Samsung 970 Pro 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD Review

Is Samsung's 970 Pro the fastest flash-based consumer SSD in the world? Of course, it is!

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Manufacturer: Samsung
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The Bottom Line

If you want the world's best performing flash-based consumer SSD, then what you want is Samsung's 970 Pro.

Introduction, Drive Specifications, Pricing & Availability

There is no denying that Samsung's EVO Series is facing stiff competition as competitors close the gap in 3-bit 3D flash technology. For the first time Toshiba/SanDisk and Intel/Micron have 3-bit 3D flash that can compete with Samsung's 3-bit V-NAND on the performance front. That said, Samsung is in no danger of losing the flash-based performance crown anytime soon. The reason? 2-bit V-NAND.

While other fabs are abandoning 2-bit flash production in favor of 3-bit, Samsung remains committed to furthering their 2-bit V-NAND technology because it gives them a perpetual advantage on the performance front. 3-bit flash can never deliver performance or endurance that is equivalent to 2-bit provided the underlying technology is also equivalent.

In 2015 Samsung introduced the world to M.2 NVMe SSDs with their 950 Pro Series. The 950 Pro dominated the enthusiast and professional landscape for one year before handing the torch to its successor the 960 Pro. The 960 Pro was the world's fastest consumer SSD at the time of its release and has carried the with it the flash-based performance crown until now.

Samsung has brought to market their third generation 2-bit V-NAND NVMe SSD 970 Pro Series.

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The 970 Pro succeeds the 960 Pro as Samsung's flagship consumer SSD. The 970 Pro brings with it a new controller, new V-NAND, lower power requirements and improved thermal performance.

Like the 970 EVO, the 970 Pro is powered by Samsung's "Phoenix" NVMe controller. Phoenix, like its predecessor "Polaris", is a 5-core ARM-based processor. One core is dedicated for improving host communication and the other four service the drive's V-NAND array. Phoenix features increased core-clock speeds and enhanced thermal capabilities over Polaris.

Samsung's fourth generation 64-layer 2-bit V-NAND is faster and at the same time more power efficient than previous 48-layer V-NAND found on the 960 Pro Series.

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As shown by the above chart, the 970 Pro's IOPS to watt efficiency has been dramatically increased in comparison to the 960 Pro. When reading random data, the 970 Pro is 41% more efficient than the 960 Pro. When writing random data, the 970 Pro is 50% more efficient than its predecessor.

Like its predecessor, the 960 Pro, the 970 Pro features a layer of copper film in the label on the back of the drive's PCB which helps dissipate heat faster. In addition, the Phoenix controller has a new nickel coating allowing it to dissipate heat faster which helps maintain peak performance better than ever before.

The 970 Pro's improved thermals and increased throughput allow more sequential write data to be transferred before throttling kicks in.

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The algorithm triggered by Enhanced Dynamic Thermal Guard (DTG) allows the 970 Pro to transfer approximately 27% more data or 67GB during sequential writes before the DTG trigger point. The 970 Pro shows not only high performance, but also stable performance even after the DTG trigger point.

Samsung remains the only company with total vertical integration in the SSD business. Every major component (Controller, Flash, DRAM) are Samsung's own. This allows Samsung complete quality control, lower manufacturing costs and more efficient innovation than their competitors.

Samsung's vertical integration extends into the software front as well. Like all Samsung SSDs, the 970 Series is fully compatible with Samsung's own "Magician" SSD toolbox and Samsung data migration software. Samsung also provides a proprietary NVMe driver for the 970 Pro. Samsung's NVMe driver 3.0 significantly boosts performance and increases compatibility for Windows 7 users.

Let's get into the review and see for ourselves exactly what the 970 Pro is serving up.

Specifications, Features and Availability

Samsung 970 EVO NVMe 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD

Samsung's 970 Pro series is available at two capacity points: 512GB and 1TB

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The 1TB 970 Pro we have on the bench sports the following factory specifications:

  • Sequential Read: up to 3,500 MB/s
  • Sequential Write: up to 2,700 MB/s
  • Max 4K Random Read Speed: up to 500,000 IOPS
  • Max 4K Random Write Speed: up to 500,000 IOPS
  • 4K QD1 Random Read Speed: up to 15,000 IOPS
  • 4K QD1 Random Write Speed: up to 55,000 IOPS
  • Endurance: up to 1,200 TBW
  • MTBF: 1.5 Million Hours
  • Warranty: 5-Year Limited Warranty

Features: TRIM (Required OS support), Garbage Collection, S.M.A.R.T Monitoring, Samsung NVMe Driver 3.0.

Data Security Features: AES 256-bit Full Disk Encryption, TCG/Opal V2.0, Encrypted Drive (IEEE1667).

Available Free Software: Samsung Magician SSD Toolbox, Samsung Data Migration Tool and Samsung NVMe driver 3.0.

Samsung, as they always do, provide value-add software for your 970 Pro available free via download. Samsung's Magician SSD Toolbox allows you to monitor the drive, tune your OS for optimized SSD usage, update firmware, Secure Erase, and test performance.

Samsung's Data Migration software makes it as easy as a couple of mouse clicks to migrate your Operating System to your new 970 Pro SSD. Samsung's NVMe driver 3.0 provides better performance, better data security and higher compatibility.

MSRP Samsung 970 Pro Series:

512GB = $249.99

1TB = $499.99

Note: The prices given reflect Samsung's updated MSRP.

Availability: Now

Drive Details

Samsung 970 Pro 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD

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The 970 Pro ships in familiar looking packaging. There is an image of the enclosed SSD on front. Capacity, model and V-NAND architecture are advertised here.

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The back of the packaging advertises Samsung's new slogan and 5-year warranty.

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The drive is cradled in a thick plastic protective carrier.

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Included with the drive is a printed installation guide and warranty statement.

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The component side of the PCB has a manufacturer label covering the major components.

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The back of the PCB is devoid of components. This is where Samsung's exclusive copper infused thermal label is applied.

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Removing the manufacturer label reveals Samsung's nickel plated "Phoenix" five-core 8-channel ARM-based NVMe controller, a Samsung DDR4 1024MB package and two 512GB 64-layer V-NAND 2-bit per cell flash packages.

Test System & Drive Properties

Jon's Consumer Z270 PCIe SSD Review Test System Specifications

We would like to thank ASRock, Crucial, Intel, Corsair, RamCity, IN WIN, and Seasonic for making our test system possible.

Drive Properties

Samsung 970 Pro 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD OS Disk 75% Full

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The majority of our testing is performed with the test subject as our boot volume. Our boot volume is 75% full for all OS Disk "C" drive testing to replicate a typical consumer OS volume implementation. We feel that most of you will be utilizing your SSDs for your boot volume and that presenting you with results from an OS volume is more relevant than presenting you with empty secondary volume results.

System settings: Cstates and Speed stepping are both disabled in our systems BIOS. Windows High-Performance power plan is enabled. We are utilizing Windows 10 Pro 64-bit OS for testing except for our MOP (Maxed-Out Performance) benchmarks where we switch to Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit. Empty Windows 10 benchmark screenshots will also be shown on our MOP page.

Please note: When comparing our results to those of other review sites, look at page 10 Maxed Out Performance-Windows 10 which is done with the disk empty.

Synthetic Benchmarks – ATTO & Anvil Storage Utilities

ATTO

Version and / or Patch Used: 3.05

ATTO is a timeless benchmark used to provide manufacturers with data used for marketing storage products. When evaluating ATTO performance we focus on the drive's performance curve.

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We are able to attain factory max sequential performance specifications despite this test running at only QD4.

Sequential Write

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This is a hard one to call, but we will give the win to the 970 EVO because it ramps up a little faster than the 970 Pro.

Sequential Read

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The 970 Pro 1TB delivers the best sequential read performance curve for any flash-based SSD we've ever tested. Most vertical performance curve, great small file performance and highest throughput are delivered by the 970 Pro. Lab record.

Anvil Storage Utilities

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1.0

Anvil's Storage Utilities is a storage benchmark designed to measure the storage performance of SSDs. The Standard Storage Benchmark performs a series of tests; you can run a full test or just the read or write test, or you can run a single test, i.e. 4k QD16. When evaluating performance with Anvils, we focus on total score. When evaluating NVMe SSDs we are typically looking for a minimum total score of over 10K. We place a greater importance on read performance than write performance.

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Scoring

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One benchmark, three lab records for a flash-based SSD. The read score is the most impressive ever for a flash-based SSD. The 970 Pro takes the Anvil's performance crown from the drive it is replacing. Lab record.

(Anvil) Read IOPS through Queue Depth Scale

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We are hitting 350,000 4K random read IOPS at QD32 with our system disk 75% full.

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As we've stated over and over, the most performance important metric for consumers is random read and the 970 Pro serves it up far better than any flash-based SSD in the world. Lab record.

(Anvil) Write IOPS through Queue Scale

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At QD32 with a partition on our drive and 75% full we are able to easily surpasses factory specs which are given at QD128.

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This is lab record for highest IOPS. However, we value low queue depth random performance more than high queue depth performance. Even though this is the best performance curve we've seen from a Samsung SSD, it's not as good as we are getting from SanDisk's Extreme Pro.

Synthetic Benchmarks – CrystalDiskMark & AS SSD

CrystalDiskMark

Version and / or Patch Used: 3.0 Technical Preview

CrystalDiskMark is disk benchmark software that allows us to benchmark 4k and 4k queue depths with accuracy. Note: Crystal Disk Mark 3.0 Technical Preview was used for these tests since it offers the ability to measure native command queuing at QD4. When evaluating CDM results, we focus on 4K random performance at QD1 and QD4.

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Focusing in on QD1 and QD4 we the 970 EVO outperforming the 970 Pro. This is due to the 970 EVO reading cached data from its SLC (1-bit) buffer. 1-bit is faster than 2-bit. However, it is important to keep in mind that the only way this kind of performance can occur is if the data being read has already taken up residence in the caching layer. Most of the time, reading cached data is not going to occur. Most of the time data will be read from the flash array outside of the caching layer.

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Overall, this is the second best CDM write performance we've seen from a flash-based consumer SSD. The write-centric SanDisk Extreme Pro remains our champion when writing data at low queue depths.

AS SSD

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.8.5611.39791

AS SSD determines the performance of SSDs. The tool contains four synthetic as well as three practice tests. The synthetic tests are to determine the sequential and random read and write performance of the SSD. We evaluate AS SSD performance in terms of overall score. We are looking for a minimum score of 2,000 when evaluating NVMe SSDs.

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The 970 Pro serves up yet another lab record for a flash-based SSD by delivering an incredible score of over 5,400. It is important to keep in mind that with AS SSD, having data on the drive has a severe negative impact on the overall score.

Now let's see what the 970 Pro 1TB is serving up in the real-world.

Benches (OS) - Vantage, PCMark 7, PCMark 8 & SYSmark 2014 SE

Moderate Workload Model

We categorize these tests as indicative of a moderate workload environment.

PCMark Vantage - Hard Disk Tests

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.2.0.0

The reason we like PCMark Vantage is because the recorded traces are played back without system stops. What we see is the raw performance of the drive. This allows us to see a marked difference between scoring that other trace-based benchmarks do not exhibit. An example of a marked difference in scoring on the same drive would be empty vs. filled vs. steady state.

We run Vantage three ways. The first run is with the OS drive 75% full to simulate a lightly used OS volume filled with data to an amount we feel is common for most users. The second run is with the OS volume written into a "Steady State" utilizing SNIA's consumer guidelines. Steady-state testing simulates a drive's performance similar to that of a drive that been subjected to consumer workloads for extensive amounts of time. The third run is a Vantage HDD test with the test drive attached as an empty, lightly used secondary device.

OS Volume 75% Full - Lightly Used

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OS Volume 75% Full - Steady State

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Secondary Volume Empty - FOB

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The important scores to pay attention to are "OS Volume Steady State" and "OS Volume 75% full." These two categories are most important because they are indicative of typical of consumer user states. When a drive is in a steady state, it means garbage collection is running at the same time it's reading/writing.

Focusing in on 75% full and steady-state performance, we find the 970 Pro delivering lab records for both. The 970 Pro takes the crown from its predecessor once again. Compared with the 970 EVO, the 970 Pro is delivering approximately 40% better performance.

PCMark 7 - System Storage

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.4.0

We will look to Raw System Storage scoring for evaluation because it's done without system stops and, therefore, allows us to see significant scoring differences between drives. When evaluating NVMe SSDs we are looking for a minimum score of 11,000

OS Volume 75% Full - Lightly Used

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No contest, the 970 Pro 1TB crushes all comers - delivering yet another lab record for a flash-based SSD. Moderate workload performance is what matters most and this is where the 970 Pro shines like no other.

PCMark 8 - Storage Bandwidth

Version and / or Patch Used: 2.4.304

We use PCMark 8 Storage benchmark to test the performance of SSDs, HDDs, and hybrid drives with traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and a selection of popular games. You can test the system drive or any other recognized storage device, including local external drives. Unlike synthetic storage tests, the PCMark 8 Storage benchmark highlights real-world performance differences between storage devices.

OS Volume 75% Full - Lightly Used

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PCMark 8 is the most intensive moderate workload simulation we run. With respect to moderate consumer type workloads, this test is what we consider the best indicator of a drive's performance.

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Its starting to sound like a broken record, but again the 970 Pro shows us that is the world's fastest flash-based consumer SSD. Not by a little, but by a lot. Lab record.

BAPCo SYSmark 2014 SE Application Performance

Version and / or Patch Used: 2.0.0.70

SYSmark 2014 SE is considered the gold standard for testing system performance because it is an application-based benchmark. This test gives us the ultimate in real-world results because it utilizes actual applications running on the system, instead of playing back recorded traces. If you want to know what kind of impact a particular SSD will have on your system's overall performance; this test will show you.

Our systems are much more powerful than the calibration system (1000-point baseline) used by BAPCo, so we ran an OCZ TL100 120GB SATA III SSD to establish a comparison point relative to our test systems. We will be running this test going forward and we will add drives to our chart as we test them.

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Responsiveness is our main focus when evaluating the results of this test. Samsung's 970 Pro beats out our previous lab champion, ADATA's SX8200 480GB, but only by 2 points. Another lab record for a flash-based SSD goes the 970 Pro.

Benchmarks (Secondary) - IOPS, Response & Transfer Rate

Iometer - Maximum IOPS

Version and / or Patch Used: Iometer 2014

We use Iometer to measure high queue depth performance. (No Partition)

Max IOPS Read

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Max IOPS Write

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We test NVMe SSDs using eight threads at QD32 (QD256). We do this because we want to see what the drive can generate at its maximum attainable queue depth.

Another lab record goes to the 970 Pro in jaw-dropping fashion. This time for the highest IOPS from any flash-based consumer SSD we've tested.

Iometer - Disk Response

Version and / or Patch Used: Iometer 2014

We use Iometer to measure disk response times. Disk response times are measured at an industry accepted standard of 4K QD1 for both write and read. Each test runs twice for 30 seconds consecutively, with a 5-second ramp-up before each test. We partition the drive/array as a secondary device for this testing.

Avg. Write Response

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Avg. Read Response

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Although the 970 Pro delivers by far the best-read response of any SSD on this chart it is not the best ever for a flash-based SSD. That title belongs to ADATA's SX8200 480GB. SanDisk's Extreme Pro delivers by far the best write response we've seen from any SSD including Optane.

DiskBench - Transfer Rate

Version and / or Patch Used: 2.6.2.0

We use DiskBench to time a 28.6GB block (9,882 files in 1,247 folders) composed primarily of incompressible sequential and random data as it's transferred from our Toshiba RD400 1TB NVME SSD to our test drive. We then read from a 6GB zip file that's part of our 28.6GB data block to determine the test drive's read transfer rate. Our system is restarted prior to the read test to clear any cached data, ensuring an accurate test result. We consider write transfers to be more important than read transfers.

Write Transfer Rate

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Read Transfer Rate

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The 970 Pro sets a new lab record for read transfer rate. Samsung's 970 EVO delivers the highest write transfer rate for any consumer SSD we've ever tested.

Benchmarks (Secondary Volume) - PCMark 8 Extended

Futuremark PCMark 8 Extended

Heavy Workload Model

PCMark 8's consistency test simulates an extended duration heavy workload environment. PCMark 8 has built-in, command line executed storage testing. The PCMark 8 Consistency test measures the performance consistency and the degradation tendency of a storage system.

The Storage test workloads are repeated. Between each repetition, the storage system is bombarded with a usage that causes degraded drive performance. In the first part of the test, the cycle continues until a steady degraded level of performance has been reached. (Steady State)

In the second part, the recovery of the system is tested by allowing the system to idle and measuring the performance after 5-minute long intervals. (Internal drive maintenance: Garbage Collection (GC)) The test reports the performance level at the start, the degraded steady-state, and the recovered state, as well as the number of iterations required to reach the degraded state and the recovered state.

We feel Futuremark's Consistency Test is the best test ever devised to show the true performance of solid state storage in an extended duration heavy workload environment. This test takes on average 13 to 17 hours to complete and writes somewhere between 450GB and 14,000GB of test data depending on the drive. If you want to know what an SSDs steady-state performance is going to look like during a heavy workload, this test will show you.

Here's a breakdown of Futuremark's Consistency Test:

Precondition phase:

1. Write to the drive sequentially through up to the reported capacity with random data.

2. Write the drive through a second time (to take care of overprovisioning).

Degradation phase:

1. Run writes of random size between 8*512 and 2048*512 bytes on random offsets for 10 minutes.

2. Run performance test (one pass only).

3. Repeat 1 and 2 for 8 times, and on each pass increase the duration of random writes by 5 minutes.

Steady state phase:

1. Run writes of random size between 8*512 and 2048*512 bytes on random offsets for 50 minutes.

2. Run performance test (one pass only).

3. Repeat 1 and 2 for 5 times.

Recovery phase:

1. Idle for 5 minutes.

2. Run performance test (one pass only).

3. Repeat 1 and 2 for 5 times.

Storage Score, Storage Bandwidth

PCMark 8's Consistency test provides a ton of data output that we use to judge a drive's performance.

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We consider steady-state bandwidth (the blue bar) our test that carries the most weight in ranking a drive/arrays heavy workload performance. Performance after Garbage Collection (GC) (the orange and red bars) carries the most weight when evaluating moderate consumer workload performance.

No contest here, the 970 Pro destroys the competition. The results of this test cement in our minds that the 970 Pro is indeed the world's fastest flash-based consumer SSD.

Storage Bandwidth Per Phase

We chart our test subject's storage bandwidth as reported at each of the test's 18 trace iterations. This gives us a good visual perspective of how our test subjects perform as testing progresses. This chart sheds more light on how the drives perform as they progress through the testing phases.

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Total Access Time (Latency)

We chart the total time the disk is accessed as reported at each of the test's 18 trace iterations. This helps shed some light on how the drive performs at each of the 18 phases of this test.

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Disk Busy Time

Disk Busy Time is how long the disk is busy working. We chart the total time the disk is working as reported at each of the tests 18 trace iterations.

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The 970 Pro works less and gives more than any of the competitors in our test pool. Now that is impressive.

Data Written

We measure the total amount of random data that our test drive/array is capable of writing during the degradation phases of the consistency test. Pre-conditioning data is not included in the total. The total combined time that degradation data is written to the drive/array is 470 minutes. This can be very telling. The better a drive/array can process a continuous stream of random data; the more data will be written.

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The 970 Pro has zero OP (Over Provisioning) so when it is running in a steady state it is at a disadvantage in comparison with the 960 EVO 2TB which has 48GB of OP. This is why the 2TB EVO writes more random data when garbage collection is running simultaneously.

Benchmarks 70/30 Mixed Workload & Sustained Seq. Write

70/30 Mixed Workload Test (Sledgehammer)

Version and / or Patch Used: Iometer 2014

Heavy Workload Model

This test hammers a drive so hard we've dubbed it "Sledgehammer". Our 70/30 Mixed Workload test is designed to simulate a heavy-duty enthusiast/workstation steady-state environment. We feel that a mix of 70% read/30% write, full random 4K transfers best represents this type of user environment. Our test allows us to see the drive enter into and reach a steady state as the test progresses.

Phase one of the test preconditions the drive for 1 hour with 128K sequential writes at QD32. Phase two of the test runs a 70% read/30% write at QD32, full random 4K transfer workload on the drive for 1 hour. We log and chart (phase two) IOPS data at 5-second intervals for 1 hour (720 data points). 60 data points = 5 minutes.

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What we like about this test is that it reflects reality. Everything lines up, as it should. Consumer drives don't outperform Enterprise-Class SSDs that were designed for enterprise workloads. Consumer drives based on old technology are not outperforming modern Performance-Class SSDs, etc.

The 970 Pro performs as expected, delivering another lab record for flash-based SSDs.

Sustained Sequential Write

Version and / or Patch Used: Iometer 2014

Heavy Workload Model

We write to the drive for 1 hour with 128K sequential writes at QD32. We log and chart megabytes per second data at 5-second intervals for 1 hour (720 data points). 60 data points = 5 minutes.

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The 970 Pro maintains 2,700 MB/s sequential write performance for 1-hour, again setting a new lab record.

Maxed-Out Performance (MOP)

This testing is just to see what the drive is capable of in an FOB (Fresh Out of Box) state under optimal conditions. We are utilizing empty volumes running on Windows 10 64-bit and Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit for this testing.

Windows 10 MOP

Samsung 970 EVO 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD

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Windows Server 2008 R2 MOP

Samsung 970 EVO 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD

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Final Thoughts

As our testing revealed, Samsung's 970 Pro 1TB is without question the best performing flash-based consumer SSD you can buy at this time and likely will remain so for the foreseeable future.

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The advantage that 2-bit flash has over 3-bit manifests itself most when running workloads where data is not being read from a caching layer. When data is not being read from a 3-bit drive's caching layer, which is almost always the case when running a real-world type workload, 2-bit flash performs much better than 3-bit.

When running synthetic workloads, drives that have an SLC buffer are reading back data that was just written and still resides in the fast caching layer. This is why synthetic benchmarks always write data before they read data. This means that random read performance as shown by synthetic benchmarks is typically inflated in an unrealistic manner.

When we run real-world type tests, data is being read from a drives flash array outside of its SLC buffer. When an SSD has an SLC cache, it may deliver earthshattering synthetic performance, but then underperform by comparison when running workloads. Samsung's 970 Pro doesn't have a caching layer, so workload performance is more inline with synthetic results than we see from drives that use caching.

When Samsung launched their 970 Series back in April, the 970 Pro 1TB came tagged with an MSRP of 649.99. However, Samsung has since revised their suggested pricing for the 970 Series significantly. Now the 970 Pro 1TB carries a considerably lower MSRP of $499.99. Some retailers haven't yet adjusted pricing to reflect this change, but we have seen a few retailers selling the 970 Pro 1TB at its new MSRP.

With its new lower MSRP, we believe the 970 Pro presents a great value proposition for the consumer. It's not that much more expensive than many of the top performing TLC-based NVMe SSDs currently on the market. We believe that when you really dig down and compare what the 970 Pro has to offer, it is actually the better value in most cases for the following reasons:

A 970 Pro gives you more useable capacity than a typical TLC-based SSD. 1TB class TLC SSDs give you at most 1000GB of raw user capacity; some only 960GB. The 970 Pro 1TB gives you a full terabyte or 1024GB of raw user capacity. That's 24-64GB more raw capacity for the end-user. The 970 Pro outperforms its TLC counterparts. And finally, the 970 Pro offers double the endurance of its TLC-based counterparts.

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Because TweakTown tests SSDs with the drive running as our system (OS) disk we are in a relatively unique position to comment on what matters most - actual user experience. The user experience delivered Samsung's 970 Pro is outstanding. Everything about the way our system performs when powered by Samsung's 970 Pro is the best we've experienced from a flash-based SSD. Samsung's 1TB 970 Pro is 100% TweakTown recommended.

Pros:

  • Overall Performance
  • High Endurance
  • Value
  • Included Software

Cons:

  • None
TweakTown award
Performance 100%
Quality 100%
Features 100%
Value 100%
Overall 100%

The Bottom Line: If you want the world's best performing flash-based consumer SSD, then what you want is Samsung's 970 Pro.

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Jon joined the TweakTown team in 2013 and has since reviewed 100s of new storage products. Jon became a computer enthusiast when Windows XP launched. He was into water cooling and benching ATI video cards with modded drivers. Jon has been building computers for others for more than 10 years. Jon became a storage enthusiast the day he first booted an Intel X25-M G1 80GB SSD. Look for Jon to bring consumer SSD reviews into the spotlight.

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