The fastest gaming SSD we’ve ever tested

Samsung has turned up fashionably late to the PCIe 5.0 SSD party, but it’s largely been worth the wait. Rather than rushing out a new drive as soon as the first motherboards came on the scene, the company has been able to see where other drives have failed, and refine its PCIe 5.0 SSD formula. Meet the Samsung 9100 Pro, the fastest SSD on the block.

This new Samsung drive isn’t just the quickest M.2 SSD I’ve ever tested, but it also doesn’t run ridiculously hot. You still need a heatsink for it, but not a comically oversized one with a fan in it. In fact, the slimline cooler attached to the heatsink versions of the drive has no trouble keeping it in check without throttling. It might not be cheap (more on that later), but in terms of nailing the brief, the Samsung 9100 Pro is the best SSD for gaming in terms of raw performance.

I’ve tested two of the new drives to see how they get on in a number of different scenarios, from gaming to raw sequential performance, and using one of them as the main drive in my gaming PC for a couple of weeks. The first is a 2TB model with a heatsink, and the second is a 4TB drive without a heatsink.

Specs

Thanks to its use of the 4x PCIe 5.0 interface, the performance of the Samsung 9100 Pro is well ahead of the company’s last-gen PCIe 4.0 drives, such as the Samsung 990 Pro. Technically, this isn’t the company’s first PCIe 5.0 drive either, as the Samsung 990 Evo and Evo Plus ostensibly used this interface too.

However, these drives could only use two PCIe 5.0 lanes, meaning they were effectively no faster than 4x PCIe 4.0 drives. This time, Samsung has done it properly, with a 4x PCIe 5.0 SSD that the company says can hit a top sequential read speed of 14,800MB/s on the 4TB drive, and 14,700MB/s on the 1TB and 2TB models, beating the Crucial T705’s claimed top speed of 14,500MB/s.

The drive is based on Samsung’s 8th-gen triple-level cell (TLC) V-NAND, and it also features a brand new Samsung in-house controller, which the company has built on a 5nm manufacturing process. Comparatively, the Phison E31T controller used by a lot of the competition is built with TSMC’s 7nm process, and even the new Phison PS5028-E28 controller is made with a 6nm process.

Samsung says its own custom controller design enables the new drive to be 49% more power-efficient than the old PCIe 4.0 Samsung 990 Pro, and also describes the heatsink version of the drive as “cooler” and “longer lasting.” Meanwhile, each drive has an LPDDR4X cache that corresponds directly to the capacity, so the 1TB drive has 1GB of cache, the 2TB drive has 2GB, and so on.

Capacity is another strong point of this range of drives, which spans from 1TB all the way to 8TB. We’ll have to wait a little while for the 8TB drives, which Samsung says will be released later in 2025, but the company is launching the 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB models at the same time now.

Finally, the endurance rating of each drive also correlates with the capacity, with the 1TB drive rated to 600 terabytes written (TBW), going up in increments of 600TBW with each extra terabyte of capacity. This matches the competition, with the same figures claimed for the Crucial T705.

Software

One of the features I really like about Samsung’s drives is the Magician software package you can download for its SSDs from Samsung’s website. The software is well laid out and easy to use, and it already supports the new Samsung 9100 Pro drives. My favorite part of it is the Data Migration section, which takes all the hassle out of upgrading your system drive. You don’t need to worry about reinstalling Windows, or finding free ghosting software, as the Samsung package will do all the hard work for you – drivers, software installs, Windows – the lot.

You just need to put your new drive in a spare M.2 slot on your motherboard at the same time as your current system drive, format it, go to the Data Migration section, and select your new drive. Clicking the Start button will then do the whole job of cloning your existing system drive onto the new drive (from any SSD, not necessarily a Samsung one). Once you’re done, you can perform a Secure Erase on your old drive (a feature that’s also handily available in Magician), and you’re all ready to go.

Other features available here include performance benchmarking, and diagnostics tests, as well as the ability to set how much capacity your drive uses for over-provisioning – a feature that locks off a certain amount of the capacity drive from Windows, which can potentially improve performance and endurance during if your drive is likely to undertake a lot of write-intensive workloads.

How we test

To assess SSD performance, I run a mix of synthetic tests using CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD, to gauge peak sequential and random performance. I also run the PCMark 10 full system drive benchmark to get an idea of real-world performance as a system drive, and run the 3DMark storage benchmark to assess gaming performance, which is the priority for our reviews as a gaming site.

The latter runs traces from real games, including Battlefield V, The Outer Wilds, and Overwatch, to measure performance for game installs, saves, and loading times. All the SSDs in the graphs below were tested on the same test rig, which has the spec listed below. All tests are conducted in a full PC build inside a Cooler Master MasterCase H500P case with two 200mm front intake fans and one 140mm exhaust fan, with the glass side panel attached, to get a realistic idea of thermal performance and throttling.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
• CPU cooler: Corsair H100X Elite
• Motherboard: MSI X870E Carbon WiFi
• RAM: G.Skill TridentZ RGB 6,000MT/s, CL28
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080
• SSD (system drive): WD Black SN850X heatsink 2TB
• PSU: Corsair RMX1000 Shift

Benchmarks

On to the big question, then. Can the Samsung 9100 Pro really live up to its manufacturer’s claims when it comes to performance? Let’s start with those sky-high sequential read speed claims, of 14,700MB/s for the 2TB drive and 14,800MB/s for the 4TB drive. To put this to the test, I ran CrystalDiskMark on both drives, and while neither test quite hit Samsung’s claims, they weren’t far off, and are significantly higher than the Crucial T705.

As you can see in the graph above, the 4TB drive hits 14,725MB/s, and the 2TB drive can manage 14,645MB/s. These are huge numbers that really see Samsung pushing the limit of what’s possible with the PCIe 5.0 interface, but it’s always worth bearing in mind that you’ll only see this performance in large-scale file transfers. The graph above makes it look as though the Samsung 9100 Pro is well over double the speed of the WD Black SN850X, but this is the only scenario where you’ll see that scale of performance difference.

Sequential write speeds are also solid for the Samsung drives. The 2TB drive hits 13,450MB/s in this test, with a similar (though ever so slightly lower) result for the 4TB drive, being well ahead of the 12,718MB/s achieved by the Crucial T705. Samsung has absolutely nailed the raw performance of this drive when it comes to sequential reads and writes.

Random read performance is also a strong point for the Samsung 9100 Pro, as shown in our AS SSD test 4K 64-queue-depth results, where the 9100 Pro tops out at 979,640 IOPS, compared to 889,149 IOPS for the Corsair MP700 Pro and 882,724 IOPS for the Crucial T705.

This test does show how the waters get muddied once you get away from sequential performance, though, as both the Corsair and Crucial drives are a little quicker than the Samsung when it comes to random writes. While the PCIe 4.0 WD Black SN850X is at the bottom of the graph in this test, you can also see that it’s not anywhere near as far behind as it is in the sequential tests, showing that these flagship figures don’t tell you the whole story.

Indeed, switching to the CrystalDiskMark random 4K (32-queue-depth) tests reverses the picture, with the WD Black SN850X being slightly quicker than all the PCIe 5.0 drives on test, and the Samsung 9100 Pro sitting at the bottom of the graphs. The differences are small across the board here, though. Basically, buying a new PCIe 5.0 SSD doesn’t guarantee you a performance boost in every single scenario.

Moving onto the all-important game tests shows where the Samsung 9100 Pro is really strong, which is when it comes to game load times. When loading Battlefield V it hits a fantastic speed of 1,526MB/s, compared to 1,404MB/s for the Crucial T705 and 1,216 for the Corsair MP700 Pro.

Likewise, in Overwatch, the Samsung 9100 Pro again sits at the top of the graphs, loading the game at 571MB/s, quicker than any of the other PCIe 5.0 drives on test, and well ahead of the 407MB/s from the WD Black SN850X. One factor to consider with the latter drive is also that WD has sadly now discontinued its WD Dashboard software, which enabled you to switch on WD’s Game Mode to improve load times. Even then, though, the load times we recorded with the old Game Mode enabled (1,154MB/s in Battlefield v) are well behind the Samsung 9100 Pro.

Interestingly, though, the Samsung 9100 Pro fares less well in the install test for The Outer Wilds, where it hit 236MB/s. It’s still quicker than the WD Black SN850X here, but the Corsair and Crucial drives are a fair bit quicker, with the T705 even running at 290MB/s.

The traces for this game told a similar story when it comes to saving your game in The Outer Wilds, where the Samsung 9100 Pro’s 178MB/s result is again ahead of the WD Black SN850X, but falls behind the other two PCIe 5.0 drives on test. This just goes to show that those peak sequential figures on the box don’t always tell you the whole story when it comes to real-world gaming performance.

Finally, we come to the PCMark full system drive test, which sees the Samsung 9100 Pro return to the throne, averaging 637MB/s across the system drive tests. That’s faster than the other two PCIe 5.0 SSDs, by 90MB/s in the case of the Corsair MP700 Pro, and it’s well in front of the 404MB/s from the WD Black SN850X.

Similarly, the average access time of 39μs is a great result for the Samsung 9100 Pro in this test, being well ahead of the WD Black SN850X, and a little in front of the other PCIe 5.0 SSDs. This is a snappy SSD to use as a Windows system drive, although it’s also worth noting that all these figures are incredibly small.

Temperature

For me, though, it’s the thermals of the Samsung 9100 Pro that really sell it to me. PCIe 5.0 SSDs have had a difficult start when it comes to operating temperatures, with drives running so hot they end up throttling in some cases. Manufacturers have come up with various ideas to get around it, from the small active fan inside the Corsair MP700 Pro’s air cooler, to the huge passive heatsink on the MSI Spatium.

Samsung has really got to the heart of the issue with its own pure in-house design, though, and made a super-fast drive that doesn’t run as hot as the competition. That doesn’t mean you can get away without a heatsink for it, though. I ran several back-to-back runs of CrystalDiskMark on each drive to push then to their limit, and the 4TB Samsung 9100 Pro can’t cope with this workload without a heatsink. The drive hit 84°C, and entered a critical warning status, with the peak sequential write speed throttling all the way down to 9,250MB/s.

However, attaching the PCIe 5.0 SSD heatsink that comes with the MSI Carbon X870E WiFi brought the temperature down to a much more reasonable 70°C with no throttling. Impressively, though, Samsung’s own little heatsink keeps the 2TB drive remarkably cool, with a peak temperature of 68°C and no throttling, which is remarkable for such a slim design, and only slightly warmer than the PCIe 4.0 WD Black SN850X heatsink model.

Comparatively, the Crucial T705 heatsink model peaks at 76°C in this test, showing that Samsung has the edge on cooling. Meanwhile, the undisputed king of this graph is the Corsair MP700 Pro, which has a tiny active fan inside its tall cooling assembly. That’s great for cooling, but you also need to hook it up to a SATA power connector and tidy the cable out of the way. I prefer Samsung’s entirely passive approach here – it’s much cleaner and tidier, and it still keeps this fast drive cool.

Price

The Samsung 9100 Pro price is $199.99 / £180 for the 1TB model, $299.99 / £269 for the 2TB drive, and $549.99 / £488 for the 4TB drive, with the heatsink models adding an extra $20 to these prices. These prices look reasonable compared to the original MSRPs of competing drives such as the Crucial T705, but in actuality, the T705 is now regularly discounted, often going for $159.99 for the 1TB drive and $229.99 for the 2TB model, for example.

Samsung SSDs have a history of having high launch prices at MSRP before getting knocked down a few months later, however, with the aforementioned Samsung 990 Evo range being a case in point. At MSRP, the Samsung 9100 Pro’s performance doesn’t justify the extra outlay, but if the price comes down to the same level as the competition, then it’s a no-brainer.

Alternatives

Crucial T705

After a shaky launch with high prices, the regularly discounted Crucial T705 is now definitely worth considering. It’s not as fast as the Samsung 9100 Pro, and it gets hot too, but it offers better value for money than the new Samsung drives right now.

Read our full Crucial T705 review.

WD Black SN850X

While this last-gen SSD can’t match the huge sequential speeds of Samsung’s new flagship, it’s not massively behind the pace in other tests, and it’s significantly cheaper. This drive is still plenty quick enough for most gamers’ needs, and it’s now also very reasonably priced.

Read our full WD Black SN850X review.

Verdict

The Samsung 9100 Pro is a fantastic SSD, and if it weren’t for the high price, it would have been a slam dunk. It’s the fastest SSD I’ve ever tested when it comes to raw performance benchmarks, and its system drive and game load speed tops the charts too. Meanwhile, Samsung’s in-house controller and thermal design have resulted in a super-fast drive that doesn’t run at extremely high temperatures and throttle under load.

If you want the very best M.2 SSD that money can buy, and you’re happy to pay the price, then the Samsung 9100 Pro is the drive to buy. However, given that the real-world performance benefits aren’t always clear cut, and that the Samsung 9100 Pro MSRP is comparatively high at launch, I’d recommend waiting a couple of months before taking the plunge, just to see if the price drops first.

While the Samsung 9100 Pro is the new kind of performance SSDs, though, don’t worry if you can’t afford its asking price – most gamers will still be perfectly happy with the performance of a cheaper drive.