Samsung 980 vs 980 Pro: Busting the Myths!

Are you confused between Samsung 980 and Samsung 980 Pro SSDs. Interestingly, there is nothing much to be confused about. Their names might look same where you may think that 980 Pro is a little bit upgrade version of the 980. But, if we look at the differences, they are just massive. In this article, I am going to give my brief insights on two of the most popular SSDs offered by Samsung.

To start, I would like to highlight here that the Samsung 980 Pro is Prosumer (Professional Consumer) NVMe SSD. This SSD is used by hardcore gamers, crypto miners, overclockers, and anyone who needs huge data read/write speed i.e. up to 7 GB/s and 5 GB/s.

Whereas, the Samsung 980 is falls in the budget NVMe category. It is a DRAM-Less SSD. However, it has a lot of applications for non-professional gamers, office workers, programmers, and other normal computer users. It can offer you a read/speed up to 3500 MB/s and 3000 MB/s

With that said, let’s start this article and know which one should you choose in what case. The differences can be huge in terms of speed, benchmark, and endurance. So, the competition is going to be a little bit loose and mostly leaning towards the 980 Pro.

Now, without any further discussions, let’s get started.

Detailed Comparison of Samsung 980 and Samsung 980 Pro

1. Theoretical Specifications (Comparison)

Samsung is always known for its transparency when it comes to showing its SSD’s all specs. Most of other brands might hide some things like DRAM and NAND configurations from you on their official websites. But, getting to know about your Samsung SSDs is always very easy. So, I have used the opportunity and tried to compare all the features and specifications of these SSDs. This comparison will surely help you get a brief idea of how these SSDs can serve you in the future.

Specifications	Samsung 980	Samsung 980 Pro
Capacity	250GB – 1TB	250GB – 2TB
Interface/Form Factor	x4 PCIe 3.0/NVMe/M.2 2280	x4 PCIe 4.0/NVMe/M.2 2280
Seq. Read Speed	Up to 3500 MB/s	Up to 7000 MB/s
Seq. Write Speed	Up to 3000 MB/s	Up to 5000 MB/s
Random Read 4K,QD32 (IOPS)	250GB: Up to 230K 500GB: Up to 400K 1TB: Up to 500K	250GB: Up to 500K 500GB: Up to 800K 1TB: Up to 1000K 2TB: Up to 1000K
Random Write 4K,QD32 (IOPS)	250GB: Up to 320K 500GB: Up to 470K 1TB: Up to 480K	250GB: Up to 600K 500GB: Up to 1,000K 1TB: Up to 1,000K 2TB: Up to 1,000K
Power Consumption	5.3 W Max	7.2 W Maximum
Warranty Period	5 Years	5 Years
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Official Website	Samsung 980	Samsung 980 Pro

With this comparison table, you can see that the Samsung 980 Pro is way faster than the 980. This is happening because the interface. The Samsung 980 Pro is making the best use of its 4 lanes of PCIe 4.0. So, when you use this SSD on a PCIe 4.0 motherboard, it is going to give you up to 7 GB/s data read speed. Whereas, the Samsung 980 is using 4 lanes of PCIe 3.0 which results in a lesser bandwidth.

Note: The maximum speed of 980 Pro will be available only in a PCIe 4.0 motherboard. It will work with the PCIe 3.0 motherboards as well but the speed will be bottlenecked as per the PCIe 3.0 interface specifications.

2. Synthetic Benchmark Scores (Comparison)

This test was done using the CrystalDiskMark software on an Intel i5 8th gen PC along with a 3200 Mhz 8GB RAM. The SSDs were 100% empty when the tests were performed. The real time results may vary depending on your system configurations and the total space filled.

Parameter (Avg.)	Samsung 980 1TB	Samsung 980 Pro 1TB
Sequential Read	1,632 MB/s	5,763 MB/s
Sequential Write	1,869 MB/s	5,236 MB.s
Random 4KB Read	58.4 MB/s	76.3 MB/s
Random 4KB Write	143.4 MB/s	187.2 MB/s
Deep Queue 4K Read	1206.2 MB/s	1,863.1 MB/s
Deep Queue 4K Write	958.7 MB/s	1,354.6 MB/s

It was expected that the 980 Pro is going to win the synthetic benchmark tests because it has better capabilities in all terms. You can see that it is winning in both sequential and random data read/write tests.

3. OS and Software Loading Times

Now, it is the time to check how fast these SSDs can boot up software, games, and the Windows OS. The software loading time will vary depending on the time your SSDs takes to process certain amount of Random data. As we say, the 980 Pro is winning the random data transfer battle, we can see similar results here as well.

OS/Software	Samsung 980	Samsung 980 Pro
Windows 10 (Intel i5 8th Gen)	Ready to use in 27 Seconds	Ready to use in 19 Seconds
Google Chrome	Within 4 Seconds	Within 3 Seconds
Adobe Photoshop	~19 Seconds	~15 Seconds
Fortnite	~45 Seconds	~29 Seconds
Tomb Raider	~21 Seconds	~19 Seconds

Here again, the 980 Pro is beating the 980 in most of the terms. Whether it is OS loading or software opening, the 980 Pro is surely a winner

Note: These tests were done by using both the SSDs on a PCIe 3.0 NVMe port. We make use of 980 Pro’s reverse compatibility with PCIe 3.0. But, when you use it on a PCIe 3.0 NVMe port, you may see way better results as compared to these.

4. Endurance

Endurance is another very big deciding factor when it comes to buying a storage or any electronic device in general. But, in case of SSDs, we have written details of how long an SSD can survive. We have TBW limits of both 980 and 980 Pro which we are going to compare here. Let’s get started.

Version (Capacity)	Samsung 980 (TBW)	Samsung 980 Pro (TBW)
250GB	150	150
500GB	300	300
1TB	600	600
2TB	Version not available	1200

There is no difference between the TBW in both the products. However, the 980 Pro’s 2TB version has a massive TBW limit of 1200TB. But, the 980 doesn’t have any storage variant higher than 1TB.

5. NAND Flash, Cache, and Controller

Let’s talk about the NAND first of all. Interestingly, both 980 and 980 Pro are using the same Samsung’s TLC 3D NAND. 980 has 128 NAND layers in all its variants. Whereas, the 980 Pro has 136 layers in some variants.

As you all know Samsung 980 doesn’t have a dedicated DRAM cache. So, it uses the HMB (Host Memory Buffer) for caching purpose. It isn’t as fast as a DRAM but enough to do most of your tasks. However, the problems with wear leveling can occur when an SSD uses the HMB.

The Samsung 980 Pro is using Low power DDR4 SDRAM as its cache memory. This is the reason why it is capable of offering impressive sequential and random data/read write speeds.

Now, if we talk about the controller, the Samsung 980 has Samsung’s own Pablo controller.

But, 980 Pro has much faster Samsung Elpis controller. Unfortunately, the configurations of both the controllers are not available at this time.

6. Price

Price is surely another major factor affecting your purchase. Not for everyone, but for most of us, price is a major deciding factor. So, here it can convert your decision if you have limited budgets. The price difference between the both can be huge.

By the time I am reading this article, the Samsung 980 Pro 1TB is available for 182 USD but the Samsung 980 1TB is available just for 129 USD. Difference is there in all other variants as well. But, I would suggest you checking the live prices because they keep changing frequently.

You can check Samsung 980’s price here and 980’s price can be found here.

Which one to choose? Samsung 980 or 980 Pro

Look, if you are someone who is looking for a very fast PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, the Samsung 980 Pro is surely a good option. Not only Samsung 980, it beats most other faster PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs out there from popular brands. Make sure you have a PCIe 4. motherboard with an available PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot for your 980 Pro.

However, if you are normal user who don’t want those 5, 6, and 7 GB/s data transfer rates, you are fine to go with the Samsung 980. However, it’s HMB cache method might result in issues while doing huge random data reading/writing. But, overall, it is a good SSD.

So, it is not easy to point out the perfect one from both because the differences are huge. One comes in the budget NVMe category and second one is a professional product. So, just look at your needs and budget as well whether you want that high data read/write speeds from the 980 Pro. However, if you have enough budget to spend, just go for 980 Pro. You will never regret your decision.

Still, I would insist you reading these comparisons and widen your knowledge about other competitors of the both.

Samsung 980 Pro vs Gigabyte Gen4

Samsung 980 Pro vs 970 Pro

Samsung 980 vs 970 Evo Plus

Frequently Asked Questions