Samsung's new 980 Pro PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD offers read speeds up to 7,000MB/s

Samsung has unveiled the 980 Pro, its newest high-end NVMe M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 drive, which pushes read and write speeds to ridiculous speeds.

The drive will come in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities at launch and features a PCIe 4.0 interface that, with a compatible motherboard, will offer maximum sequential read and write speeds of up to 7,000MB/s and 5,000MB/s, respectively. Even if you don’t have a PCIe 4.0 motherboard on hand (there aren’t a lot available at this time, as the interface is relatively new), the new 980 Pros can still reach maximum sequential read and write speeds of 3,500MB/s and 3,450MB/s, respectively on an M.2 PCIe 3.0 motherboard.

As tends to be the case with SSDs, the smaller capacity drives will feature slightly slower write speeds (read speeds are the same across capacities). While the 1TB version will top out at sequential write speeds of up to 3,450MB/s via PCIe 3.0, the 500GB and 250GB models will top out at 3,400MB/s and 2,700MB/s, respectively. As noted by The Verge, How-to Geek suggests the slower write speeds may be caused by there being fewer NAND channels in smaller SSDs.

While PCIe 4.0 motherboards aren’t exactly commonplace at this time, it’s nice to see a future-proof SSD that will still improve speeds on the more common PCIe 3.0 interface.

The three capacities will start shipping this month with the 250GB, 500GB and 1TB models retailing for $90, $150 and $230, respectively. There will also be a 2TB version out before the end of the year, but no price has been shared at this time.