Samsung 9100 Pro review – if you want the best SSD, you've come to the right place

You heard right, we've been waiting for their true PCIe 5.0 SSD for two years. Let's remember that the Samsung 990 Pro (its immediate predecessor) is a PCIe 4.0 drive that was already reaching the theoretical speed limits that this standard allows. Therefore, the only option for an upgrade was to switch to the new data bus. And the Samsung 9100 Pro does not disappoint.

The advertised read and write speeds on the box already let us know that this is not an SSD to be trifled with. Whether it is the fastest SSD on the market remains to be seen.

Samsung 9100 Pro price and specifications?

• Samsung 9100 Pro 1TB: around €170
• Samsung 9100 Pro 2TB: around €260
• Samsung 9100 Pro 4 TB: around €490

There are also versions with a cooler available for an additional €20. The 8TB capacity is expected to be available in Q3 2025.

Samsung 9100 Pro: what did the builders put in it?

The Samsung 9100 Pro is an M.2 2280 SSD with a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface and the NVMe 2.0 protocol. It uses Samsung's own controller, codenamed "The throne" and 8th generation Samsung V-NAND TLC memory with 236 layers. Each terabyte of capacity has 1 GB of LPDDR4X DRAM cache for faster data access.

Models up to and including 4TB have all the chips on one side of the circuit board (which improves compatibility and cooling). The upcoming 8TB version will require four NAND chips due to physical limitations, meaning it will be a double-sided layout, which means it will be less suitable for certain systems, but I don't think it will hinder users looking for high capacities.

The drive can be purchased in a standard version or with a built-in low-profile cooler. If your motherboard doesn't have adequate cooling for the SSD, it's worth adding the extra €20. While the heat isn't as critical as I've noticed with similar drives, it's still PCIe 5.0, which takes a bigger toll on temperatures.

The factory specifications are impressive: sequential speeds reach up to 14.8 GB/s for reading and 13.4 GB/s for writing. These are among the highest I've seen for consumer SSDs and in line with the speeds achieved by other PCIe 5.0 drives, such as the Crucial T705 and Corsair MP700 Pro SE. Random access speeds reach 2.2 million IOPS for reading and 2.6 million IOPS for writing. In practice, Samsung takes advantage of these speeds with advanced caching (Intelligent TurboWrite 2.0) to maintain high write speeds. Despite all this, the endurance of the new drive remains at a similar level to its predecessors, namely 600 TBW per 1 TB capacity. The number is not groundbreaking, but quite expected, although for the price I would have liked more. Samsung offers a 5-year warranty.

Additional features include support for hardware data encryption (AES 256-bit, TCG Opal 2.0) and Samsung Magician software for disk health monitoring and software updates.

How did he do on the tests?

In synthetic performance tests, the Samsung 9100 Pro came in at or just below the top, as expected. It comes in close to the advertised speeds by a factor of %, which is negligible. In multi-threaded sequential reads, the 9100 Pro achieved around 14.3 GB/s, and even more impressive is the sequential read speeds, where the tools measured around 13.1 GB/s. Unfortunately, I don't have competing drives on hand (the Crucial T705 and the Corsair MP700), so I compared the data with the results of other journalists. In this case, it's not an identical apples-for-apples comparison, but the results are still very similar. Whatever advantage the Samsung 9100 Pro has is almost impossible to notice in practice. It's more interesting to see how far behind older-generation drives, such as Samsung's previous flagship 990 Pro, are.

• CrystalDiskMark 8: 13,116 MB/s (sequential write), 14,249 MB/s (sequential read)
• 3DMark: 6428 (overall score)

When you start doing tests that are more like everyday tasks, the differences between the competing drives are even less noticeable. When transferring 50 GB, the Samsung 9100 Pro completed the job in an average of two and a half minutes, which is again similar to the others.

Gamers can safely skip this upgrade for now. Despite all this speed, the differences in loading times are a few seconds, which is not a reason for me to put €500 on the table. In games that support Microsoft DirectStorage technology, PCIe 5.0 is theoretically more useful. I haven't been able to test this, but again, I doubt that this is enough reason for such a price.

In short, in synthetic benchmarks the 9100 Pro met or exceeded expectations, while in practice it is on par with the others and leaves the older generation behind. I'm more pleased with how well it dissipated heat (it rarely exceeded 70°C).

Is the title of the best justified?

Once you're shopping at the top end, the differences between SSDs are so small that you really can't go wrong with a purchase. Ultimately, you decide based on price and brand trust, where Samsung may still have a slight advantage, at least in Slovenia.

I would say that the Samsung 9100 Pro lives up to its reputation as the leading next-generation SSD. It offers extreme performance that sets new benchmarks in synthetic tests (highest read/write speeds, record IOPS), while at the same time Samsung has managed to maintain relatively low power consumption and heat generation considering the speeds achieved.

But this is not an SSD for everyone. Not only because of the high price, but also because for many tasks all this capacity does not come to fruition. Enthusiasts and professionals are the main target audience, because they are willing to pay such an amount in the first place and because they actually need high-capacity drives without compromising on speed.

On the other hand, if you're a regular user or a gamer on a budget, I can reassure you that the 9100 Pro isn't a necessity. No one would be against it, but for now, stick with the PCIe 4.0 standard, which will cost you just under €150 for 2TB.