Samsung 9100 Pro review: a fantastic option for professional use, but not for gamers
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Samsung 9100 Pro: Two-minute review
It’s hard to say that reading nearly 12,500MB of drives in turn doesn’t work as expected, especially when it performs better anywhere else than anything else I’ve tested, but Samsung The 9100 Pro promises to hold up to 14,800mb/s sticks in the tail of an otherwise perfect M.2 PCIE 5.0 SSD.
The 1TB capacity drive starts at $199.99 (approximately £155/AUD), and the 9100 Pro is after Samsung’s first “True” PCIE 5.0 SSD Samsung 990 EVO and Samsung 990 Evo Plus. Both drives are PCIE 5.0, but they only use two PCIE 5.0 lanes, which limits their actual speed to the PCIE 4.0 standard.
Meanwhile, the 9100 Pro is a full-grain PCIE 5.0 X4 M.2 driver, meaning its theoretical maximum speed for sequential readings is about 15,000mb/s, sequentially written 14,000mb/s (this number has been here for the last 3-5 years, so at this point in salt).
Samsung promises Its latest drive can reach 14,800mb/s sequential reads and 13,400mb/s sequential writes, while the Samsung 9100 Pro can get a look there. In my tests it writes the clock at a maximum order of 13,066MB/s, but the 9100 Pro has a maximum order of read speed of only 12,427MB/s. This is still very fast –butthis is not promised on the box.
Of course, BIOS or firmware updates will change. possible. But this is not like other PCIE 5.0 drives The Critical T705 It will not reach nearly 14,500mb/s. The T705 achieves a maximum sequential read speed of 14,390MB/s in Crystaldiskmark 8 on the same test bench using Gigabyte Aorus X870E motherboard, AMD The Ryzen 9 9950x processor and 32GB Corsair Dominator DDR5 run at 6,600mt/s and integrated graphics, so there is no interference in the graphics card.
At the same time, compared with his predecessor Samsung 990,The overall drive of the 9100 Pro is much better, but in some cases, the 990 Pro still manages to surpass its successors, such as the same and secondary drive copy time and random read and write speeds.
All in all, the Samsung 9100 Pro is not undisputed Best SSD You can buy, and for some users (such as gamers or general enthusiasts), you might prefer other PCIE 5.0 or even PCIE 4.0 drives, many of which will be cheaper than the 9100 Pro.
That is, it’s the motivation for professional users and those who need to save or otherwise write large files to disk regularly, for this purpose, the Samsung 9100 Pro is Best M.2 SSD In the market.
Unfortunately, here, gamers can’t find much to invest here, even the 990 Pro surpasses the 9100 Pro in 3DMark’s SSD benchmark, a test of the game. It also lags behind 17% of the Corsair MP700 Elite PCIE 5.0 SSD.
For the average enterprise user, the 9100 Pro is better than its predecessor, but the key T705 in PCMark 10 lags behind the key T705 in PCMark 10, which tests general productivity speed and performance and its performance as a data drive rather than your primary system drive.
Given all this, you would think the 9100 Pro should score a low score, but it does work as a powerful sequel in continuous writing, which is a big deal for professional users who may need to save a lot of gigabytes of media projects.
Nothing can break the workflow more than autosave projects up to half a minute or longer, and that’s the 9100 Pro’s glow. The Samsung 9100 Pro’s closest competitor in this category is crucial to the T705, which writes at most 39% faster than the critical T705.
The 9100 Pro unit I tested does not have a built-in supply link, so its thermal performance is largely a factor review for the excellent PCIe 5.0 heasink on the Gigabyte Auros X870E motherboard I used to test.
Also, I tested a 4TB capacity 9100 Pro, while the other drives I tested had a capacity of 2TB. If anything, this shouldn’t in itself affect the baseline scores too much, but it’s worth pointing out that while I still think it’s an apple-to-apple comparison, it’s more of a cosmic crisp, delicious comparison, so your actual experience performance may be slightly different from mine.
To sum up, another major problem with this drive is its price. It’s an expensive drive, and for many gamers and those interested in faster loading times for programs and files, the critical T705 is just a better option, with comparable write speeds, but close to the maximum read speed at a lower price.
If you are looking for a drive that can be used with very large files that you save frequently, such as video game packages in video games packages, then the Samsung 9100 Pro is the best SSD you will get, it will get the best SSD for this purpose, and it will definitely speed up your daily workflow significantly.
Samsung 9100 Pro: Price and Availability
- how much does it cost? Starting at $199.99 (approximately £155/AUD$315)
- When will it be available? Available now
- Where can you get it? Available in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia
The Samsung 9100 Pro is available in the US, UK and Australia starting March 18, 2025 for $199.99 (approximately £155/AUD) and is available for 1TB Drive.
Higher capacity will cost more, while the 2TB capacity will cost $299.99 (about £230/AUD$470) while the 4TB capacity will cost $549.99 (about £425/AUD/AUD$).
The 9100 Pro 8TB capacity driver is expected to be launched in H2 2025, although its price has not been released yet.
This makes the start of the 9100 Pro crucial T705 1TB about 30% higher and is more expensive than the Samsung 990 Pro’s release MSRP.
Samsung 9100 Pro: Specifications
| Header Unit – Column 0 |
Samsung 9100 |
Samsung 990 |
Samsung 990 EVO |
|---|---|---|---|
|
interface |
PCIE 5.0 x4 |
PCIE 4.0 x4 |
PCIE 5.0 x2 |
|
heat sink? |
Elective |
Elective |
No |
|
Available capabilities |
1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB |
1TB, 2TB, 4TB |
1TB, 2TB |
|
shape |
M.2 2280 |
M.2 2280 |
M.2 2280 |
|
Endurance level |
600TBW -4800TBW |
600TBW -2400TBW |
600TBW -1200TBW |
|
Warranty form |
5-year limited warranty |
5-year limited warranty |
5-year limited warranty |
Should you buy the Samsung 9100 Pro?
|
value |
The Samsung 9100 Pro is not cheap, and although its overall performance price remains low, its price is getting bigger and bigger as its capacity is. |
3.5 / 5 |
|
Specification |
Between PCIE 5.0 speeds, very high capacity options, and excellent warranty, this drive is much more than most drives on the market. |
4.5 / 5 |
|
Performance |
This drive is expected to have sequential read speeds of 14,800mb/s, but I’m not that high. Although still fast overall, its best performance is in its sequential writing performance, making it great for professionals. |
4/5 |
|
Final rating |
This is a very professional driver to previous Samsung Pro SSDs not. If you’re not a professional user, there are better PCIE 5.0 drives out there, but for the pros, there’s nothing better than the 9100 Pro. |
4/5 |
If…buy it
if…
Samsung 9100 Pro: Also consider
If my Samsung 9100 Pro reviews if you’re looking for other options, consider two other M.2 SSDs…
How do I test the Samsung 9100 Pro
- It took me about two weeks to test this SSD
- I use it for gaming, content creation and general storage usage
- I used standard SSD benchmarks and daily use kit
To test the 9100 Pro, I ran it through our standard benchmark suite, including Crystaldiskmark 8, Passmark, PCMark 10, 3dmark and our proprietary 25GB file copy test.
I’m using this drive as my main system storage (C:\) drive on my test bench for over a week, where I use it extensively for the purpose of using game loading for graphics card benchmarking purposes, content creation, etc. This includes loading games and lots of photos to the Lightroom and Photoshop Used for various comments.
I’ve tested hardware components for Techradar for over three years, including several major SSD reviews from Samsung, PNY, etc., so I know the latest SSDs are best for you and whether they are worth your hard money.
First reviewed March 2025
