Samsung has just dropped a new Gen 4 Samsung 990 SSD that's designed to be faster than legacy drives, cooler than extreme drives, and priced for "mainstream adoption". Though I'd argue the latter is hard to achieve when storage prices are fluctuating every day.
While some of the best SSDs for gaming focus on speed, and others focus on being low-cost (or at least they try their hardest that they can while the RAM Storage Crisis rages on), Samsung states that the 990 PCIe Gen 4 SSD, which is available in 1TB and 2TB models starting July 14, 2026, offers the "perfect balance of speed, power efficiency, and value" for your gaming PC rig.
The new 990 SSD includes a three-year warranty and has an 800 TB TBW rating for the 2TB model. When it comes to speed, the upcoming Samsung 990 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD has on-the-box sequential read speeds up to 7,250 MB/S and write speeds up to 6,450 MB/S. To put that into perspective, the Samsung 990 Pro model achieved 7,462MB/s reads and 6,877MB/s writes in our review, so it's just shy of its older Pro counterpart.
According to Samsung, this new drive offers the "highest performance in its class" and achieves this thanks to its advanced NAND technology. It's also reportedly 50% faster than the older 990 EVO SSD, but that's not too difficult given the Gen 5 drive has quoted read speeds of just 5,000MB/s. However, if you were looking at grabbing the 990 EVO for your rig, it's a valid comparison if speeds are your priority.
Looking at efficiency next, the brand states that the advanced NAND technology enables this drive to "cut power consumption by up to 38%" compared to earlier models. However, I'll have to put those claims to the test when I begin testing this brand-new drive over the next month.
When it comes to value, this new drive is reportedly available from July 14, 2026, with an MSRP of £212.19 and £411.99 for the 1TB and 2TB models in the UK. As of writing, the 2TB Pro model 990 SSD has been as high as £347.99 at Amazon this year, according to my handy-dandy CamelCamelCamel price checker, so this could be a cheaper and almost as speedy alternative to grab in the meantime, if you can find any stock.
In the meantime, I'll be testing this new drive myself to see if it's worth adding to your rig. If you want to wait until I upload my findings, feel free. However, with SSD prices being what they are, it's highly likely both the 1TB and 2TB models will be listed beyond their MSPRS when my incoming review is ready to drop.
- View all Samsung SSDs at Amazon
Our team has also rounded up the best SSDs for PS5, the best Xbox Series X hard drives, and the best Nintendo Switch 2 microSD Express Cards if you're looking for more gaming storage options.
