Samsung 980 PRO 500 GB vs Samsung 990 PRO 2 TB
Short answer: which is best?
Samsung 980 PRO 500 GB is 15.4 % stronger than Samsung 990 PRO 2 TB. Samsung 980 PRO 500 GB ranks #6 of 103 measured system drives at WhatFPS (15,649 Drive score over 1 verified runs). Samsung 990 PRO 2 TB ranks #19 of 103 measured system drives at WhatFPS (13,557 Drive score over 3 verified runs). The numbers are measured in 4 verified WhatFPS runs — not estimated, not self-reported.
Measured comparison
| Metric | Samsung 980 PRO 500 GB | Samsung 990 PRO 2 TB |
|---|---|---|
| Drive score (the drive's own performance: sequential read + 4K IOPS) | 15,649 | 13,557 |
| Best rig (GAMING — whole PC) | 6,907 | 10,212 |
| Sequential read | 4,067 MB/s | 3,728 MB/s |
| 4K IOPS | 21,134 | 17,305 |
| 4K latency, median (lower is better) | 44 µs | 48 µs |
| Type | NVMe SSD | NVMe SSD |
| Size | 500 GB | 2 TB |
What the numbers mean
The drive score is the system drive's measured performance in the rigs it sat in — sequential read and 4K IOPS, unbuffered. PCIe generation, fill level and driver affect it. GAMING is the whole rig's score. We show both and never mix them.
All numbers come from our benchmark suite, the same test on every PC, written in Rust with no middleware. The methodology is open at https://whatfps.com/metodik
All measurements for Samsung 980 PRO 500 GB · All measurements for Samsung 990 PRO 2 TB