TRIM Performance:
While SSDs offer many benefits, there are some downsides to using flash memory. One of the biggest issues people run into is performance degradation. Over time, an SSD will run out of fresh blocks and will have to write over data the file system has marked as deleted. This procedure is very complicated and can slow an SSD's write speeds considerably.
To fix this problem, most manufacturers have added TRIM support to their SSDs. The TRIM command allows an operating system, such as Windows 10, to tell an SSD which data blocks are no longer in use. Using this information, the drive pro-actively erases these blocks and adds them to the free block pool.
To test the 970 EVO Plus's TRIM and garbage collection functions, I first put the drive in a "dirty" state. I used Iometer to fill the entire drive and then ran a random write test for 30 minutes. Looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the 970 EVO Plus's average read and write speeds dropped to 726.1 MB/s and 140.0 MB/s, respectively.
Samsung 970 EVO Plus - Dirty
To see how well the 970 EVO Plus could recover, I let the computer sit for about 30 minutes and then reran the test. The drive wasn't able to reach the factory fresh performance shown in our earlier tests. However, its average read speed jumped up to 1750.2 MB/s.
Samsung 970 EVO Plus - After TRIM
Lastly, I used Parted Magic to perform a secure erase on the 970 EVO Plus. With the drive wiped clean, it had average read and write speeds of 1752.2 MB/s and 1290.5 MB/s, respectively.
Samsung 970 EVO Plus - Secure Erased
Final Thoughts:
With the 970 EVO Plus, Samsung has once again set a new bar for high-performance storage. Designed for tech enthusiasts, gamers and IT professionals, this compact, M.2 form factor SSD is powered by the same Phoenix controller found in the 970 EVO and 970 PRO and is available with up to 2TB of Samsung's latest 3-bit MLC V-NAND flash. Combine this with an optimized firmware and a PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe 1.3 interface and you have one of, if not the fastest, consumer NVMe SSDs on the market today. The 250GB version of the 970 EVO Plus flew through our sequential transfer rate tests, reading at speeds as high as 3,574 MB/s and writing at more than 2,380 MB/s. The drive also did very well in our random write tests, producing more than 201,000 IOPS at low queue depths.
Impressive performance isn't the only thing the 970 EVO Plus has to offer. Along with support for Samsung's Intelligent TurboWrite technology, the drive features AES 256-bit full disk encryption and is compliant with both the TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE 1667 specifications. The 970 EVO Plus also supports the L1.2 low-power standby mode, which extends the battery life of a device by reducing the drive's power consumption when it's not in use. To top it all off, the 970 EVO Plus is covered by a 5 year warranty with an endurance rating of up to 1,200 terabytes written (TBW) for the 2TB model.
The 970 EVO Plus is available now in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities with the 2TB capacity version becoming available in mid-April. Manufacturer’s suggested retail prices start at $89.99.
Highs:
- PCIe 3.0 x4 interface with NVMe protocol
- Equipped with 9x-layer, 3-bit MLC V-NAND technology
- Available in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities
- Excellent sequential and random read and write speeds
- Performs equally well with compressible and incompressible data
- Small M.2 2280 form factor
- Large DRAM cache
- Supports TRIM and garbage collection
- AES 256-bit full disk encryption
- TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE 1667 compliant
- Works with Samsung's Magician software
- 5 year warranty
Lows:
- Write speed drops considerably when SLC cache is full
