The 990 Pro is a nice little upgrade over the 980 Pro, the latter being our preferred SSD for the PS5. There’s more than just functional improvements going on with the 990 Pro though. Samsung also added some visual upgrades. Though we wouldn’t exactly call it a feast for the eyes, since you’ll likely rarely see it, the new 990 Pro with a heatsink has RGB lighting.
Samsung makes the 990 Pro more gamer-like with RGB lighting
Since this is designed with PC gaming in mind as well, it could be a nice visual touch for your rig. Provided you have a motherboard that’s compatible. Inside of the PS5 though, you’re never going to see those lights. Not only is the PS5 console cover going to block off any visual contact, the slot for the drive has its own small cover plate as well. Basically, don’t buy this drive just for the RGB lighting on the heatsink if you’re looking at it for a PS5 storage expansion. Get it because it’ll be a good performer. And make no mistake, if it’s as good as the 980 Pro, it’ll be a good performer. That being said, with Samsung’s improvements, it should be better. And on paper it certainly appears to be. Samsung states the 990 Pro has faster sequential read and write speeds. Specifically up to 7,450 MB/s read and up to 6,900 MB/s write. Which Samsung notes is a 55% improvement in random performance over the 980 Pro.
Better thermal controls for sustained performance
To ensure that those faster read and write speeds stay faster, Samsung has also outfitted the 990 Pro with better thermal control. This includes the use of a few different components. For starters, there’s a nickel coating on the controller. There’s also a heat spreader label on the drive to help manage the thermals further. And if you go with the heatsink model you get even more thermal management. Both models of the drive will go on sale in October starting at $179 for the 1TB model. The 2TB model will retail for $309. Keep in mind that these are likely the prices for the version without the heatsink. In addition to the 1TB and 2TB drives, Samsung will offer a 4TB drive as well, which it says will be out in 2023.
