Samsung announced two new client-focused SATA SSDs that will usher in a new era of high capacity and performance.
| Product | Samsung 850 Pro | Samsung 850 EVO |
| Price (MSRP) | $999.99 | $799.99 |
| Capacities | 128 GB 256 GB 512 GB 1 TB (1,024 GB) 2 TB (2,048 GB) |
120 GB 250 GB 500 GB 1 TB (1,000 GB) 2 TB (2,000 GB) |
| Interface | SATA 6 Gb/s | SATA 6 Gb/s |
| Form Factor | 2.5″, 7 mm | 2.5″, 7 mm |
| Controller | 128 GB: MEX 256 GB: MEX 512 GB: MEX 1 TB: MEX 2 TB: MHX |
120 GB: MGX 250 GB: MGX 500 GB: MGX 1 TB: MEX 2 TB: MHX |
| DRAM | 128 GB: 256 MB LPDDR2 256 GB: 512 MB LPDDR2 512 GB: 512 MB LPDDR2 1 TB: 1 GB LPDDR2 2 TB: 2 GB LPDDR3 |
120 GB: 256 MB LPDDR2 250 GB: 512 MB LPDDR2 500 GB: 512 MB LPDDR2 1 TB: 1 GB LPDDR2 2 TB: 2 GB LPDDR3 |
| NAND Flash | Samsung 3D V-NAND MLC | Samsung 3D V-NAND TLC |
| Sequential Read | 550 MB/s | 540 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | 128 GB: 470 MB/s 256 GB: 520 MB/s 512 GB: 520 MB/s 1 TB: 520 MB/s 2 TB: 520 MB/s |
520 MB/s Based on TurboWrite Performance |
| Random Read | Up to 100,000 IOPS (QD1) 10,000 IOPS |
Up to 98,000 IOPS (QD1) 10,000 IOPS |
| Random Write | Up to 90,000 IOPS (QD1) 36,000 IOPS |
Up to 90,000 IOPS (QD1) 40,000 IOPS |
| Power Consumption | Average Read: 3.3 Watts Average Write: 3.4 Watts |
Average Read: 3.7 Watts Average Write: 4.7 Watts |
| DEVSLP Power | 5mW | 120 GB: 2mW 250 GB: 2mW 500 GB: 2mW 1 TB: 4mW 2 TB: 5mW |
| Endurance | 128 GB: 150 TBW 256 GB: 150 TBW 512 GB: 300 TBW 1 TB: 300 TBW 2 TB: 300 TBW |
120 GB: 65 TBW 250 GB: 75 TBW 500 GB: 75 TBW 1 TB: 150 TBW 2 TB: 150 TBW |
| Warranty | 10 Years | 5 Years |
Undoubtedly, the first thing you will notice is the price. The 850 Pro 2 TB tips the scales at nearly $1,000. This model will be a tough sale with Intel’s SSD 750 1.2 TB NVMe model being just a used Honda payment away. The 850 EVO 2 TB is a more palatable $799.99, but that isn’t why we think the 850 EVO 2 TB is better.
Both new 850 2 TB models use the same Samsung MHX tricore controller and 2 GB of Samsung LPDDR3 DRAM. The 850 Pro ships with Samsung’s 32-layer 3D V-NAND MLC, and the 850 EVO ships with 32-layer 3D V-NAND TLC. The TLC model also has an SLC buffer via TurboWrite. Like other EVO SSDs from the company, Samsung scales the SLC portion size in relation to the overall capacity of the drive. With the new 2 TB model, the SLC cache is very large. It’s so large, in fact, that we never hit true TLC performance even when transferring a Blu-Ray ISO file to the drive.
Notebook users will benefit from the increase in on-battery time made possible by the new 2 TB models. Armed with new low power DDR3, the new drives outperform the previous 850 products in this test. The older 850 Pro and EVO models in lower capacity sizes ship with LPDDR2 that uses more power than DDR3. DDR3 also runs at a higher clock speed so the page table buffer delivers data to the controller faster than before.
The 850 EVO 2 TB is quite possibly the best SATA SSD ever released to the public. In a notebook running on battery power, the CPU, GPU and system bus all run at reduced clock speeds. This causes the whole system to lump around at Pentium III speeds. SSDs accelerate system performance; even older computers benefit from the latency reduction.
