The Samsung 970 EVO Plus (250GB, 1TB) NVMe SSD Review: 96-Layer 3D NAND

[harlan4096]

The first retail consumer SSDs to be updated with new 96-layer 3D NAND flash memory are the Samsung 970 EVO Plus. The 970 EVO Plus will be replacing the 970 EVO as Samsung's mainstream consumer NVMe SSD. Today we are reviewing two of the launch drives: the 970 EVO Plus at 250GB, and the 970 EVO Plus at 1TB. These two drives are Samsung's attack on both the mainstream and high capacity markets, while the new NAND has a focus more on power than driving down overall costs per GB. Performance per watt is a key focus of these drives.

Capacities up to 1TB will be available from today, with the 2TB model launching in April. Pricing for that part has not yet been announced, however it is likely to be at a similar price density per GB as the 1TB.

Transitioning to 96-Layer (96L) NAND

Last fall, Samsung outlined their plans for transitioning from 64L to 96L NAND. Most of Samsung's SSDs that use TLC NAND will be updated to 96L NAND while keeping the same SSD controllers as current products. While the consumer products will remain PCIe 3.0 for the time being, Samsung's top enterprise drives are getting an update to support PCIe 4.0. This means that the Samsung Phoenix controller that is at the heart of their retail, OEM and low-end datacenter NVMe product lines will be sticking around for another year, including in the new 970 EVO Plus and relatives like the PM981a and PM983a.

Samsung's fifth generation, 96-layer 3D NAND was first announced at Flash Memory Summit in 2017, and mass production began in July 2018 with 256Gb TLC dies.

However, last year saw NAND flash memory prices crash as good yields and high production volumes of 64L 3D NAND created an oversupply. The major manufacturers have been taking steps to slow their transition to 96L NAND in order to avoid making that situation even worse for their profit margins, but they have not entirely halted the process. There's still strong incentive to provide annual updates to retail products, so it isn't surprising to see the 970 EVO Plus showing up now.

Full reading: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13761/the...ssd-review