In 2022, Samsung introduced its 990 Professional sequence of stable state drives. On the time, these SSDs promised fairly spectacular speeds and energy for heavy-duty use circumstances, and so they have been accessible for $179 in a 1TB dimension or $309 for 2TB.
Quick ahead to right now, as Samsung broadcasts a brand new, non-Professional mannequin addition to this stable state drive lineup. Because of the hovering part prices of 2026, Samsung’s 990 SSD will now run you $270 for 1TB and a staggering $530 for 2TB. And the true kicker: it is slower than the unique 990 Professional mannequin from 2022. The 2026 model guarantees sequential learn and write speeds maxing out at 7,250 MB/s and 6,450 MB/s, whereas the random learn and write speeds cap out at 850K and 1,200K enter/output operations per second. The unique SSD from 2022 had sequential learn and write speeds of as much as 7,450 MB/s and 6,900 MB/s and random learn and write speeds of as much as 1,400K and 1,550K enter/output operations per second.
Barring typos within the press announcement we obtained, that is slower efficiency for a 50 % larger value. The 990 Pro SSD hasn’t escaped value hikes both. The 1TB mannequin now prices $320 and the 2TB has greater than doubled its preliminary value at $640. Sadly, with no finish in rapid sight for the AI business’s calls for for each storage and RAM, value will increase at this scale are more likely to grow to be infuriatingly widespread. Customers are going to wish to get creative to flee this new regular.
