Samsung 9100 Professional: Two-minute evaluation

It is very exhausting to say {that a} drive that sequentially reads practically 12,500MB a second would not reside as much as expectations, particularly not when its efficiency in every single place else is healthier than the rest I’ve examined, however that sticker on the field of the Samsung 9100 Professional that guarantees as much as 14,800MB/s sticks within the craw of an in any other case excellent M.2 PCIe 5.0 SSD.

Beginning at $199.99 for a 1TB capability drive (about £155/AU$315), the 9100 Professional is Samsung’s first ‘true’ PCIe 5.0 SSD after the Samsung 990 EVO and Samsung 990 EVO Plus. Each these drives are PCIe 5.0, however they solely use two PCIe 5.0 lanes, which limits their sensible speeds to PCIe 4.0 requirements.

The 9100 Professional, in the meantime, is a full-fat PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 drive, which means its theoretical max pace for sequential reads is upwards of roughly 15,000MB/s and 14,000MB/s for sequential writes (this quantity has been edging up over the previous 3-5 years, so take that theoretical most with a grain of salt at this level).

Samsung guarantees that its newest drive can hit as much as 14,800MB/s sequential learn and 13,400MB/s sequential write, and the Samsung 9100 Professional will get there considerably. It clocks in a max sequential write price of 13,066MB/s in my testing, however the 9100 Professional’s most sequential learn pace solely hit 12,427MB/s. That is nonetheless extremely quick—however, it is not what’s promised on the field.

May that change with BIOS or firmware updates, certain. Probably. Nevertheless it’s not like different PCIe 5.0 drives just like the Essential T705 aren’t hitting near 14,500MB/s. The T705 hits a max sequential learn pace of 14,390MB/s in CrystalDiskMark 8 on the identical testbench with a Gigabyte Aorus X870E motherboard, AMD Ryzen 9 9950X processor, and 32GB Corsair Dominator DDR5 operating at 6,600MT/s and built-in graphics, so there isn’t any interference from a graphics card.

In the meantime, in comparison with its predecessor, the Samsung 990 Professional, the 9100 Professional is a significantly better general drive, however there are circumstances the place the 990 Professional nonetheless manages to outperform its successor comparable to similar and secondary drive copy time and random learn and write speeds.

On steadiness, the Samsung 9100 Professional is not the undisputed greatest SSD you should buy, and for some customers (comparable to avid gamers or general-use fans), you’ll possible be happier with different PCIe 5.0 and even PCIe 4.0 drives available on the market, lots of which might be cheaper than the 9100 Professional.

That stated, this can be a drive for skilled customers and for individuals who want to save lots of or in any other case write massive recordsdata to disk usually, and for that, the Samsung 9100 Professional is one of the best M.2 SSD available on the market.

Players will not discover a lot right here definitely worth the funding, sadly, with even the 990 Professional outperforming the 9100 Professional in 3DMark’s SSD benchmark, which is a gaming-exclusive take a look at. It additionally falls about 17% behind the Corsair MP700 Elite PCIe 5.0 SSD on this benchmark as properly.

For common enterprise customers, the 9100 Professional is healthier than its predecessor however lags behind the Essential T705 in PCMark 10, which assessments common productiveness pace and efficiency in addition to its efficiency as a knowledge drive relatively than your important system drive.

Given all this, you’d assume that the 9100 Professional ought to rating decrease, nevertheless it actually is available in robust on sequential write efficiency, which is a really massive deal for skilled customers who would possibly want to save lots of media tasks which might be many, many gigabytes massive.

Nothing disrupts a workflow greater than a undertaking autosaving for as much as half a minute or extra, and that is the place the 9100 Professional shines. Providing as much as 39% sooner sequential write efficiency than the Essential T705, its nearest competitor on this class, the Samsung 9100 Professional actually leans into its professional branding right here.

The 9100 Professional unit I examined didn’t include a built-in heatsink, so its thermal efficiency is essentially an element of the wonderful PCIe 5.0 heatsink on the Gigabyte Auros X870E motherboard I used for testing (I additionally used the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X and 32GB of Corsair Dominator DDR5 RAM at 6,600MT/s), so I am unable to converse a lot to the heatsink’s high quality on this evaluation.

Additionally, I examined a 9100 Professional with a 4TB capability, whereas each different drive I examined had a 2TB capability. This, in itself, should not influence baseline scores an excessive amount of, if in any respect, nevertheless it’s price declaring that whereas I nonetheless contemplate this an apples-to-apples comparability, it is extra of a Cosmic Crisp-to-Crimson Scrumptious comparability, so your precise skilled efficiency would possibly range barely from mine.

All that stated, the opposite main drawback with this drive is its value. It is an costly drive, and for lots of avid gamers and those that are extra curious about sooner loading occasions for his or her packages and recordsdata, the Essential T705 is just a greater choice with comparable write speeds however close-to-max learn speeds for a lower cost.

In case you’re in search of a drive that you should use in additional of knowledgeable capability with frequent saves of very massive recordsdata like video tasks or online game packages in Unreal Engine, the Samsung 9100 Professional is one of the best SSD you are going to get for that goal and it’ll completely pace up your on a regular basis workflow significantly.

Samsung 9100 Professional: Value & availability

• How a lot does it price? Beginning at $199.99 (about £155/AU$315)
• When is it accessible? Accessible now
• The place are you able to get it? Accessible within the US, UK, and Australia

The Samsung 9100 Professional is on the market within the US, UK, and Australia beginning on March 18, 2025, for $199.99 (about £155/AU$315) for a 1TB drive.

Larger capacities will price you extra, with the 2TB capability going for $299.99 (about £230/AU$470)and the 4TB capability going for $549.99 (about £425/AU$865).

The 9100 Professional 8TB capability drive is predicted to launch in H2 2025, although its value hasn’t been launched but.

This places the 9100 Professional roughly 30% costlier to start out over the Essential T705 1TB, and barely costlier than the launch MSRP of the Samsung 990 Professional it replaces.

Samsung 9100 Professional: Specs

Must you purchase the Samsung 9100 Professional?

Purchase it if…

Do not buy it if…

Samsung 9100 Professional: Additionally contemplate

If my Samsung 9100 Professional evaluation has you in search of different choices, listed below are two extra M.2 SSDs to think about…

How I examined the Samsung 9100 Professional

• I spent about two weeks testing this SSD
• I used it for gaming, content material creation, and common storage use
• I used my customary suite of SSD benchmarks in addition to every day use

To check the 9100 Professional, I ran it by our customary benchmark suite, together with CrystalDiskMark 8, PassMark, PCMark 10, 3DMark, and our proprietary 25GB file copy take a look at.

I used this drive as my important system storage (C:) drive for over per week on my take a look at bench, the place I used it extensively for loading video games for graphics card benchmarking functions, content material creation, and extra. This included loading video games and huge batches of photographs for modifying in Lightroom and Photoshop for numerous evaluations.

I have been testing {hardware} parts for TechRadar for over three years now, together with a number of main SSD evaluations from Samsung, PNY, and others, so I do know what the most recent SSDs are greatest for and whether or not they’re price your hard-earned cash.

First reviewed March 2025