The Samsung 9100 Pro is a giant, highly effective, flagship SSD from one of many largest names within the recreation. It brings high-end efficiency, pushing the bounds of its PCIexpress 5.0 interface– on paper, this ought to be among the best SSDs ever made, accelerating file transfers and recreation load instances like by no means earlier than.
However Samsung wasn’t first to market with a top-tier PCIe 5.0 SSD, and there may be stiff competitors for the type of cutting-edge efficiency that Samsung has traditionally been recognized for. Nonetheless, it’s very quick on paper, with a robust endurance score, five-year guarantee, and the choice of a pretty, low-profile heatsink for a couple of {dollars} additional.
Design and Software program
It is a commonplace M.2 2280 drive, so the size and form-factor shall be very acquainted for anybody with an NVMe SSD. Samsung despatched me the heatsink model of the 9100 Pro and it’s clearly constructed to a high-standard, with a sturdy, compact design and nicely machined heatsink fins that give it a high quality appear and feel. It’s out there with out the heatsink too, although, ought to your motherboard have huge heatsinks for add-in drives, otherwise you wish to use a third-party different.
It’s out there in sizes from 1TB by way of 4TB on the time of writing (I’m testing the 2TB model), with plans to launch an 8TB mannequin down the road.
Neglect CrystalDiskInfo, when you have a Samsung SSD you get to make use of the superb Samsung Magician Software which mixes detailed drive monitoring with simple knowledge migration, safe erase, drive encryption, and efficiency benchmarks, amongst different helpful settings and assessments.
It’s not one thing everybody will really feel the necessity to mess around with, however if you wish to maintain a detailed eye in your new flagship SSD, Samsung’s Magician tracks drive well being, system info, and has helpful built-in instruments like safe erase and drive encryption.
Specs
The specs for the Samsung 9100 Pro are about nearly as good as you may get with a contemporary, high-end PCIe 5 SSD. Though that’s by no means the total image for any element, Samsung units off on the fitting foot with this drive.
Flash Reminiscence
236-layer Samsung TLC
Sustained Learn
14,700 MBps
Sustained Write
13,400 MBps
The 9100 Pro makes use of Samsung’s 236-layer TLC NAND Flash, which is the corporate’s simplest reminiscence so far. This NAND can be used within the older 990 Evo Plus and 990 Pro fashions, however with a more moderen controller and interface, this drive is far quicker.
The sustained learn and write speeds of 14,700 MBps and 13,400 MBps, respectively, are aggressive with different high PCIe 5 drives like Sandisk’s WD Black SN8100 and Essential’s T710. Whilst you’re unlikely to come across these speeds outdoors of benchmarks and enormous file transfers, if you wish to transfer a number of knowledge round between drives (ideally between two PCIe 5 drives) then the 9100 Pro ought to do it exceptionally shortly.
The random learn and write efficiency is arguably extra spectacular, although, and highlights how far we’ve are available in “smaller” capability drives like this, exhibiting how succesful Samsung’s high flash designs are.
The endurance score of 1200 TBW for this 2TB mannequin (as much as 4800 TBW for the 8TB mannequin) is a lot for the typical person, although there are extra sturdy skilled drives on the market if you happen to count on to hammer yours every day for skilled workloads.
The Samsung 9100 Pro joins the high-end PCIe 5 market at a time of accelerating competitors. There are standouts just like the Essential T705 with its large heatsink and spectacular numbers main the pack, however its excessive value of $260 displays that. The WD SN8100 affords related specs at the same value, giving the 9100 Pro at $260 some actual face to face motion with little separating them. Ditch the heatsinks and their costs match up even nearer.
Then there’s the marginally slower, however nonetheless quick Corsair MP700 Pro and Elite, that are nonetheless blazingly quick in real-world workloads, however considerably cheaper.
Contemplating the restricted utility for the cutting-edge efficiency of a high PCIe 5 SSD in 2025, too, it’s additionally value contemplating high-end PCIe 4 drives. These embrace Samsung’s personal 990 Pro, which is accessible on the similar capability for simply $150.
Efficiency
To check the 9100 Pro I fitted it to my take a look at system with an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D, an Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero, 32GB of RAM at 5,200MHz and a Radeon RX 7900 XTX. I put in the drive within the top-most PCIe 5 NVMe slot and examined on a model new set up of Home windows 11 working the most recent 24H2 model, with the most recent drivers and BIOS updates utilized.
In CrystalDiskMark, the 9100 Pro truly surpassed its rated sustained learn and write efficiency exhibiting how totally quick this drive may be when shifting uncooked knowledge round.
That was backed up by my 10GB file switch take a look at. Transferring it from a PCIe 4 WD SN850X 2TB mannequin to the 9100 Pro (Write) took simply 3.9 seconds, and transferring it again once more (Learn) was even quicker, at 3.4 seconds. In the event you steadily transfer massive information or folders between drives and need one that may do it exceptionally shortly, the 9100 Pro is among the many quickest there may be.
In real-world gaming benchmarks I noticed equally spectacular outcomes. When working the Closing Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail benchmark, we clocked a complete loading time of simply 6.2 seconds. All scenes loaded in beneath two seconds, and the primary and fifth have been nicely beneath a second a chunk. That’s not a lot quicker than a high-end PCIe 4 SSD, however it’s nonetheless a lot quick.
The one place the place I discovered any type of anomalous efficiency was in 3D Mark Storage. There I recorded a good, if unimpressive, 3,269 factors, with a mean entry time round 55 micro-seconds.
Though I’m not the one one to have recorded a sub-4000 rating with this specific drive on this specific benchmark, many contemporaries have managed 5-6,000+ scores. Iran it a number of instances and it got here again the identical each time. I initially thought it could be the SLC working out, however I had related efficiency all through all the person take a look at runs in the course of the benchmark.
I’ve reached out to Samsung for remark and can replace this overview if and after I hear again.
One space the place this drive did actually impress me, although, was temperature. Though the drive itself will get blisteringly scorching to the purpose that touching it grew to become a authentic burn hazard, the controller inside was chilly the complete time. Even after sustained load in the course of the 3D Mark take a look at run, it didn’t even break 40 levels.
That mentioned, this drive is clearly placing out a number of warmth so I’d advocate the heatsink or some type of sturdy energetic cooling.