Samsung on July 14 formally launched the Samsung 990, its value-segment M.2 NVMe SSD. Not to be confused with the 990 EVO, another DRAMless SSD that uses TLC NAND, the new 990 implements QLC NAND flash and relies on controller-level optimization to shore up performance.

Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the Samsung 990 features an M.2 NVMe Gen 4 (PCI-Express 4.0 x4) host interface, driven by a Samsung Piccolo-Q DRAMless controller with in-house V9 series 280-layer 3D QLC NAND. The drive comes in two capacities: 1 TB at $270 and 2 TB at $530.

The 1 TB variant delivers up to 7,150 MB/s sequential reads and 6,450 MB/s writes, with 700K IOPS random reads and 1.1M IOPS random writes. The 2 TB model reaches 7,250 MB/s reads, 6,450 MB/s writes, 850K IOPS random reads, and 1.2M IOPS random writes.

Write endurance differs significantly from the TLC-based 990 EVO Plus. The 2 TB Samsung 990 offers 800 TBW, while the 1 TB model provides 400 TBW—compared to 1,200 TBW and 600 TBW for the EVO Plus equivalents. Both variants carry 3-year warranties.