Compare Samsung 990 EVO Plus 4TB and Crucial P310 4TB: prices, speeds, $/TB. Which to buy in July 2026? Full spec breakdown.
Samsung 990 EVO Plus 4TB vs Crucial P310 4TB pits two different generations against each other at 4 TB. The question isn't which is faster on paper — that's settled — it's whether the bandwidth gap shows up in your specific workload.
Hardware-wise, the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 4TB runs on the dual-mode Samsung Piccolo silicon that uniquely runs PCIe 5.0 x2 or PCIe 4.0 x4. The Crucial P310 4TB pairs an E27T controller built specifically for DRAM-less Gen 4 SSDs.
There's a modest pricing advantage for the Crucial P310 4TB: $129.75/TB compared with $146.25/TB. For typical gaming and productivity, this becomes the deciding factor when specs are close.
Samsung 990 EVO Plus 4TB earns higher TBW ratings (2,400 vs 1,760 TBW) — relevant for sustained write workloads, irrelevant for everything else.
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 Crucial P310 4TB wins this matchup on $/TB. The leap from Gen 4 to Gen 5 doubles peak throughput on paper but produces single-digit-percent improvements in game load times, OS boot, and most productivity benchmarks. The Crucial P310 4TB is the better default unless you have a specific workload that needs the extra lanes. Note for handheld gamers: M.2 2280 is the desktop/laptop standard. Steam Deck and the ROG Ally line need 2230 drives — neither Samsung 990 EVO Plus 4TB nor Crucial P310 4TB fits without modification.
Market context: the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 4TB ranks #1 of 6 Gen 5 4 TB drives we track by $/TB, while the Crucial P310 4TB ranks #3 of 6 Gen 4 4 TB drives. That puts at least one of them near the top of the value table — a reasonable head-to-head to be choosing from.
As of July 27, 2026, these tracked drives undercut both the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 4TB and Crucial P310 4TB on $/TB:
Pick the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 4TB if you value a higher TBW endurance rating (2,400 TBW). 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.
Pick the Crucial P310 4TB if you value the lower retail price ($519 vs $585), and better $/TB economics ($129.75/TB).