Samsung 970 Evo vs Evo Plus NVMe SSD – Whats the Difference?

Are you in the market to buy a new NVMe based SSD? In this article, we compare the Samsung 970 EVO vs Evo PLUS NVMe based SSD to understand its key differences. Read along to know more.

The world of SSD has been one of the prominently developing technological innovations, and Samsung is a massive name in this context. Out of several SSDs that Samsung has been able to offer us, the Samsung 970 Evo and Samsung 970 Evo Plus have been the two top choices for system builders. The 970 Evo Plus is the newly launched SSD, and the Evo 970 drive was launched last year in 2018. We will explore the features offered by the two SSDs and compare them with one another.

Related: Samsung 970 Evo 970 Pro

Samsung 970 Evo SSD – A Concise Review

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Form Factor        M.2 2280

Interface             PCIe Gen 3.0 x4, NVMe ver. 1.3

Controller            Samsung Phoenix Controller

NAND Flash Memory       Samsung V-NAND 3-bit MLC

Storage Capacity              250GB   500GB   1TB        2TB

Performance

Sequential Read MB/s    3,400     3,400     3,400     3,500

Sequential Write MB/s   1,500     2,300     2,500     2,500

Random Read 4K IOPS    200K      370K      500K      500K

Random Write 4K IOPS   350K      450K      450K      500K

TBW      150TB    300TB    600TB    1,200TB

Power Consumption

Average Active Power (read)       5.4W     5.7W     6W         6W

Average Active Power (write)      4.2W     5.8W     6W         6W

DEVSLP (L1.2 mode)        5mW

Warranty            5-years (limited)

The Samsung 970 Evo comes with capacities ranging from 250 GB to 2 TB. In fact, the 2 TB capacity is the new standard for the Evo series of SSDs. The high end 2 TB model will offer you a read and write throughputs of 3500 MB per sec and 2500 MB per sec respectively as the peak speeds.

It comes with a dynamic Intelligent TurboWrite capability as soon as you transfer a larger file to the drive. It is also equipped with a powerful five-core Phoenix controller. The drive also supports Microsoft’s eDrive and TCG Opal 2.0. If you are unaware, the eDrive technology is an encryption feature observed on Windows 8, 8.1, and 10. The TCG Opal 2.0 is a technology that provides you access to remote administration procedure.

The Phoenix controller comes with a nickel thermal cover for efficient heat dissipation. The new drive also supports Magician and Data Migration Software from Samsung. It provides you with access to view the SMART information option as well. You can test the drives with the load generator tool and let you securely erase the drive. The software also enables you to update the firmware through simple and easy steps. Samsung has also made an NVMe driver 3.0 available on the Samsung 970 EVO.

Samsung 970 Evo comes with a warranty of 5 years. It also comes with a few reliability factors that include an endurance limit of up to 1200 TBW. The drive efficiently leverages the 3-bit MLC V-NAND from Samsung.

Samsung 970 Evo Plus – A Sneak Peek

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The Samsung 970 Evo Plus is one of the formidable new entrants to the Samsung NVMe SSD lineup. It comes with tweaked performance improvements and sustained throughput. Samsung’s Evo series has always been a clear leader in terms of speed when it comes to low priced NVMe based SSDs. The Samsung 970 Evo Plus improves the performance levels even further.

The drive comes with the same construction with a 64-layer stacked TLC (Triple Level Cell/3-bit) NAND and a Phoenix controller but offers an improved firmware. The SSD comes with the capacities of 250 GB, 500 GB, and 1 TB. The 2 TB capacity is expected to be available soon.

The drive comes with a warranty of 5 years. The sequential read and write speeds offered by the Samsung 970 Evo Plus is 3500 MB per sec and 3300 MB per sec respectively. The DTG (Dynamic Thermal Guard) functionality ensures that the drive will be capable of handling the longer and sequential file transfers. Samsung goes on record stating that the new 970 Evo Plus can handle workloads 53 percent better than the older generation Samsung 970 SSDs.

The Samsung 970 Evo Plus – like the 970 EVO offers you the TurboWrite functionality. It lets you handle all the consumer class or heavy workloads.

Comparison based on a few key parameters: Samsung 970 Evo vs Evo Plus

Let us compare the two NVMe SSD drives based on a few key metrics. As has already been indicated through the brief reviews above, both the drives come with almost equivalent performance except for a few minor differences.

Specifications

Both 970 Evo and 970 Evo Plus come with the same M.2 2280 standard. You can find the same PCIe 3.0 x4 connectivity on either of them. The bandwidth available on the two drives reads 4 GB per sec. The 970 Evo Plus comes with a 96-layer TLC (Triple-Level Cell/3bit) NAND in comparison to the 64-layer TLC on the 970 Evo. However, you will find the same Phoenix Controller and NVMe 1.3 Protocol on both the options.

The chart below should provide you with a better idea –

Performance

Samsung 970 Evo Plus offers you the read and writes speeds of 3500 and 3300 MB per sec compared to the figures for 970 Evo which stand at 3400 and 2500 MB per sec. While you may not find any huge improvement in terms of the read speeds, the write speeds are indeed impressive.

The table below should provide an adequate comparison between the two SSD siblings from Samsung –

TurboWrite Performance

TurboWrite speed performance is offered on both the Samsung 970 EVO and 970 EVO Plus, but the performance of TurboWrite tends to be faster than those on the Samsung 970 Evo.

The Concluding Thoughts

That should be a good comparison of the exact differences between the two competing SSDs from Samsung. Now that both 970 Evo and 970 Evo plus do provide access to almost similar features, it should not be a huge concern choosing the best among them.

While both of them provide an excellent degree of service, it should also go without saying that 970 Evo plus offers you a slightly better performance as indicated already in the above discussion. Choose the one that best meets your requirements within your budget.