Samsung's first gen 5 SSD is slower than most PS5 SSDs, but that might be okay

In 2023, we saw the dawn of PCIe Gen 5 SSDs in the mainstream market. This time last year, the first few drives were trickling their way into Asian markets, and as motherboard compatibility started to become a bit more common, bigger brands started taking a crack at them.

Now, we have a few models that are widely available. ADATA's Legend 970 has its own cooling fan built into its heatsink, and the Crucial T700 Pro has reviewed well but has been met with mixed reports from consumers. These Gen 5 SSDs are still in their early days, and their volatility when it comes to size, cooling, and speeds means they're still only perched to become the best SSDs for gaming.

However, Samsung has now thrown its hat in the ring, yesterday announcing the Samsung 990 Evo, the first-ever hybrid interface SSD. Sporting 4x PCIe Gen 4 lanes and 2x PCIe Gen 5 lanes, it can work with both architectures while offering the same bandwidth to either. 

Essentially, when the 990 EVO is connected to PCIe Gen 5 systems, it will connect with its speedy two lanes automatically, but there will be no performance drop compared to its four Gen 4 lanes. With that in mind, the 990 EVO can even be used with compatible laptops. This clever design will also reduce power demands and temperatures, which Gen 5 SSDs are known to struggle with.

This is certainly an interesting approach to take with the blazing-fast architecture of PCIe 5.0, and it seriously bucks the trends we've seen so far.

For reference, an everyday Gen 4 NVMe drive, like one of the best PS5 SSDs for example, is capable of read speeds of up to 7,400MB/s. Gen 5's heavily boasted speeds are over the 1GB/s mark, so fairly ridiculous. The new 990 EVO is much more subdued, however, with quoted read speeds of 5,000MB/s regardless of whether you grab it in 1TB or 2TB shape.

Before that sparks a fit of gamer rage at Samsung, I'll add that this isn't a drive that's trying to target the uppermost echelon of gaming PCs. This is Samsung's EVO range, which