Samsung finally debuts 8TB SSD with 9100 PRO, says its twice faster than 990 PRO

Samsung today announced its new 9100 PRO PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD, the successor to the 990 PRO. With this new drive, the tech giant promises "99% performance improvement" or nearly double the speed of its predecessor.

Speaking of performance, the company says that the new 9100 PRO can deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 14,800 MB/s and 13,400 MB/s respectively. In terms of random performance, the claimed figures are 2,200K IOPS (input-output per second) and 2,600K IOPS for reads and writes respectively.

This is also the first time Samsung is bringing an 8TB NVMe SSD for consumers. This is great considering the benefits of having a faster SSD for gaming thanks to modern technologies like DirectStorage as game file sizes keep getting bigger.

Samsung also says that the "9100 PRO is designed with an advanced heat management solution" which is essential given that PCIe 5.0 SSDs are known to run very hot. Thus the new 9100 PRO comes with an 8.8mmT (millimeter thickness) heatsink for 1TB to 4TB models and an 11.25mmT heatsink for the 8TB variant. For those curious, the fatter heatspreader on the 8TB will be nearly 27.85% thicker for better heat dissipation.

In its press release, Samsung writes:

It offers cutting-edge architecture with speeds reaching up to 14,800 MB/s and 13,400 MB/s which is a 99% performance improvement over its predecessor, the 990 PRO

With the help of enhanced heat management solutions, the 9100 PRO will have improved power efficiency of 49% compared to its previous model

...

The introduction of the 8TB model, a first for Samsung’s consumer NVMe SSD lineup, further enhances the product’s appeal by providing ample storage for high-performance gaming, next-generation content creation, and professional workloads.

In terms of pricing and availability, the 9100 PRO SSD will cost $199 for 1TB, $299 for 2TB, and $549 for 4TB. Configurations with built-in heatinks will cost $20 more.

The price of the 8TB has not been announced yet and it will likely be revealed much closer to its launch in the second half of this year. Meanwhile, the rest of the stack will be available starting March 18th 2025.