 PRO SSD allows users to easily plug the device into desktops and laptops for maximum board design flexibility. The drive is suitable for building high-performance computing systems due to its optimised power efficiency.

Users can also monitor drive health, optimise performance, protect valuable data, and receive essential updates using Samsung Magician's optimisation tools.

The 980 PRO's manufacturer's suggested retail prices start at $89.99 for the 250GB model.