Tech

Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD: Improved performance and efficiencies

Samsung’s latest fifth-generation V-NAND technology allows the 970 EVO Plus SSD to deliver more performance and improved power efficiencies.

Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor Jan. 22, 2019 at 7:35 a.m. PT

Looking for a high performance SSD? Samsung's new 970 EVO Plus SSD based on the company's fifth-generation V-NAND technology may be the drive for you. This builds on the 970 EVO by bringing faster sequential write speeds, significantly faster random read and write speeds, and improved power efficiencies.

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The 970 EVO Plus is aimed at IT professionals, tech enthusiasts and gamers to looking for an SSD for their PC or workstation that will handle intensive workloads.

The fifth-generation V-NAND technology, in combination with optimized firmware, allows the 970 EVO Plus allows for up to 53 percent improvements in write speed, and sequential read and write speeds of up to 3,500 and up to 3,300 MB/s respectively (that's a bump in write speed from 2,500 MB/s compared to the 970 EVO). It also brings with it a big increase in random speeds performance, up to 620,000 IOPS for read and 560,000 IOPS for write operation.

Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD technical specifications:

Category	970 EVO Plus	970 EVO
Interface	PCIe Gen 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3	PCIe Gen 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3
Form Factor	M.2 (2280)	M.2 (2280)
Storage Memory	Samsung 9x-layer V-NAND 3-bit MLC	Samsung 64-layer V-NAND 3-bit MLC
Controller	Samsung Phoenix Controller	Samsung Phoenix Controller
DRAM	2GB LPDDR4 DRAM (2TB) 1GB LPDDR4 DRAM (1TB) 512MB LPDDR4 DRAM (250GB/500GB)	2GB LPDDR4 DRAM (2TB) 1GB LPDDR4 DRAM (1TB) 512MB LPDDR4 DRAM (250GB/500GB)
Capacity	2TB, 1TB, 500GB, 250GB	2TB, 1TB, 500GB, 250GB
Sequential Read/Write Speed	Up to 3,500/3,300 MB/s	Up to 3,500/2,500 MB/s
Random Read/Write Speed (QD32)	Up to 620,000/560,000 IOPS	Up to 500,000/480,000 IOPS
Management Software	Samsung Magician Software	Samsung Magician Software
Data Encryption	Class 0 (AES 256), TCG/Opal v2.0, MS eDrive (IEEE1667)	Class 0 (AES 256), TCG/Opal v2.0, MS eDrive (IEEE1667)
Total Bytes Written	1,200TB (2TB) 600TB (1TB) 300TB (500GB) 150TB (250GB)	1,200TB (2TB) 600TB (1TB) 300TB (500GB) 150TB (250GB)
Warranty	Five-year Limited Warranty	Five-year Limited Warranty

"Since introducing the first NVMe SSDs to the consumer market in 2015, Samsung has continued to challenge technical barriers in SSD design and performance," said Dr. Mike Mang, vice president of Brand Product Marketing, Memory Business at Samsung Electronics. "The new 970 EVO Plus powered by Samsung's latest fifth-generation V-NAND technology will now offer unrivaled performance in its class when taking on demanding tasks like 4K content editing, 3D modeling and simulation as well as heavy gaming."

The Samsung 970 EVO Plus comes in storage capacities ranging from 250GB, to 1TB, with the 2TB capacity going for sale in April. Retail prices start at $89.99.