Side-by-side: Samsung 9100 PRO 4TB ($1079) vs Samsung 990 PRO 4TB ($982). $/TB winner, specs, real-world picks for September 2026.
This is a generational matchup at 4 TB: the older-gen drive offers proven reliability and better $/TB, while the newer-gen sibling brings raw bandwidth that most users never tap.
Hardware-wise, the Samsung 9100 PRO 4TB runs on Samsung's Presto controller — built in-house to push V-NAND to its Gen 5 ceiling. The Samsung 990 PRO 4TB pairs Samsung's 8nm Pascal controller, the silicon powering the 990 PRO line.
Prices favor the Samsung 990 PRO 4TB by $24.25/TB ($245.50/TB versus $269.75/TB). Not a huge gap, but enough to be the tiebreaker if performance is similar.
On sequential reads the Samsung 9100 PRO 4TB pulls ahead by 7,350 MB/s (14,800 MB/s versus 7,450 MB/s). That matters for moving large files but rarely shows up in game loads.
Write speeds skew toward the Samsung 9100 PRO 4TB: 13,400 MB/s sustained against 6,900 MB/s. Content creators feel this; gamers do not.
For PS5 expansion, both are PCIe Gen 4 M.2 2280 drives that meet Sony's minimum spec (7,450 MB/s read). The console can't take advantage of speeds beyond that, so save money by choosing the Samsung 990 PRO 4TB. Comparing across generations always invites the same question: does the bandwidth gap convert into user-visible improvements? Honest answer for the Samsung 9100 PRO 4TB vs Samsung 990 PRO 4TB pairing: only for sustained sequential reads of multi-GB files. Video editors will gravitate toward the Samsung 9100 PRO 4TB for its write headroom (13,400 MB/s sustained). Project saves and proxies move faster, which compounds across a workday. Heads-up — these are full-length 2280 drives. Steam Deck and most current handhelds require shorter 2230 modules, so check capacity-specific 2230 variants if that's your target platform.
Market context: the Samsung 9100 PRO 4TB ranks #6 of 6 Gen 5 4 TB drives we track by $/TB, while the Samsung 990 PRO 4TB ranks #6 of 6 Gen 4 4 TB drives. Neither cracks the top of the value table, so it's worth glancing at the alternatives below before picking either.
As of September 7, 2026, these tracked drives undercut both the Samsung 9100 PRO 4TB and Samsung 990 PRO 4TB on $/TB:
Go with the Samsung 9100 PRO 4TB for meaningfully faster reads (14,800 MB/s), and higher sustained writes (13,400 MB/s). Samsung backs the PRO series with one of the strongest warranty experiences in consumer storage — RMAs typically process within 5 business days globally.
Go with the Samsung 990 PRO 4TB for the lower retail price ($982 vs $1079), and better $/TB economics ($245.50/TB). Samsung's PRO line has the longest track record for firmware reliability — over a decade of consumer SSDs with global RMA support.