Samsung is showing a new M.2 SSD at CES 2020. The Samsung 980 PRO is connected via PCIe 4.0 and reaches speeds of up to 6,500 MB/s. This means that Samsung is now also catching up under PCIe 4.0.
The new Samsung 980 PRO is also in M.2-2280 format, but compared to the Samsung 970 Pro it has a PCIe 4.0 interface and can therefore double the data rate. PCI 3.0 x4 SSDs such as the 970 Pro or 970 Evo Plus are limited by the interface and therefore only achieve up to 3,500 MB/s. For PCIe 4.0 x4 the upper limit is 7,000 MB/s, which Samsung now almost reaches. This makes it even faster than for example the Corsair MP600 with up to 5,000 MB/s. The Samsung 980 PRO is supposed to reach 6,500 MB/s in reading mode and 5,000 MB/s in writing mode.
MLC-NAND with 2 bits per memory cell will probably be used again, as with the other Pro models. According to PCWatch, the Samsung 980 PRO should be available in South Korea and the USA with 250 GB, 500 GB and 1 TB in stores as early as 21 January 2020. Other markets will follow in February.
