It has been 2 years since AMD introduced PCIe Gen 4.0 to the market with their X570 platform. However, for such a long time, I’ve never had a PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 SSD. Fortunately, I finally have the chance to test Samsung 980 Pro 500GB which has just arrived in the lab. Let’s see how fast it could be. As usual, photos first and I’ll show you the test results.

The front side and the back side of the box.

The dimension of the box is 14.4cm x 9.8cm x 2.1cm and the weight is only 80g.

It says the read speed of this SSD is 7000MB/s. Sounds pretty fast comparing to a PCIe Gen 3.0 M.2 SSD.

How many of these logos do you actually know? CE, FCC, NVM Express……

Other photos of the box.

This is exactly what’s inside the box.

At last, Samsung 980 Pro PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 SSD.

It’s really interesting that the weight of the SSD itself is only 8g, but it takes other 72g to pack the SSD.

Regarding the test, BIOSTAR B550M-SILVER is selected as my test bench. By installing the SSD in different M.2 slots which works at Gen 3.0 and Gen 4.0, we can easily tell the difference between Gen 3.0 and Gen 4.0.

Besides the performance test, I will also monitor the temperature of the SSD by using my K type thermometer.

You can find the spec of this SSD on the product web page.
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/980pro/
It says the performance of sequential read goes up to 6900MB/s, the performance of sequential write goes up to 5000MB/s.

Time to go for the test. Let’s see how it actually performs.
The test bench:
AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
BIOSTAR B550M-SILVER (B550 Chipset)
GeIL OrionRGB Series 16GBx2 D4-3600 CL18-22-22-42 1.35V
PowerColor RX460 2GB
Windows 10 Pro 21H1
The ambient temperature is 25.6 Celsius degree.

Software for the test:
CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4
CrystalDiskInfo 8.12.4
AIDA64 6.33.5700

PCIe Gen 4.0 x4 first.

The temperature is around 37.1/ 30.7 Celsius degree (Controller/ Nand Flash) when the system is idle. Then it goes up to 60.5/ 50.8 Celsius degree when the test is proceeding. It finally goes back to 37.6/ 31.2 Celsius degree.

Then, test PCIe Gen 3.0 x4.

The temperature is around 36.4/ 32.4 Celsius degree (Controller/ Nand Flash) when the system is idle. Then it goes up to 62.2/ 57.8 Celsius degree when the test is proceeding. It finally goes back to 36.8/ 33.0 Celsius degree.

Personally, I think the SSD is doing a very good job. Under the mode of PCIe Gen 4.0 x4, the test results are very close to the numbers on the product web page. And under the mode of PCIe Gen 3.0 x4, the performance is also great.

As for the temperature, well, I really hope it could be lower. According to the spec on the product web page, the operating temperature is 0 ~ 70 Celsius degree. Of course there is still headroom based on my test but keep this in mind that my tests were not proceeded in a real chassis. I believe the temperature is fine but please be very careful about the air flow in your chassis.

One more thing, I was using an AMD Ryzen 7 3800X as my test bench. What if I use an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X as my test bench? I mean, both processors can support PCIe Gen 4.0, but AMD Ryzen 7 5800X is the new one. Is there any chance that the performance will be even better? Let’s see what would happen.

Same, PCIe Gen4 x4 first.

Then, test PCIe Gen 3.0 x4.

It seems AMD Ryzen 7 5800X brings better performance in random write (4KB) whether in PCIe Gen 4.0 mode or PCIe Gen 3.0 mode. Yes, the newer, the better.

Conclusion one, if you’re going to buy a brand new AMD Ryzen processor, I guess 5000 series processors would be a better choice. However, on the other hand, if you can find an open box (or just an used one) 3000 series Ryzen processor (APU is not included) with a very good price, that would be a good deal too.

What……? I was talking about the SSD and it turned out to be the comparison between 3800X and 5800X….?!

Alright, back to Samsung 980 Pro, there’s one more thing. According to the spec on the product web page, the model I bought is 500GB and it’s 300 TBW which is good enough for my daily usages. However, the model of 1TB is highly recommended if your budget is fine. Double capacity, double TBW.