Storage Systems Compare 990 EVO Plus vs 990 Pro: Gaming & Thermal SSD Tests August 25, 20251 view0 By IG Share Share In the world of high-performance PC storage, the Samsung 990 Pro has long been the king of PCIe 4.0 SSDs. But a new challenger, the Samsung 990 EVO Plus, has emerged, focusing on incredible efficiency and value. This analysis settles the 2025 debate: Is the raw power of the 990 Pro a real advantage for gaming, or is the cooler, more affordable 990 EVO Plus the smarter choice for your rig? We dive deep into performance benchmarks, thermal dynamics, and real-world gaming tests to find the definitive answer. Faceofit.com | 990 EVO Plus vs 990 Pro: The Ultimate 2025 SSD Showdown Faceofit.com Performance Gaming Thermals Ownership Verdict SSD Showdown | August 2025 Note: If you buy something from our links, we might earn a commission. See our disclosure statement. 990 EVO Plus vs. 990 Pro: The Gamer's Dilemma Is the raw power of the 990 Pro a real advantage, or does the cooler, more efficient 990 EVO Plus represent the smarter choice for modern gaming rigs? We dive deep into the data to find out. In the world of high-performance PC storage, Samsung's PRO series has long been the gold standard. The 990 Pro stands as a testament to this legacy, pushing the limits of PCIe 4.0. But a new challenger has emerged: the 990 EVO Plus. It's not just another budget drive; it's a marvel of efficiency, engineered to deliver a near-flagship experience without the flagship heat or cost. This analysis settles the debate for 2025: which drive truly deserves a place in your system? A Note on the "Plus" To appreciate the 990 EVO Plus, it's helpful to know about the original 990 EVO. The baseline EVO was a good drive, but with speeds around 5,000 MB/s, it wasn't a Pro competitor. The "Plus" model represents a massive leap, boosting performance to near-Pro levels and elevating the EVO line into a true high-performance contender. A Tale of Two Architectures The core differences in performance and thermals stem from fundamentally different design philosophies. Here's a visual breakdown. Controller & Process The 990 Pro's 8nm, 8-channel Pascal controller is built for raw power. The 990 EVO Plus's 5nm, 4-channel Piccolo controller is engineered for peak efficiency. DRAM vs. HMB The 990 Pro uses a dedicated onboard DRAM cache for ultra-low latency. The 990 EVO Plus cleverly uses your system's RAM (Host Memory Buffer) to cut costs and power draw. V-NAND Technology Both drives now leverage Samsung's cutting-edge 236-layer V8 TLC NAND, ensuring top-tier density, speed, and identical endurance ratings (600 TBW per TB). Deeper Dive: The Tech Under the Hood The infographics tell a high-level story, but the nuances of the hardware explain why these drives behave so differently. The choice between them comes down to a classic engineering trade-off: brute force vs. elegant efficiency. The Controller: 8-Channel Power vs. 4-Channel Finesse The 990 Pro's 8-channel Pascal controller is like having more lanes on a highway—it allows for more parallel data paths to the NAND flash, maximizing throughput. This is ideal for heavy server workloads or professional video editing. The 990 EVO Plus's 4-channel Piccolo controller, built on a more advanced 5nm process, is a deliberate choice for efficiency. It provides more than enough bandwidth for gaming and consumer tasks while generating significantly less heat and consuming less power. The DRAM Divide: Why It Matters (and When It Doesn't) The most critical difference is the 990 Pro's dedicated LPDDR4 DRAM cache. This onboard memory stores the drive's data map, allowing for near-instant data lookups. This is crucial for performance in heavy multitasking or sustained write scenarios. The 990 EVO Plus uses Host Memory Buffer (HMB), borrowing a tiny slice of your system's RAM for the same purpose. For gaming and everyday use, which involve short bursts of activity, modern HMB is so effective that the performance difference is imperceptible. The Pro's DRAM advantage only truly appears when its cache is exhausted by massive, multi-hundred-gigabyte file transfers—a scenario most gamers will never encounter. Specification Breakdown All Specs Performance Architecture Endurance Specification 990 Pro 990 EVO Plus Controller Samsung Pascal (8nm) Samsung Piccolo (5nm) DRAM Cache Yes (LPDDR4) No (Host Memory Buffer) NAND Type V8 (236L) TLC V8 (236L) TLC Max Sequential Read 7,450 MB/s 7,250 MB/s Max Sequential Write 6,900 MB/s 6,300 MB/s Max Random Read 1,600K IOPS 1,050K IOPS Max Random Write 1,550K IOPS 1,400K IOPS Endurance (per TB) 600 TBW 600 TBW Synthetic vs. Real-World Performance The 990 Pro dominates synthetic tests, but that advantage shrinks dramatically in real-world applications and gaming scenarios. The most critical metric for system responsiveness is 4K QD1 random read speed, where the performance gap is much smaller than headline numbers suggest. Sequential Speeds (MB/s) Real-World Gaming Performance The Gamer's Crucible: Does it Matter? Benchmarks are one thing, but what about the actual experience? We look at load times, in-game smoothness, and future-proofing with DirectStorage. Load Time Reality Check In standardized tests like Final Fantasy XIV, the load time difference between the 990 Pro and 990 EVO Plus is less than a tenth of a second. It is completely imperceptible to a human. Both offer a massive leap over older drives, but against each other, it's a dead heat. ~7.0s 990 Pro vs ~7.1s 990 EVO Plus The DirectStorage Question DirectStorage is a future-facing API that allows the GPU to stream assets directly from the SSD, bypassing the CPU. While the 990 Pro's DRAM cache makes it theoretically superior for this task, developer adoption has been slow. As of August 2025, the 990 EVO Plus is more than capable for all current and near-future titles, making the Pro a bet on a technology that hasn't yet fully impacted the gaming landscape. In-Game Smoothness & Asset Streaming Beyond loading, an SSD's job is to stream textures and game assets in real-time to prevent "pop-in," where low-resolution textures are momentarily visible. However, the performance needed to eliminate this is well below the capability of either drive. In modern gaming, the bottleneck is almost always the CPU or GPU, not the storage. There is no evidence that the 990 Pro offers any tangible advantage over the 990 EVO Plus for in-game smoothness or texture loading. Beyond the Burst: Sustained Performance What happens when you transfer a massive, multi-hundred-gigabyte file? This is where the drive's SLC cache runs out, revealing the true, underlying speed of its NAND flash. Post-Cache Write Speed Cliff For most tasks like installing a game, writes stay within the massive SLC cache (~216GB on 2TB models). But for content creators moving huge files, the difference is clear. Once the cache is exhausted, the 990 Pro's 8-channel controller and DRAM allow it to maintain much higher write speeds compared to the 990 EVO Plus. This is the Pro's key advantage for professional workloads. The Deciding Factor: Heat & Power This is where the 990 EVO Plus runs away with the crown. Its modern architecture makes it one of the coolest and most efficient high-performance drives on the market. Peak Temperature Under Load (°C) Power Efficiency (MB/s per Watt) The 990 Pro's performance comes at a thermal cost. Under heavy load without a heatsink, it can reach 80°C and throttle. Even in typical gaming, it can sit at 60-68°C, often warmed by a nearby GPU. The 990 EVO Plus is lauded as one of the coolest NVMe drives, rarely throttling even under stress and making it far more forgiving. The Heatsink Imperative This thermal difference creates a "heatsink imperative" for the 990 Pro. To guarantee its rated speeds, it needs effective cooling, whether from the motherboard or the pricier heatsink model. Samsung doesn't even offer a heatsink for the 990 EVO Plus, confident in its ability to run cool in most systems. This makes the EVO Plus a more versatile and worry-free choice, especially for compact builds. The 990 EVO Plus is ~17% more power efficient and runs significantly cooler, making it the ideal choice for laptops, PlayStation 5 consoles, and small form factor (SFF) PCs where every degree and watt counts. The Long-Term View: Firmware & Value A drive's performance on day one is only part of the story. Long-term stability, software support, and the overall value proposition are just as important. Firmware & Stability The 990 Pro had a rocky launch with a firmware bug that caused premature health degradation. While Samsung fixed this promptly, it highlights the importance of updates. The 990 EVO Plus has had a smooth history with no major issues. For both, the Samsung Magician software is essential for monitoring health and applying critical updates to ensure long-term stability. The Value Proposition The 990 EVO Plus consistently costs less than the 990 Pro. Given the identical gaming performance, this makes it the clear winner in value. The money saved is better spent on a GPU or CPU upgrade. Furthermore, the 990 Pro's high heat often requires a good heatsink (a potential "hidden cost"), whereas the EVO Plus runs cool enough to be more forgiving in systems with basic cooling. Quick Decision Tree Still undecided? Follow this simple tree to find your perfect match. What is your primary use for this SSD? Professional Workloads Video Editing, 3D Rendering, Large File Transfers Get the 990 Pro You will benefit from the DRAM cache and higher sustained write speeds. Gaming & General Use Game Installs, Application Loading, System Drive What type of system are you building? Laptop or SFF PC Get the 990 EVO Plus Its thermal and power efficiency are critical here. Desktop PC Get the 990 EVO Plus Save money for your GPU/CPU with no loss in gaming performance. Final Verdict & Recommendations Synopsis of Findings Gaming Performance: For game loading and in-game responsiveness, performance is functionally identical. The 990 Pro's theoretical advantages do not translate to a perceptible benefit. Thermals & Efficiency: The 990 EVO Plus is the clear winner, running significantly cooler and consuming less power, making it more versatile. Professional Workloads: The 990 Pro is the superior drive for content creators and power users who perform large, sustained file transfers that can leverage its DRAM cache. Value: The 990 EVO Plus offers a far better price-to-perceptible-performance ratio for gamers and general users. For Power Users & Creators Your workloads (video editing, large file transfers) will actually use the Pro's DRAM and sustained write speed. The heat is manageable in a workstation. Winner: 990 Pro Check on Amazon Check on Newegg For Gamers & System Builders Gaming performance is identical. The EVO Plus runs cooler, uses less power, and costs less. Re-invest the savings in your GPU or CPU. Winner: 990 EVO Plus Check on Amazon Check on Newegg For Laptops & SFF PCs It's not even a contest. The EVO Plus's superior thermal and power efficiency make it the only logical choice for compact, power-sensitive builds. Winner: 990 EVO Plus Check on Amazon Check on Newegg Affiliate Disclosure: Faceofit.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Share What's your reaction? Excited 0 Happy 0 In Love 0 Not Sure 0 Silly 0
SSD Showdown | August 2025 Note: If you buy something from our links, we might earn a commission. See our disclosure statement. 990 EVO Plus vs. 990 Pro: The Gamer's Dilemma Is the raw power of the 990 Pro a real advantage, or does the cooler, more efficient 990 EVO Plus represent the smarter choice for modern gaming rigs? We dive deep into the data to find out. In the world of high-performance PC storage, Samsung's PRO series has long been the gold standard. The 990 Pro stands as a testament to this legacy, pushing the limits of PCIe 4.0. But a new challenger has emerged: the 990 EVO Plus. It's not just another budget drive; it's a marvel of efficiency, engineered to deliver a near-flagship experience without the flagship heat or cost. This analysis settles the debate for 2025: which drive truly deserves a place in your system? A Note on the "Plus" To appreciate the 990 EVO Plus, it's helpful to know about the original 990 EVO. The baseline EVO was a good drive, but with speeds around 5,000 MB/s, it wasn't a Pro competitor. The "Plus" model represents a massive leap, boosting performance to near-Pro levels and elevating the EVO line into a true high-performance contender. A Tale of Two Architectures The core differences in performance and thermals stem from fundamentally different design philosophies. Here's a visual breakdown. Controller & Process The 990 Pro's 8nm, 8-channel Pascal controller is built for raw power. The 990 EVO Plus's 5nm, 4-channel Piccolo controller is engineered for peak efficiency. DRAM vs. HMB The 990 Pro uses a dedicated onboard DRAM cache for ultra-low latency. The 990 EVO Plus cleverly uses your system's RAM (Host Memory Buffer) to cut costs and power draw. V-NAND Technology Both drives now leverage Samsung's cutting-edge 236-layer V8 TLC NAND, ensuring top-tier density, speed, and identical endurance ratings (600 TBW per TB). Deeper Dive: The Tech Under the Hood The infographics tell a high-level story, but the nuances of the hardware explain why these drives behave so differently. The choice between them comes down to a classic engineering trade-off: brute force vs. elegant efficiency. The Controller: 8-Channel Power vs. 4-Channel Finesse The 990 Pro's 8-channel Pascal controller is like having more lanes on a highway—it allows for more parallel data paths to the NAND flash, maximizing throughput. This is ideal for heavy server workloads or professional video editing. The 990 EVO Plus's 4-channel Piccolo controller, built on a more advanced 5nm process, is a deliberate choice for efficiency. It provides more than enough bandwidth for gaming and consumer tasks while generating significantly less heat and consuming less power. The DRAM Divide: Why It Matters (and When It Doesn't) The most critical difference is the 990 Pro's dedicated LPDDR4 DRAM cache. This onboard memory stores the drive's data map, allowing for near-instant data lookups. This is crucial for performance in heavy multitasking or sustained write scenarios. The 990 EVO Plus uses Host Memory Buffer (HMB), borrowing a tiny slice of your system's RAM for the same purpose. For gaming and everyday use, which involve short bursts of activity, modern HMB is so effective that the performance difference is imperceptible. The Pro's DRAM advantage only truly appears when its cache is exhausted by massive, multi-hundred-gigabyte file transfers—a scenario most gamers will never encounter. Specification Breakdown All Specs Performance Architecture Endurance Specification 990 Pro 990 EVO Plus Controller Samsung Pascal (8nm) Samsung Piccolo (5nm) DRAM Cache Yes (LPDDR4) No (Host Memory Buffer) NAND Type V8 (236L) TLC V8 (236L) TLC Max Sequential Read 7,450 MB/s 7,250 MB/s Max Sequential Write 6,900 MB/s 6,300 MB/s Max Random Read 1,600K IOPS 1,050K IOPS Max Random Write 1,550K IOPS 1,400K IOPS Endurance (per TB) 600 TBW 600 TBW Synthetic vs. Real-World Performance The 990 Pro dominates synthetic tests, but that advantage shrinks dramatically in real-world applications and gaming scenarios. The most critical metric for system responsiveness is 4K QD1 random read speed, where the performance gap is much smaller than headline numbers suggest. Sequential Speeds (MB/s) Real-World Gaming Performance The Gamer's Crucible: Does it Matter? Benchmarks are one thing, but what about the actual experience? We look at load times, in-game smoothness, and future-proofing with DirectStorage. Load Time Reality Check In standardized tests like Final Fantasy XIV, the load time difference between the 990 Pro and 990 EVO Plus is less than a tenth of a second. It is completely imperceptible to a human. Both offer a massive leap over older drives, but against each other, it's a dead heat. ~7.0s 990 Pro vs ~7.1s 990 EVO Plus The DirectStorage Question DirectStorage is a future-facing API that allows the GPU to stream assets directly from the SSD, bypassing the CPU. While the 990 Pro's DRAM cache makes it theoretically superior for this task, developer adoption has been slow. As of August 2025, the 990 EVO Plus is more than capable for all current and near-future titles, making the Pro a bet on a technology that hasn't yet fully impacted the gaming landscape. In-Game Smoothness & Asset Streaming Beyond loading, an SSD's job is to stream textures and game assets in real-time to prevent "pop-in," where low-resolution textures are momentarily visible. However, the performance needed to eliminate this is well below the capability of either drive. In modern gaming, the bottleneck is almost always the CPU or GPU, not the storage. There is no evidence that the 990 Pro offers any tangible advantage over the 990 EVO Plus for in-game smoothness or texture loading. Beyond the Burst: Sustained Performance What happens when you transfer a massive, multi-hundred-gigabyte file? This is where the drive's SLC cache runs out, revealing the true, underlying speed of its NAND flash. Post-Cache Write Speed Cliff For most tasks like installing a game, writes stay within the massive SLC cache (~216GB on 2TB models). But for content creators moving huge files, the difference is clear. Once the cache is exhausted, the 990 Pro's 8-channel controller and DRAM allow it to maintain much higher write speeds compared to the 990 EVO Plus. This is the Pro's key advantage for professional workloads. The Deciding Factor: Heat & Power This is where the 990 EVO Plus runs away with the crown. Its modern architecture makes it one of the coolest and most efficient high-performance drives on the market. Peak Temperature Under Load (°C) Power Efficiency (MB/s per Watt) The 990 Pro's performance comes at a thermal cost. Under heavy load without a heatsink, it can reach 80°C and throttle. Even in typical gaming, it can sit at 60-68°C, often warmed by a nearby GPU. The 990 EVO Plus is lauded as one of the coolest NVMe drives, rarely throttling even under stress and making it far more forgiving. The Heatsink Imperative This thermal difference creates a "heatsink imperative" for the 990 Pro. To guarantee its rated speeds, it needs effective cooling, whether from the motherboard or the pricier heatsink model. Samsung doesn't even offer a heatsink for the 990 EVO Plus, confident in its ability to run cool in most systems. This makes the EVO Plus a more versatile and worry-free choice, especially for compact builds. The 990 EVO Plus is ~17% more power efficient and runs significantly cooler, making it the ideal choice for laptops, PlayStation 5 consoles, and small form factor (SFF) PCs where every degree and watt counts. The Long-Term View: Firmware & Value A drive's performance on day one is only part of the story. Long-term stability, software support, and the overall value proposition are just as important. Firmware & Stability The 990 Pro had a rocky launch with a firmware bug that caused premature health degradation. While Samsung fixed this promptly, it highlights the importance of updates. The 990 EVO Plus has had a smooth history with no major issues. For both, the Samsung Magician software is essential for monitoring health and applying critical updates to ensure long-term stability. The Value Proposition The 990 EVO Plus consistently costs less than the 990 Pro. Given the identical gaming performance, this makes it the clear winner in value. The money saved is better spent on a GPU or CPU upgrade. Furthermore, the 990 Pro's high heat often requires a good heatsink (a potential "hidden cost"), whereas the EVO Plus runs cool enough to be more forgiving in systems with basic cooling. Quick Decision Tree Still undecided? Follow this simple tree to find your perfect match. What is your primary use for this SSD? Professional Workloads Video Editing, 3D Rendering, Large File Transfers Get the 990 Pro You will benefit from the DRAM cache and higher sustained write speeds. Gaming & General Use Game Installs, Application Loading, System Drive What type of system are you building? Laptop or SFF PC Get the 990 EVO Plus Its thermal and power efficiency are critical here. Desktop PC Get the 990 EVO Plus Save money for your GPU/CPU with no loss in gaming performance. Final Verdict & Recommendations Synopsis of Findings Gaming Performance: For game loading and in-game responsiveness, performance is functionally identical. The 990 Pro's theoretical advantages do not translate to a perceptible benefit. Thermals & Efficiency: The 990 EVO Plus is the clear winner, running significantly cooler and consuming less power, making it more versatile. Professional Workloads: The 990 Pro is the superior drive for content creators and power users who perform large, sustained file transfers that can leverage its DRAM cache. Value: The 990 EVO Plus offers a far better price-to-perceptible-performance ratio for gamers and general users. For Power Users & Creators Your workloads (video editing, large file transfers) will actually use the Pro's DRAM and sustained write speed. The heat is manageable in a workstation. Winner: 990 Pro Check on Amazon Check on Newegg For Gamers & System Builders Gaming performance is identical. The EVO Plus runs cooler, uses less power, and costs less. Re-invest the savings in your GPU or CPU. Winner: 990 EVO Plus Check on Amazon Check on Newegg For Laptops & SFF PCs It's not even a contest. The EVO Plus's superior thermal and power efficiency make it the only logical choice for compact, power-sensitive builds. Winner: 990 EVO Plus Check on Amazon Check on Newegg
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