Which is better, Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB or Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB? July 2026 side-by-side with prices, specs, and verdict.
A like-for-like comparison: both drives target the same buyer segment at the same Gen 5 2 TB class. The interesting question becomes which manufacturer's implementation aged better.
Hardware-wise, the Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB runs on Samsung's in-house Presto controller, designed specifically for the 9100 PRO series. The Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB pairs the dual-mode Samsung Piccolo silicon that uniquely runs PCIe 5.0 x2 or PCIe 4.0 x4.
Read speeds favor the Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB: 14,700 MB/s versus 7,250 MB/s for the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB, a 51% advantage. Sequential-heavy workloads notice; transactional workloads don't.
The Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB writes about 53% faster (13,400 MB/s vs 6,300 MB/s). Whether that matters depends entirely on what you write to the drive — gameplay capture and large project saves benefit, browsing and gaming do not.
Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB bundles a DRAM cache chip; Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB is DRAM-less. This sounds like a big deal but reviewers have been arguing for years about whether it actually matters in consumer use. For most workloads, no.
Heading to a PlayStation 5? Both drives drop into the console's M.2 bay and report identical real-world benchmarks since the PS5 caps storage at PCIe 4.0 speeds. The Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB wins this matchup on $/TB. Heavy write workloads — video editing, RAW photo libraries, backup operations — favor the Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB's 13,400 MB/s sustained write speed. Both drives use the 2280 form factor, which is too long for Steam Deck or ROG Ally — you'd need a 2230 variant if either manufacturer offers one, or a dedicated handheld-format drive instead.
How do these two fit the wider Gen 5 2 TB field? Out of 11 tracked drives, the Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB is #7 on $/TB and the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB is #4. Neither is a value leader right now — if $/TB is your priority, check the cheaper alternatives below before committing.
As of July 27, 2026, these tracked drives undercut both the Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB and Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB on $/TB:
Lean toward the Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB when meaningfully faster reads (14,700 MB/s), higher sustained writes (13,400 MB/s), and a dedicated DRAM cache chip top your priority list. Samsung's PRO line has the longest track record for firmware reliability — over a decade of consumer SSDs with global RMA support.
Lean toward the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB when the lower retail price ($369 vs $400), and better $/TB economics ($184.50/TB) top your priority list. Among Samsung's lineup, the 990 EVO Plus is the only consumer drive that physically supports dual-generation PCIe — same hardware, different bus speed depending on platform.