Samsung has a hybrid SSD. It’s PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 at the same time!

Samsung took advantage of this month of January to present its new SSD 990 Evo, an ultra-fast storage solution with support for the two most recent standards on the market. In other words, this SSD supports PCIe 4.0 and PCIe 5.0 interfaces.

Samsung has a hybrid SSD. It’s PCIe 4.0 and 5.0 at the same time!

What does this hybrid SSD with support for two standards mean? Well, the Samsung 990 Evo SSD works on PCIe 4.0 x4 or PCIe 5.0 x2. Basically, the bandwidth is exactly the same, and therefore, the performance is also exactly the same. But it is curious that Samsung took the trouble to develop a product of this type for the global market.

However, Samsung claims that the hybrid functionality is intended to make the SSD compatible with a “wide variety of systems while maintaining optimal performance,” meaning consumers would have an open choice as to which type of PCIe interface they mount the SSD to. SSD, thus satisfying all types of standards.

Technical specifications:

• Interface: PCIe Gen 4.0 x4 / 5.0 x2 NVMe 2.02
• Format: M.2 (2280)
• Memory: Samsung V-NAND 3-TLC
• Capacity: 1TB / 2TB
• Speed ​​(Reading/Writing): Up to 5,000 MB/s / Up to 4,200 MB/s
• IOPS: up to 680K IOPS, 800K IOPS // Up to 700K IOPS, 800K IOPS
• Data Encryption: AES 256-bit, TCG/Opal V2.0,
• TBW: 600TB // 1200TB
• Guarantee: 5 years

Here we have an extremely well-equipped SSD, with lots of good technology, at a very attractive price for its storage capacity, as it starts at €125. Especially because the 990 Evo has HMB (Host Memory Buffer) technology to speed up your reading and data transfer process.

Obviously it is not an SSD capable of matching the best PCIe 4.0 or PCIe 5.0 drives. Still, it is 43% faster compared to the 970 Evo, and is also 70% more efficient compared to its predecessor.

Does the hybrid part give any advantage?

Overall, the only “showy” feature of the 990 EVO is its hybrid PCIe interface, which could mark a transition to the future of SSD storage drives. But for now, it’s not very useful unless someone wants to take advantage of a PCIe 5.0 interface.