Samsung Targets Gamers With 3 Extremely Fast 990 Pro NVMe SSDs

News: Samsung support replies on German Samsung support forum announcing a future firmware update (https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5...o-ssd-probleme-zum-gesamtzustand/td-p/6791489)

English translation: "Samsung is currently reviewing customer inquiries about anomalies related to the S.M.A.R.T. Percentage Used (on Samsung Magician) and/or the Health Status (on Crystal Disk Info) of the Samsung SSD 990 PRO.
We were able to recreate the error under certain conditions of use. To fix the problem, Samsung is expected to release a firmware update in February. "
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Sabrent Control Panel tool? No it is absolute toilet on the visuals front but it has some functions that do work like firmware update, SMART info etc. I will only be using it for firmware checks, HWINFO64 and CrystalDiskMark/info for everything else lol.

In gaming tests and Forspoken for direct storage, the difference vs my 970 Evo Plus 1TB (gen 3) is marginal at best. Just highlights really that for gaming, all you need is a half decent Gen 3 NVMe and you're golden.
 
Hang tight I'm sure it will hit magician shortly for our region!

In light of recent Samsung woes, Sabrent are also sending me out an 8TB Rocket 4 Plus to check out so it seems whilst the 990 Pro issues have been frustrating, at least something good is coming out of it for me :o
 
mrk said:
Hang tight I'm sure it will hit magician shortly for our region!

In light of recent Samsung woes, Sabrent are also sending me out an 8TB Rocket 4 Plus to check out so it seems whilst the 990 Pro issues have been frustrating, at least something good is coming out of it for me :o
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Your expectation wasn't accurate... Looks like Samsung didn't even bother to reset the counter on the " new SSDs " according to a reddit user who had the chance to upgrade :


1d00c9e35637f0383c5a9c3783e9c58a.png



A placebo firmware I bet, I'm all in.
 
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It's possible they can't change the smart values as it works as a protection system to ensure the values are not manipulated- kinda like how they had drives going into read only mode due to P/E cycles misreported but once that happens it can't be reversed even though the memory on the drive is working perfectly fine, it's a safety measure to ensure dead 2nd hand drives don't end up for sale in supposedly working condition.

It's possible that because these drives ran down their health so fast they might crap out before they reach the rated TBW rating even after this firmware that should slow down the degradation. Just RMA to get a new one at 100% then update the firmware, don't let Samsung scam you
 
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In light of this then I would 100% RMA it and not accept anything other than a replacement or a refund, and as Grim5 says, apply the new firmware on the replacement.

It's a shame that Samsung are not being proactive about clear communication on this, they should be saying what the issue was, that the firmware will fix the issue but not update the SMART data record because of XYZ, and that the best course of action if users do want their drive's health reporting restored, then RMA it to get a replacement.

Like what those guys supposed to to with teh firmware on a drive reading 67% etc? Just live with all tools showing the drive is at 67%?!
 
Samsung was always my go to drive.

On my last build I opted for a 980 pro and was disappointed as it had issue with speeds slowing down, ended up going for a Corsair MP600 pro XT.

Anyway I’ve just ordered new parts for a new build and went for a 990 pro. Is this pretty much the king at the moment or should I be looking elsewhere?

EDIT: ok so just a quick skim read of the last couple of pages and I think I’ve made a mistake going for the Samsung.

Still drops in speeds, as well as issues with health readings….
 
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It's not the king so to speak, but it does have the highest read speed currently, but the difference isn't night and day vs others. It's aligned in the same ballpark with other top tier models from

Sabrent (Rocket 4 Plus-G/Plus)
Western Digital (SN850x)
Kingston (KC3000)
Seagate (Firecuda 530)
Inland Performance Plus

Didn't include any Crucials because their read/write speeds aren't in the 7000/6800 ball park of the above.

Based on everything I have read and experienced recently, the Sabrents seem to have a solid track record but that comes at a price premium, the Western Digital SN850x seems to be the go-to.
 
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IA64 said:
I believe the issue is much more than a health drop. My 2x 990 PRO SSD will not maintain a sustainable write speed no matter what and it's very random... Sometimes it hits 7GB/s write speed sometimes it doesn't

Archived - Samsung Community

us.community.samsung.com us.community.samsung.com
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mrk said:
It's not the king so to speak, but it does have the highest read speed currently, but the difference isn't night and day vs others. It's aligned in the same ballpark with other top tier models from

Sabrent (Rocket 4 Plus-G/Plus)
Western Digital (SN850x)
Kingston (KC3000)
Seagate (Firecuda 530)
Inland Performance Plus

Didn't include any Crucials becaus etheir read/write speeds aren't in the 7000/6800 ball park of the above.
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I should have done more research.

I pretty much only read a few reviews. I can send it back tomorrow but that’ll just delay the build.

The retailer I’ve used won’t allow a return if the item is opened (which is fair enough) otherwise I’d have likely used it until I ordered an alternative..

I may just go back to the Corsair. No one ever seems to speak about their drives but the MP600 Pro XT was solid when I owned it.

Guess more research is needed.
 
MP600 Pro XT appears to be aligned with the above too and is priced similarly too, so yep that would be good for sure. 7100/6800 read/write and similar TBW. Any of these alternatives you can't go wrong really.
 
Sort of related I guess as the IOPs and stuff are more useful than outright bandwidth, but after installing the Sabrent heatsink (double sided) I notice the benchmark results are at their peak consistently whereas they would vary before depending on the drive's temp. For ref the temps don't exceed 53 degrees under load now, and that's right above the 3080 Ti with all case fans at around 600rpm for total silence. Essentially ambient airflow.

(I also switched crystaldiskmark to Peak mode from default to show the IOPs):


XhRfvBj.png
 
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