Question Which M.2 SSD Shall I Choose, Samsung 970 Evo Plus or Samsung 990 Pro?

[NealeR]

I am considering purchasing one of two M.2 SSD drives but I require some advice regarding which model to purchase. My computer is a Dell Optiplex 7050MT tower with a gen 3.0 m.2 nvme pcie slot. My choice is between a Samsung 970 Evo Plus or a Samsung 990 Pro.

Should I fit the 970 Evo Plus which is gen 3.0, and therefore the same as my motherboard, or would it be better if I fitted the the modern gen 4.0 990 Pro? I understand that the 990 Pro in a gen 3 slot would run at gen 3.0 speeds but would it still prove to be the better of the two because of its more modern technology and general superiority?

Which of the two models shall I fit? The gen 3.0 970 Evo Plus or the gen 4.0 990 Pro? One possible deciding factor is that the 990 is available in 4tb capacity whereas the 970 only goes up to 2tb. I do not yet know if my motherboard will handle 4tb though.

Both models are near enough the same price in the UK. Thank you in advance for your help and advice.

 

[kanewolf]

I am considering purchasing one of two M.2 SSD drives but I require some advice regarding which model to purchase. My computer is a Dell Optiplex 7050MT tower with a gen 3.0 m.2 nvme pcie slot. My choice is between a Samsung 970 Evo Plus or a Samsung 990 Pro.

Should I fit the 970 Evo Plus which is gen 3.0, and therefore the same as my motherboard, or would it be better if I fitted the the modern gen 4.0 990 Pro? I understand that the 990 Pro in a gen 3 slot would run at gen 3.0 speeds but would it still prove to be the better of the two because of its more modern technology and general superiority?

Which of the two models shall I fit? The gen 3.0 970 Evo Plus or the gen 4.0 990 Pro? One possible deciding factor is that the 990 is available in 4tb capacity whereas the 970 only goes up to 2tb. I do not yet know if my motherboard will handle 4tb though.

Both models are near enough the same price in the UK. Thank you in advance for your help and advice.

Which ever is cheaper at a given time. You will see zero difference in performance.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Which of the two models shall I fit? The gen 3.0 970 Evo Plus or the gen 4.0 990 Pro?

Get 970 evo plus. It's more appropriate for your system.

990 pro is PCIE 4.0 drive. It will run hotter and require heatsink on it.
970 evo plus is fine without a heatsink.

 

[NealeR]

Get 970 evo plus. It's more appropriate for your system.

990 pro is PCIE 4.0 drive. It will run hotter and require heatsink on it.
970 evo plus is fine without a heatsink.

I am warming towards the 970 Evo Plus. I thought that backwards compatibility was a simple matter but it appears to be a bit more complex than that. I thoughtthat it was a simple matter of being able to plug a gen 4.0 into a gen 3.0 provided you were willing to sacrifice speed. Not quite as simple as that it would appear. Heatsinks are inexpensive and easy to fit why fit a hot running drive when you can fit a cooler one

 

[USAFRet]

I am warming towards the 970 Evo Plus. I thought that backwards compatibility was a simple matter but it appears to be a bit more complex than that. I thoughtthat it was a simple matter of being able to plug a gen 4.0 into a gen 3.0 provided you were willing to sacrifice speed. Not quite as simple as that it would appear. Heatsinks are inexpensive and easy to fit why fit a hot running drive when you can fit a cooler one

In normal consumer use, the "speed difference" is unnoticeable.

Like comparing 2 cars.
The 0-60 and 40-70 times are virtually identical. This is what you see in daily use.

But Car A has a published top speed of 145mph, and Car B a top speed of 160mph. This is only seen at the track, under specific circumstances.

Car B also has slightly less overall gas mileage.

Which do you choose?

 

[NealeR]

In normal consumer use, the "speed difference" is unnoticeable.

Like comparing 2 cars.
The 0-60 and 40-70 times are virtually identical. This is what you see in daily use.

But Car A has a published top speed of 145mph, and Car B a top speed of 160mph. This is only seen at the track, under specific circumstances.

Car B also has slightly less overall gas mileage.

Which do you choose?

A wise answer. It appears that the 990 Pro fitted to a gen 3.0 slot will overheat anyway. I suppose I'm wanting the computer to be as good as it can possibly be. The current drive is made by 2-Power

 

[CountMike]

Having both, gen3 and gen4 drives, each with W11 on them on same PC i can see some difference in speeds specially when it comes to larger updates and when backing up whole disk to slower gen3 or faster gen4 NVMe. Backups on gen3 use disk 100% and takes twice as long to finish backup. Other than that like for instance boot times,very little to none.
Still I see no reason not to use faster v4.0 if possible even if it needs a cooler. In your case with only PCIe v3.0 it really doesn't matter as both would run at same speed and heat similarly.