Samsung SM961 SSD Review — Tom’s Hardware
Early Verdict
If I were to buy a new SSD for my notebook or desktop, it would be the SM961. I can’t give any greater praise than that. The drive leads the high-performance NVMe race in the price to capacity ratio and delivers the performance goods, too. The only real issue is waiting for stock to replenish. Get in line early if you want excellent NVMe performance at 50 cents per gigabyte.
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Specifications, Pricing, Warranty And Accessories
Samsung informed the media last year that the 950 Pro would receive a capacity increase via its 3rd generation 48-layer MLC V-NAND. We believed the update would come last January, but CES came and went without a new 950 Pro. In the meantime, Samsung released the T3 Portable SSD and updated the larger capacity 850 EVO products with 48-layer TLC V-NAND, but the company remained silent about its MLC-based products. Now we know why.
Samsung’s SSI group recently started shipping the successor to the SM951 NVMe SSD (the 950 Pro’s OEM-equivalent) that captured our hearts in 2015. The OEM-specific SM961 features a new Polaris SSD controller and gets a NAND flash upgrade, as well. We currently know very little about the controller, but we should learn more in the coming weeks. The SM951 shipped with Samsung’s planar (2D) MLC flash and suffered an endurance disadvantage in comparison to the retail 950 Pro NVMe SSD, but that changes in this round because the SM961 shifts to the newest high-endurance 3D V-NAND that Samsung has to offer.
- Samsung 950 Pro 256GB (256GB Download) at Newegg for $299.99
As mentioned, the SM961 is an OEM product. We first spotted what could have been the drive on Lenovo’s website last month. We keep an eye on two Lenovo notebook models, and suddenly the company offered storage upgrades under the generic name of 1TB SSD PCIe-NVMe.
We inquired with Lenovo, but could not verify the mystery SSD. We know that Lenovo and Samsung have a close relationship, but the timing also fell in line with the Toshiba XG3 1TB release. We were poised to purchase a new X1 Carbon Gen 4 with the upgraded SSD option to investigate, but in the interim, we were informed that a pair of SM961s were on the way.
Technical Specifications
SM961 128GB
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SM961 256GB
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SM961 512GB
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Samsung released the SM961 in four capacity sizes that range from 128GB to 1024GB (1TB). RamCity, our partner for this review, only plans to carry the three largest capacity sizes. We tried, but failed, to secure a data sheet for this series. The United States division of Samsung Semiconductor does not have the data sheet or many details about the SM961 series, so the performance specifications (above) come from an event that Samsung held last March in Japan.
Samsung didn’t divulge too many details at the event, but enough information leaked for us to build a chart.
Samsung’s new SSD controller, codenamed Polaris, is at the heart of the SM961. Some outlets have reported that the Polaris controller features five cores, but Samsung has not confirmed the core count. According to Samsung’s specifications, the SM961 offers significantly more performance in comparison to the 950 Pro retail NVMe SSD, so the controller has either more processing power by way of cores, clock speed, or both.
The SM961 is the first product to ship with Samsung’s new 48-layer multi-level cell (MLC) V-NAND. In the past, MLC density lagged behind TLC, but the two achieve parity at 256Gbit for the first time with Samsung’s 3rd generation V-NAND. Unfortunately, without a basic datasheet we do not know the endurance rating for the new OEM series.
The SM961 sports very high performance ratings; the 1TB model clocks in at 3,200 MB/s read and 1,800 MB/s sequential write speed, which eclipses every other retail NVMe SSD.
In our testing, we surpassed Samsung’s 3,200 MB/s sequential read performance using a corner case test. The drive is capable of delivering up to 3,500 MB/s under ideal conditions, with the right software, when the stars align and the moon is full. The result is the highest we ever expect to achieve with a PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD.
Samsung spec’d random performance at 450,000 read and 320,000 write IOPS. There are a few snippets from a leaked datasheet, more specifically an image, that suggest the SM961 1TB provides up to 400,000 random write IOPS. We chose to publish the more realistic 320,000 IOPS. Samsung stated the specification in March and it has been verified through pictures published from the event. The Intel SSD 750 1.2TB offers an extra 10,000 random read IOPS, but it trails the SM961 in random write performance by 40,000 IOPS. That puts the SM961 squarely in the performance lead, but you shouldn’t expect to reach the high performance numbers under real-world use in your desktop or notebook.
AHCI, the underlying protocol for SATA, only supports one queue with 32 commands. SSD vendors generally test AHCI products with 32 commands and one worker to generate performance specifications. NVMe takes us back to the wild-wild west, and in contrast, it accepts up to 64,000 queues with up to 64,000 commands each. The SSD manufacturers test NVMe SSDs in their labs with multiple workers, and each worker issues multiple outstanding I/O requests. Some companies have tested with 4 workers with a queue depth of 4 per worker (16 Outstanding IO). Other companies search for the highest performance from several worker/queue depth combinations and simply report the best results. Unfortunately, you will not reach 450,000 IOPS under normal consumer workloads until Microsoft develops a file system that operates in a more efficient manner. It is possible to test products under artificial conditions, but we do not change our testing strategy just to highlight hero numbers with NVMe products.
We gave RAID 0 a shot with two Samsung SM961 SSDs, but quickly learned why OCZ put the brakes on users running the RD400 in a similar configuration. We encountered serious stability issues on an Intel Z170 chipset with two SM961 SSDs configured in RAID 0. With the array enabled, the system would blue screen within 45 seconds of booting and restart after a system dump. The issue seems to revolve around the Intel RST NVMe RAID driver, and OCZ found the driver issue to be so pronounced and problematic that the RD400 NVMe SSD shipped with a strong warning label on the retail package. We didn’t get a lot of time to look deeper into the issue with only 45 seconds to investigate before a system initiated restart. We did spend a solid six hours debugging every other component in the test system to eliminate our hardware as the cause.
Samsung never released the 950 Pro at the 1TB capacity point, and we currently only have two SM961 1TB SSDs. We can do a more apples-to-apples comparison of the SM961 and the 950 Pro when the two other capacity sizes reach RamCity’s headquarters in mid-July.
Samsung indicates that a 48-layer V-NAND package should lower power consumption by 40 percent in comparison to the 2nd generation 32-layer V-NAND package. The power savings comes from using half the die to achieve the same density, and when we have comparable capacity points we can put those claims to the test.
Pricing, Warranty, And Accessories
RamCity will offer the SM961 in 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacity sizes. The 256GB sells for $159, the 512GB for $280 and the 1TB model we’re testing today retails for $512, which is very reasonable pricing for this series. All three SM961 capacity sizes are available for preorder. The website defaults to Australian Dollars (AUD) with a 10 percent VAT. You can select your local currency at checkout, which removes the VAT and adjusts for the currency exchange rate. The AUD is currently valued lower than the mighty US Dollar, which strongly favors US buyers.
We’ve ordered products from RamCity dating back to the Samsung XP941 PCIe SSD.
All of our shipments have arrived in three to four days (depending upon the time we placed the order). That is faster than ordering from Newegg in California and having the package delivered to my office in Indiana.
RamCity has offered several Samsung SSI products over the years, and it has built a worldwide customer base. The SM961 ships with a 3-year warranty from the company. RamCity is currently sold out of the SM961 in all three capacity sizes, but you can place a preorder and your drive will ship when new SSDs arrive. RamCity is transparent with delivery times, and the company has a regularly updated estimated arrival date listed for each capacity size on the order page.
A Closer Look
Image 1 of 5
Surprisingly, Samsung reached the 1TB capacity size with just two NAND packages. This is our first look at 256Gbit MLC die in any product and the impressive density made a good first impression.
The increased die density allowed Samsung to design this product with all of the components on one side, which the M.
2 specification refers to as single-sided. It almost sounds trivial, but some new notebooks use a specific M.2 connector that is roughly a millimeter closer to the system motherboard. We’ve also seen notebooks with components under the space allocated for the M.2 SSD. In both cases, only a single sided M.2 SSD will fit into the space-constrained slots. They are very rare, but in time, we may see more single-sided specific notebooks. Desktop systems do not have the same issue. All of the desktop motherboards we’ve seen provide ample vertical height for double-sided M.2 SSDs.
MORE: Best SSDs
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Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom’s Hardware US. He tests and reviews consumer storage.
OEM Drives Get a Boost
by Anton Shilovon March 23, 2016 10:00 AM EST
- Posted in
- Storage
- SSDs
- Samsung
- PCIe SSD
- V-NAND
- M.
2 - SM961
- PM961
48 Comments
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48 Comments
At Samsung’s annual SSD Forum Japan, the company has demonstrated two previously-unannounced high-performance client SSDs. The new SM961 and the PM961 drives are based on the company’s Polaris controller as well as V-NAND flash memory. Samsung promises that the SSDs will increase sequential read speeds to 3000 – 3200 MB/s and will also significantly boost random read and write performance. The drives are projected to ship inside PCs in the second half of the year, while it’s anyone’s guess if and when these will filter into retail (ala the 950 series).
The Journey Continues
Samsung is the world’s largest producer of NAND flash memory and SSDs. Moreover, it is also one of the companies, which raise the bar of SSD performance and feature-set. In the recent years, Samsung has been an instrumental driving force in popularization of PCIe and NVMe SSDs.
Samsung’s XP941 was one of the first high-end PCIe M.2 SSDs aimed at OEMs and it greatly helped to promote the form-factor among PC makers in 2014. The SM951 SSDs significantly increased performance of flash storage sub-systems compared to its predecessor and introduced NVMe to numerous OEMs a year later. In fall 2015, the Samsung 950 Pro finally brought NVMe and performance of the SM951 to retail market.
When introduced, the XP941 and the SM951 were for their respective times Samsung’s top-of-the-range SSDs designed for OEMs and their flagship PCs. Last year, the company decided to alter its strategy regarding high-performance SSDs aimed at PC makers. Instead of offering just one lineup of fast PCIe drives, Samsung introduced its second family of advanced SSDs with lower price and TLC NAND — the PM951. While the latter drives were still rather fast, the price/performance trade-off meant that they were considerably behind the SM951 in terms of sequential read and write speeds. This year, the company plans to change its approach to OEM SSDs once again.
Samsung will offer two product families with slightly different characteristics: the SM961 and the PM961. The new lineups will further raise performance bar of Samsung’s SSDs, but the PM961 is expected to make the new speed levels accessible to a broader audience. The tactics should help Samsung to increase its share of the premium SSD market.
Samsung SM961 and PM961: First to Use Polaris Controller
The new OEM SSD lineups from Samsung will be the company’s first standard high-end SSDs for PC makers, which use 3D/V-NAND memory. The new drives rely on the all-new Polaris platform and will come in M.2-2280 form-factor with PCIe 3.0 x4 interface while utilizing the NVMe protocol. Right now, the company is not revealing too many details about its new SSDs. For example, it is unknown whether they rely on Samsung’s third-gen 48-layer V-NAND or its second-gen 32-layer V-NAND. While using newer memory for new SSDs is logical, so far Samsung has not confirmed anything.
Samsung SM961 SSD.
Image by PC Watch.
The Samsung SM961 will be Samsung’s new top-of-the-range M.2 SSD line for OEMs, which will be offered in 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB configurations (by contrast, the SM951 family did not include a 1 TB option). The drive will be based on Samsung’s MLC V-NAND as well as the company’s Polaris controller. Samsung is specing the SM961 at up to 3200 MB/s for sequential reads and up to 1800 MB/s for sequential writes, but does not specify which models will boast with such numbers. The new SSDs can perform up to 450K random read IOPS as well as up to 400K random write IOPS, which looks more like performance of server-grade SSDs.
Samsung PM961 SSD. Image by PC Watch.
The Samsung PM961 will be based on the company’s TLC V-NAND flash and the Polaris controller. The PM961 lineup will consist of four models: with 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB capacities (the PM951 also did not include a 1 TB model). The PM961 SSD supports sequential read speeds of up to 3000 MB/s as well as sequential write speeds of up to 1150 MB/s.
Random read/write performance of the PM961 is up to 360K/280K of read/write IOPS, but Samsung does not specify exact models that offer such performance.
The PM961 should be more affordable than the SM961, but even with the use of TLC, according to Samsung’s specifications it should be only slightly slower than the flagship model when it comes to sequential read speeds (6% difference is negligible). Sequential write speeds should be lower compared to those offered by the SM951 and the 950 Pro, but should still be considerably higher than sequential write speed of its direct predecessor, the PM951. Moreover, the new PM961 should also be considerably faster in random read and write operations versus its ancestors, according to specifications released by Samsung.
It remains to be seen how the PM961 drive will behave in real-world applications versus enthusiast-class PCIe SSDs from other manufacturers. But its 3000 MB/s sequential read performance as well as very high random reads and writes should probably play positive roles here.
Samsung has not formally introduced the SM961 and the PM961 SSDs, but PC Watch reports that the company expects computer makers to use the new drives in the second half of the year. Moreover, since the SSDs demonstrated at the event already feature actual labels with all the certification stamps and even serial numbers, it looks like development of the storage devices is very close to its completion.
| Samsung SSD Comparison | |||||||
| SM961 | PM961 | 950 Pro 512 GB |
SM951-NVMe 512 GB (OEM) | PM951-NVMe 512 GB (OEM) |
850 Pro 512 GB |
||
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 | 2.5″ SATA | |||||
| Controller | Samsung Polaris | Samsung UBX | unknown | Samsung MEX | |||
| Interface | PCIe 3. 0 x4 |
SATA III | |||||
| Protocol | NVMe | AHCI | |||||
| DRAM | unknown | 512 MB | 512 MB | 512 MB | 512MB | ||
| NAND | Samsung MLC V-NAND |
Samsung TLC V-NAND |
Samsung V-NAND 32-layer 128Gbit MLC | Samsung 16nm 64Gbit MLC | Samsung TLC NAND flash | Samsung V-NAND 32-layer 86Gbit MLC | |
| Sequential Read | 3200 MB/s | 3000 MB/s | 2500 MB/s | 2150 MB/s | 1050 MB/s | 550 MB/s | |
| Sequential Write | 1800 MB/s | 1150 MB/s | 1500 MB/s | 1550 MB/s | 560 MB/s | 520 MB/s | |
| 4KB Random Read (QD32) | 450K IOPS | 360K IOPS | 300K IOPS | 300K IOPS | 250K IOPS | 100K IOPS | |
| 4KB Random Write (QD32) | 400K IOPS | 280K IOPS | 110K IOPS | 100K IOPS | 144K IOPS | 90K IOPS | |
| Launch Date | 2H 2016 | October 2015 | ~June 2015 | 2015 | July 2014 | ||
Initially, Samsung will use its Polaris platform only for the drives intended for OEMs, but it is plausible to expect the company to utilize the same controllers for its retail SSDs eventually.
As is usually the case, Samsung isn’t commenting on whether we’ll see retail Polaris drives in the future, though if 950 Pro is anything to go by, we wouldn’t be surprised. Nonetheless, keeping in mind how easy is to get both SM951 and PM951 SSDs from stores like Amazon and RamCity, it should not be a problem to obtain these new OEM SSDs from online stores as well.
Looking Ahead: PCIe 3.0 x4 May Become a New Performance Limiting Factor for SSDs
Looking at Samsung’s specifications, it’s interesting to note that the 3200 MB/s sequential read speed of the Samsung SM961 is very close to actual maximum bandwidth of the PCIe 3.0 x4 bus. A PCIe 3.0 connection supports transfer rates of 8 GT/s (GigaTransfers per second) per lane, for a total of 3.94 GB/sec for an x4 connection after factoring in overhead. As it appears, the bandwidth offered by four lanes of PCIe 3.0 — the maximum bus width supported by the M.2 standard — is close to being saturated by high-end client SSDs.
If this ends up being the case, then the SM961 may be Samsung’s fastest sequential transfer SSD for client PC applications for quite a while (i.
e., until PCIe 4.0 arrives). Consequently, if the company plans to introduce its successors with the same PCIe 3.0 interface, it will have to improve other domains of SSD performance (e.g., performance in mixed workloads, endurance, power efficiency, etc.). Keeping in mind that Samsung’s retail 950 Pro SSDs were a little faster than the company’s SM951 despite using the same controller, it will be interesting to see how Samsung might differentiate its hypothetical enthusiast-oriented Polaris and MLC V-NAND-based SSD from its OEM offering (if such SSD is in the company’s plans at all, of course).
With that said, while certain Samsung’s SSDs may eventually hit a sequential transfer performance barrier in the form of PCIe 3.0 x4 bus, the bandwidth provided by this interface will still be enough for the vast majority of SSDs from different manufacturers going forward. Moreover, since real-world performance does not entirely depend on just sequential read or write speeds, there are a plenty of ways to improve performance of actual drives in real-world applications.
Source:
PC Watch
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Samsung SM961 Polaris NVMe M.2 Solid State Drives
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SM961 1TB Polaris NVMe M.2 SSD, MZVKW1T0HMLH Discontinued |
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SM961 512GB Polaris NVMe M.2 SSD, MZVKW512HMJP Discontinued |
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SM961 256GB Polaris NVMe M.2 SSD, MZVPW256HEGL Discontinued |
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SM961 128GB Polaris NVMe M.2 SSD, MZVPW128HEGM Discontinued |
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| More variations available Show | |
Replaces the Samsung SM951 NVMe M.2 Solid State Drives
The Samsung SM961 M.2 Solid State Drives are exceptionally fast storage drives that offer read and writes speeds of up to 3200 and 1800 MB/s respectively!
The SM961 boasts outstanding performance, supporting both PCIe 3.
0 x4 interface. They can read and write sequentially up to 3200 MB/s (megabytes per second) and 1800 MB/s respectively based on PCIe 2.0. This performance level is approximately five times faster than that of the latest SSD with a SATA interface and about twice as fast as the previous SM951, its predecessor. In addition, the new SSD’s random read and write speeds reach up to 450,000 and 320,000 IOPS (inputs / outputs per second) respectively. These figures vary based on the capacity chosen, see the specifications table below for exact information.
Features
- Incredibly fast M.2 SSD
- NVMe Host Controller Interface
- Offers sequential read and write speeds of up to 3200 and 1800 MB/s
- Available in 128, 256, 512GB and 1TB
- L1.2 power state for reduced power consumption
In addition, the SM961 continues adopt the L1.2 low power standby mode (which allows all high-speed circuits to be turned off when a PC is sleeping or in hibernation) as defined by PCI-SIG (the PCIe standards body).
By embracing the L1.2 level of standby operation, the SM961’s power consumption is drastically reduced – to just 2.5mW, about a 97 percent decrease from the 50mW consumed using a L1 state.
Samsung’s SM961 comes in the M.2 form factor (80 mm x 22 mm), which is only about one seventh the size of a 2.5” SSD. Also, it weighs approximately six grammes. The drive’s compactness is well suited for most notebook PC designs, freeing up space for other components including the battery. The SM961 lineup consists of 1TB, 512, 256 and 128 GB SSDs.
PLEASE NOTE: These M.2 drives are compatible with Type M keys only. Please check your hardware is compatible with this type. There is also a Type B key which these drives will not connect to.
Show specifications and reviews for:SM961 128GBSM961 1TBSM961 256GBSM961 512GB
| Specifications | SM961 128GB | SM961 1TB | SM961 256GB | SM961 512GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model Number | MZVPW128HEGM-00000 | MZVKW1T0HMLH-00000 | MZVPW256HEGL-00000 | MZVKW512HMJP-00000 |
| Usage Application | Client PCs (Ultra-thin PCs compatible) | Client PCs (Ultra-thin PCs compatible) | Client PCs (Ultra-thin PCs compatible) | Client PCs (Ultra-thin PCs compatible) |
| Capacity | 128GB | 1TB | 256GB | 512GB |
| Dimensions (LxWxH) | 80 x 22 x 3. 7 (mm) |
80 x 22 x 3.7 (mm) | 80 x 22 x 3.7 (mm) | 80 x 22 x 3.7 (mm) |
| Interface | PCIe Gen3 x4 | PCIe Gen3 x4 | PCIe Gen3 x4 | PCIe Gen3 x4 |
| Form Factor | M.2 | M.2 | M.2 | M.2 |
| Key ID Type | M (PCIe ×4 and SATA) | M (PCIe ×4 and SATA) | M (PCIe ×4 and SATA) | M (PCIe ×4 and SATA) |
| Bytes per Sector | 512 Bytes | 512 Bytes | 512 Bytes | 512 Bytes |
| Controller | NVMe Rev 1. 2 (partial) |
NVMe Rev 1.2 (partial) | NVMe Rev 1.2 (partial) | NVMe Rev 1.2 (partial) |
| Sequential Read | 3100 MB/s Max | 3200 MB/s Max | 3100 MB/s Max | 3200 MB/s Max |
| Sequential Write | 700 MB/s Max | 1800 MB/s Max | 1400 MB/s Max | 1700 MB/s Max |
| 4KB Random Read | 330,000 IOPS Max | 450,000 IOPS Max | 330,000 IOPS Max | 330,000 IOPS Max |
| 4KB Random Write | 170,000 IOPS Max | 320,000 IOPS Max | 280,000 IOPS Max | 300,000 IOPS Max |
| Weight | Max. 10g |
Max. 10g | Max. 10g | Max. 10g |
| Reliability | MTBF 1.5 million hours | MTBF 1.5 million hours | MTBF 1.5 million hours | MTBF 1.5 million hours |
| Power Saving Modes | APST and L1.2 mode | APST and L1.2 mode | APST and L1.2 mode | APST and L1.2 mode |
| Power Consumption | Read 5.9W, Write 5.7W, L1.2 2.5 mW | Read 5.9W, Write 5.7W, L1.2 2.5 mW | Read 5.9W, Write 5.7W, L1.2 2.5 mW | Read 5.9W, Write 5.7W, L1.2 2.5 mW |
| Temperature | Operating 0°C to 70°C Non-Operating -40°C to 85°C | Operating 0°C to 70°C Non-Operating -40°C to 85°C | Operating 0°C to 70°C Non-Operating -40°C to 85°C | Operating 0°C to 70°C Non-Operating -40°C to 85°C |
| Humidity | 5% to 95%, non-condensing | 5% to 95%, non-condensing | 5% to 95%, non-condensing | 5% to 95%, non-condensing |
| Vibration | Non-Operating 10~2000Hz, 20G | Non-Operating 10~2000Hz, 20G | Non-Operating 10~2000Hz, 20G | Non-Operating 10~2000Hz, 20G |
| Warranty | 24 months | 24 months | 24 months | 24 months |
| Specifications | SM961 128GB | SM961 1TB | SM961 256GB | SM961 512GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model Number | MZVPW128HEGM-00000 | MZVKW1T0HMLH-00000 | MZVPW256HEGL-00000 | MZVKW512HMJP-00000 |
| Usage Application | Client PCs (Ultra-thin PCs compatible) | |||
| Capacity | 128GB | 1TB | 256GB | 512GB |
| Dimensions (LxWxH) | 80 x 22 x 3. 7 (mm) |
|||
| Interface | PCIe Gen3 x4 | |||
| Form Factor | M.2 | |||
| Key ID Type | M (PCIe ×4 and SATA) | |||
| Bytes per Sector | 512 Bytes | |||
| Controller | NVMe Rev 1.2 (partial) | |||
| Sequential Read | 3100 MB/s Max | 3200 MB/s Max | 3100 MB/s Max | 3200 MB/s Max |
| Sequential Write | 700 MB/s Max | 1800 MB/s Max | 1400 MB/s Max | 1700 MB/s Max |
| 4KB Random Read | 330,000 IOPS Max | 450,000 IOPS Max | 330,000 IOPS Max | |
| 4KB Random Write | 170,000 IOPS Max | 320,000 IOPS Max | 280,000 IOPS Max | 300,000 IOPS Max |
| Weight | Max. 10g |
|||
| Reliability | MTBF 1.5 million hours | |||
| Power Saving Modes | APST and L1.2 mode | |||
| Power Consumption | Read 5.9W, Write 5.7W, L1.2 2.5 mW | |||
| Temperature | Operating 0°C to 70°C Non-Operating -40°C to 85°C | |||
| Humidity | 5% to 95%, non-condensing | |||
| Vibration | Non-Operating 10~2000Hz, 20G | |||
| Warranty | 24 months | |||
See Also
M.2 Solid State Drives
System components only
Product Resources
- Samsung website
Top M.2, SSD and Hard Drives
They have always been quite gracious and willing to serve the customer.
I have purchased a number of times from QUIETPC.com — they have always been helpful with my order — they have never been «pushy salespeople» — I HIGHLY recommend them.
One time — I had an issue with one of the 150 watt external PSU — they sent me a replacement immediately without question! This kind of service deserves customer dedication.
(Review via Trustpilot)
Samsung 1TB SM961 Single Sided Polaris V-NAND M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe OEM SSD
Samsung SM961: Unmatched SSDs for PCs and Workstations
Samsung SM961 SSDs offer the next level of performance in storage for smart consumers who want an experience beyond what the SATA interface can provide.
The first OEM-targeted client SSD to feature the Polaris controller, the SM961 provides users with enhanced bandwidth, thanks to an NVMe interface, that delivers sequential R/W speeds up to 3,200/1,800MB/s and random R/W speeds up to 450/320K IOPS, respectively with exceptional reliability and minimal power drain.
The SM961 maximizes compatibility using 48-layer MLC V-NAND flash that packs up to 1TB of storage into a single-sided M.
2 2280 form factor to fit notebooks, 2-in-1 systems, and tablets as devices continue to get thinner.
Ideal for heavy
performance-centric uses, such as multi-tasking, complex data manipulation, and
high-performance gaming. Upgrading to an SM961 might be the best computer upgrade
you ever make.
Fitting Storage for Best Performance
Accelerated processing in a compact form factor — The SM961 offers remarkable design flexibility through Ball Grid Array (BGA)
packaging. Combining power-efficient compactness and boosted robust performance,
the SM961 is a first-rate storage solution for slimmer laptops, providing high
performance in a tiny package.
Perfect Storage for Workstations
Faster performance with powerful efficiency — With advanced NAND and TurboWrite technology, SM961 offers a premium solution
for high-performance PCs such as gaming desktops. It’s 3,200MB/s in sequential read
speeds enables faster start-up, improved performance and convent multitasking,
all with low-power operation.
The SSD That Goes Further
Accelerate into next-gen computing — SM961 delivers optimal SSD features for PCs. By supporting the PCIe interface
standard up to 4 lanes and TurboWrite technology, faster read/write speeds accomplish
fast performance using less power via an NVMe power-savings mode.
Big Power in a Small Package
Featured in an M.2 form factor, SM961 uses 88% less space than 2.5″ SSD and is well suited for most notebook
PC designs, freeing up space for other components including the battery.
Features
- Incredibly Fast Sequential R/W up to 3200/1800MB/s
- Massive 1TB Storage Capacity
- Compact M.2 2280 Form Factor
- Samsung Polaris Controller
- 48-Layer V-NAND Flash
- PCIe Gen3 8Gb/s Interface, up to 4 Lanes
- Compliant with PCI Express Base Specification Rev. 3.0
- Compliant with PCI Express CEM Specification Rev.
3.0 - Compliant with NVMe Express specification Rev. 1.2 (Partial)
- Supports APST and L1.2 Power Saving Modes
- Supports Admin & NVM Command Set
- Supports SMART and TRIM Command Set
- RoHS Compliant
Benchmark Testing
Test Environment: MSI Z270 SLI Plus / Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz / 32GB RAM / Windows 10 Pro 64-bit / M.2 Turbo Port. Driver: Samsung (NVMe)
Reviews & Awards
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«If I were to buy a new SSD for my notebook or desktop, it would be the SM961. I can’t give any greater praise than that. The drive leads the high-performance NVMe race in the price to capacity ratio and delivers the performance goods, too.”
Chris Ramseyer, Tom’s Hardware
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“Many lab records fell today while testing the Polaris-powered SM961 1TB
«A super-low price point, high capacity, and numerous lab records add up to a drive that you MUST HAVE!“
Jon Coulter, TweakTown
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Samsung’s Polaris controller is easily the most
Resources
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Samsung SM961 SSD Series Data Sheet
0 x4)
2
5.9 W
Write 4.5 W
Consumption
3V ± 5%
• 1TB Samsung SM961 M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe OEM SSD
• 5 Year Limited Warranty by MyDigitalDiscount.com
Specs Samsung SM961 M.2 256 GB PCI Express 3.0 Internal Solid State Drives (MZVPW256HEGL-00000)
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Long product name Samsung SM961 M.
2 256 GB PCI Express 3.0
:
The short editorial description of Samsung SM961 M.2 256 GB PCI Express 3.0
SSD M.2 (2280) 256GB Samsung SM961 OEM (PCIe/NVMe)
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Samsung SM961, 256 GB, M.2
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2 256 GB PCI Express 3.0:
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Samsung SM961. SSD capacity: 256 GB, SSD form factor: M.2
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Specs
Reviews
Distributors
Specs
Features
SSD form factor
*
M.2
SSD capacity
*
256 GB
Interface
*
PCI Express 3.0
Operational conditions
Operating temperature (T-T)
0 — 70 °C
Operational conditions
Storage relative humidity (H-H)
5 — 95%
Operating shock
1500 G
Other features
Product colour
Green
Internal
Reviews
| Source | Testseek summary | Average rating |
|---|---|---|
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Updated: |
Uk has collected 19 expert reviews for Samsung SM961 M. Read the full review |
2 256 GB PCI Express 3.0 but no overall score was given. Click below and use Uk to find all ratings, product awards and conclusions.| Source | Review comments | Score |
|---|---|---|
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tomshardware.co.uk Updated: |
The Samsung SM961 is not an official retail product from the company, and its OEM status makes availability first come, first serve. Lowest Cost NVMe Solutions, High Throughput Performance, M.2 Form Factor… Could Use A Firmware Tune, Availability… The Samsung SM961 series as a whole breaks new ground in both performance and pricing. We really like the 256GB and 512GB drives for the great value but would like to see some performance optimizations in the future, including support for the Magician… Read the full review |
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tomshardware. Updated: |
The SM961 is the SSD that everyone is talking about because it provides up to 3,200 MB/s of sequential performance. No more rumors, today we test the new Samsung SM961 1TB NVMe SSD from the SSI group. Is this your next SSD?Samsung informed the media last… Highest NVMe performance for a consumer SSD in FourCorner Tests Excellent price per gigabyte Good notebook battery life with excellent performance Only a slight thermal throttle dropoff under heavy load…
Availability Additional optimizations needed to increase light workload performance No support for Samsung’s Magician Intel RST issues in RAID 0 on Z170 (Intel’s Fault). If I were to buy a new SSD for my notebook or desktop, it would be the SM961. I can’t give any greater praise than that. The drive leads the high-performance NVMe race in the price to capacity ratio and delivers the performance goods, too. The only re… |
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uk.hardware.info Updated: |
There is a lot of renewal and progress in the area of fast storage. Time to cover all the recent developments, including a test of 17 PCI-Express SSDs. PCI-Express SSDs are still quite expensive, but they also perform significantly better than SATA600 SSDs. A few years ago the additional price you paid for a high-end SSD barely gave you better performance due to the SATA600-bottleneck, but now the differ… Read the full review |
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tomshardware.com Updated: |
The Samsung SM961 is not an official retail product from the company, and its OEM status makes availability first come, first serve. Lowest Cost NVMe Solutions, High Throughput Performance, M.2 Form Factor… Could Use A Firmware Tune, Availability… The Samsung SM961 series as a whole breaks new ground in both performance and pricing. We really like the 256GB and 512GB drives for the great value but would like to see some performance optimizations in the future, including support for the Magician… Read the full review |
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tomshardware. Updated: |
The SM961 is the SSD that everyone is talking about because it provides up to 3,200 MB/s of sequential performance. No more rumors, today we test the new Samsung SM961 1TB NVMe SSD from the SSI group. Is this your next SSD? Samsung informed the media las… Highest NVMe performance for a consumer SSD in FourCorner Tests Excellent price per gigabyte Good notebook battery life with excellent performance Only a slight thermal throttle dropoff under heavy load…
Availability Additional optimizations needed to increase light workload performance No support for Samsung’s Magician Intel RST issues in RAID 0 on Z170 (Intel’s Fault). If I were to buy a new SSD for my notebook or desktop, it would be the SM961. I can’t give any greater praise than that. The drive leads the high-performance NVMe race in the price to capacity ratio and delivers the performance goods, too. The only re… Read the full review |
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fudzilla.com Updated: |
In June, we saw the introduction of two new OEM products based on this controller, the Samsung SM961 and PM961 M. – Great price to performance valueSamsung is now in its third generation of M.2 NVMe SSDs for OEMs and consumers, having first introduced its XP941 in May 2014, followed by the SM951 series in April 2015. On its 256GB drives, data throughput over the pas… Read the full review |
We’ve already delivered a dish of SM961 1TB to the table, and today we follow that up with the main course and dessert, wh…
co.uk 
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This way you have an overview of the state of affairs in this market.The last time we created an overvi…
We’ve already delivered a dish of SM961 1TB to the table, and we follow that up with the main course and dessert, which co…
com 
.. 
2 NVMe drives. While Samsung refers to these as “Client Edition SSDs,” they utilize the company’s latest in-house, third-generation MLC and TL…
Distributors
1
| Country | Distributor |
|---|---|
| 1 distributor(s) | |
| 1 distributor(s) |
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Highest AHCI performance |
Good NVMe Performance |
Cost Effective Performance and Endurance |
Superior Performance and Endurance |
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| Samsung XP941 M.  2 PCIe (AHCI) |
Samsung SM951 M.2 PCIe (AHCI) |
Samsung SM951 M.2 PCIe (NVMe) |
Samsung PM961 M.2 PCIe (NVMe) |
Samsung SM961 M.2 PCIe (NVMe) |
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| Ideal For |
Legacy notebooks, pre-X99 systems, cMP Mac Pro (requires adapter) |
Legacy notebooks, pre-X99 systems, cMP Mac Pro (requires adapter) |
M.2 NVMe compatible systems |
Gaming Rigs and High End PC’s |
Gaming Rigs and High Performance Workstations |
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| Form Factor |
M.2 2280 (80mm) |
M.2 2280 (80mm) |
M.2 2280 (80mm) |
M.2 2280 (80mm) |
M.2 2280 (80mm) |
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|
Sequential Read (128KB) |
128GB: 1000MB/s |
128GB: 2000MB/s |
128GB: 2000MB/s |
256/512GB: 2000MB/s |
256/512GB: 3100MB/s |
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Sequential Write (128KB) |
128GB: 450MB/s |
128GB: 600MB/s |
128GB: 650MB/s |
256GB: 1100MB/s |
256GB: 1400MB/s |
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|
Random Read IOPS (4KB, QD32) |
128GB: 110K |
90K |
up to 300K |
256GB: 250K |
256GB: 3300K |
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Random Write IOPS (4KB, QD32) |
128GB: 40K |
70K |
128GB: 83K |
256GB: 180K |
256GB: 280K |
|||||
|
Capacity |
128GB/256GB/512GB | 256GB/256GB/512GB | 256GB/512GB | 256GB/512GB/1TB | 256GB/512GB/1TB | |||||
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Interface |
PCIe 2. |
PCIe 3.0 x4, AHCI |
PCIe 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.1a |
PCIe 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.2 |
PCIe 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.2 |
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NAND |
Samsung 10nm Class MLC NAND | Samsung 10nm Class MLC NAND | Samsung 10nm Class MLC NAND | Samsung 48 layer TLC 3D V-NAND | Samsung 48 layer TLC 3D V-NAND | |||||
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Controller |
Samsung UAX |
Samsung UBX |
Samsung UBX |
Samsung Polaris |
Samsung Polaris |
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Active Power Consumption |
5.8W | 6.5W | 6.5W | 6.1W | 5.9W | |||||
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Idle Power Consumption |
80mA | 50mA | 50mA | 45mA | 100mA | |||||
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Devslp / L1. |
2mA | 2mA | 5mA | 5mA | ||||||
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Trim Support |
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S.M.A.R.T Support |
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GC (Garbage Collection) |
AES 256-bit encryption | |||||||||
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TCG Opal 2.0 compliant |
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| Adaptive Thermal Protection | ||||||||||
| Power loss protection | ||||||||||
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Reliability (MTBF) |
1. 5 Million Hours |
1.5 Million Hours | 1.5 Million Hours | 1.5 Million Hours | ||||||
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Limited warranty |
2-year** | 2-year** | 3-year*** | 3-year*** | ||||||
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Endurance / TBW (Terabytes Written) |
Not published, recommended for consumer use only | Not published, uses very high endurance 48-layer 3D TLC NAND | ||||||||
0 x4, AHCI
2 Power Consumption
Samsung Electronics has assembly plants and sales networks in 80 countries and employs around 370,000 people.Samsung SM961 512GB and 256GB SSD Review / Sudo Null IT News We have already ordered the main course SM961 with 1TB of memory to the table, but for now let’s take a look at the dessert, which comes in two of the most popular SSD containers on the market.
Today we will compare SM961 512GB and 256GB with other NVMe products. The two drives we’re testing today cost less than the drives on the market, but they still don’t dominate all performance categories.
Table of contents
Price, warranty and accessories
Four corner performance test
Conclusion
| SM961 128GB | SM961 256GB | SM961 512GB | SM961 1024GB |
| N/A | $159. 00 |
$280.00 | $512.00 |
| Controller | Controller | Controller | Controller |
| Samsung Polaris | Samsung Polaris | Samsung Polaris | Samsung Polaris |
| DRAM | DRAM | DRAM | DRAM |
| Samsung LPDDR3 | Samsung LPDDR3 | Samsung LPDDR3 | Samsung LPDDR3 1GB |
| NAND Flash | NAND Flash | NAND Flash | NAND Flash |
| Samsung MLC 3rd Gen V-NAND | Samsung MLC 3rd Gen V-NAND | Samsung MLC 3rd Gen V-NAND | Samsung MLC 3rd Gen V-NAND |
| Protocol | Protocol | Protocol | Protocol |
| NVMe | NVMe | NVMe | NVMe |
| Form Factor | Form Factor | Form Factor | Form Factor |
M. 2 2280 Single-Sided |
M.2 2280 Single-Sided | M.2 2280 Single-Sided | M.2 2280 Single-Sided |
| Sequential Read | Sequential Read | Sequential Read | Sequential Read |
| 3,100 MB/s | 3,100 MB/s | 3,200 MB/s | 3,200 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | Sequential Write | Sequential Write | Sequential Write |
| 700MB/s | 1,400 MB/s | 1,700 MB/s | 1,800 MB/s |
| Random Read | Random Read | Random Read | Random Read |
| 330,000 IOPS | 330,000 IOPS | 330,000 IOPS | 450,000 IOPS |
| Random Write | Random Write | Random Write | Random Write |
| 170,000 IOPS | 280,000 IOPS | 300,000 IOPS | 320,000 IOPS |
| Endurance | Endurance | Endurance | Endurance |
| N/A | 3 Years (RamCity) | 3 Years (RamCity) | 3 Years (RamCity) |
Samsung has released the SM961 NVMe SSD to OEMs in four capacities ranging from 128GB to 1024GB (1TB).
Of these, we expect only three to be available as we don’t expect too many SM9 drives to sell.61 with 128GB. Samsung didn’t release a 128GB version of the 950 Pro, which made sense because it’s a product for enthusiasts and power users only.
Samsung’s new Polaris controller is at the heart of all SM961 SSDs, paired with a new 48-layer MLC V-shaped NAND memory cell. Many of the SSDs of the 850 EVO version have migrated to the 48-layer TLC V-NAND cell and the T3 Portable SSD also comes with it, so this is the first product to come with Samsung’s latest 3D Flash with MLC. The 48-layer flash is the first 256Gb drive of its kind and should bring down the price of existing SSDs while also giving Samsung the ability to make new high-bandwidth drives.
Today we’ll look at the 256GB and 512GB models, which, according to the manufacturer, offer over 3100 MB/s sequential read speeds. The 256GB drive achieves up to 1400MB/s sequential write speeds while the 512GB gives you up to 1700MB/s. The random read speed of the SM961 is 330,000 IOPS, while the random write speed is 280,000 for the 256GB model and 300,000 for the 512GB model.
Price, warranty and accessories
Samsung SM961 does not produce the department in charge of 950 Pro and other retail products. It is developed by the Samsung SSI Group, which makes products for OEMs and major system integrators such as Dell, HP, and Lenovo. Large companies get access to SSI products earlier, but over time, SSDs seep through distributors and then to resellers. This circuit is commonly known as a «channel».
Australia, namely Ram City, has a history of bringing Samsung SSI products to the retail market. SM961 256GB sells for $159, and 512GB for $280, both of which are cheaper than the flagship 950 Pro, Samsung’s NVMe retail product. SM961 pricing is also pegged to the Australian dollar, so prices are subject to change. The prices we quote in this article were given to us prior to reviewing the SM961 with 1TB. Since then, the Australian dollar has lost 10 percent against the US dollar, thus making the SM961 SSD cheaper for US buyers.
Ram City sells the SM961 with a 3 year warranty, but since it is an OEM product it does not come in a Samsung retail package and does not include any accessories. The company wraps the discs in an anti-static bag that comes inside a foam-lined cardboard box. Shipping from Australia to my office in Indiana takes three to five days, depending on what time I placed the order before or after the weekend.
A closer look
All three SM961 drives we tested use the same configuration with the new Samsung Polaris controller and two NAND flash packs. Samsung just changes the amount in the package to adjust the power. The discs are all single sided to fit in the thinnest of spaces. Some of the newer laptops only support single sided design as the M.2 connector sits very close to the motherboard. Drives are 80mm long, also known as M. 2 2280. The marking «2280» indicates the width (22mm) and depth (80mm) of the SSD.
performance testing from four angles
Compared models
Intel 750 Series (400GB), OCZ RD400 (256GB), OCZ RD400 (512GB), Samsung 950 PRO 256GB, Samsung 950 PRO NVME 512GB, ZOTACE SONIX SONICS SONIC In this review, we focused exclusively on 256GB and 512GB NVMe SSDs. Such a sample will make it easier to compare the presented drives. We did not compare the SM951 model and instead give the results of the model 9, which is very similar in performance.50pro.
Both Intel and OCZ (a division of Toshiba) sell products that fall within this capacity range, but Intel only offers the 400GB SSD 750 (along with the 800GB and 1200GB models are not in our charts). Zotac Sonix has a Phison PS5007-E7 controller with 15nm Toshiba MLC NAND. Currently the only retail SSD is available with the E7 controller.
Sequential Read Performance
Both SM961 SSDs deliver impressive sequential read performance that outperforms all other products in the charts, and the 1TB model did the same. Close results are not surprising; Samsung lists all four SM9s61 SSDs with only 100 MB/s difference in workload.
Sequential write speed
512GB OCZ RD400 is the only graphics product that can run at the same high sequential write speeds as SM961. The chart also shows the RD400 with a wild drop in performance half way through the test. The failure was due to thermal protection, but the SM961 has clearly resolved the issue of thermal protection.
The Samsung SM961 256GB reached 1400MB/s, just 300MB/s slower than the 512GB model. SM961 256GB works much better than advertised, so the difference between the two products is much smaller than expected.
Random Read Performance
The SM961 raises the bar with random read performance at low queue depth, and we only get a small performance boost over the 950 Pro. The SM961 hits a brick wall at about 170,000 IOPS at high queue depths. The unexpected limit led us to believe that Samsung is limiting the performance of the firmware. We read reports about some SM961 SSDs having more than 500,000 random read IOPS by increasing the number of threads and queue depth to 256. Using multiple workers (threads) exposes multiple queues, but this is not an apples-to-apples comparison.
The host software places external I/O requests, they are added up and waiting for their turn to be served. When the request is completed, the SSD controller places the final part in the completion queue. The NVMe protocol supports up to 64,000 queues per device, and up to 64,000 commands can be added to each. The SSD manufacturer ultimately determines how many queues and how many commands for each of them the SSD will support (and they may differ). Samsung may use multiple bursts at shallower depths, which could explain the early performance plateau.
Random write speed
The SM961 products also have a sharp plateau in the random write test. The limit hits much earlier in this test, with a queue depth of 4. Of our four tests, random writes give the SM961 the most trouble. This test is one workload where the new Samsung NVMe SSD cannot outperform the previous generation.
Mixed Loads and Steady State
80 Percent Series Mixed Load
Our mixed load testing is detailed here, and our tests are described here. We’ve seen this type of behavior in the past, changing after a firmware update, to improve mixed workload performance. The SM961 SSDs are still in production and we are testing with the first mass firmware. Samsung doesn’t usually release minor updates, so when a new firmware is released, it will come with several updates at once.
Samsung SM and PM series firmware updates create other problems when buying a bare drive. Users usually get updates from HP or Lenovo. These updates are not advertised through traditional means. Typically, users may stumble upon an update and then exchange information in a technical forum.
80 Percent Random Mixed Load
The SM961 256GB and 512GB perform much better with mixed random loads than other drives. The advantage in random read performance at low queue depth is visible during this test. At higher queue depths, we see a performance bottleneck that only comes into play again at a queue depth of 16 while Intel 750 performance continues to scale. Intel 750 uses 9- channel controller designed for corporate use, so the result is not surprising.
Sequential steady state
Sequential steady state test shows us that Samsung 3D 48-layer flash provides nearly identical performance to older 32-layer flash drives. In this test, we put a heavy load on the flash to examine the drive’s ability to handle new dirty cell data. Dipping an SSD into a steady state triggers its cleaning algorithms, during such a long period of intensive use, you can see its performance.
The SM961 and 950 Pro lack any significant spare areas required for Over-Provisioning (OP). The 950 Pro 512GB provides the highest performance in this test, but only by a small margin. The 950 Pro 512GB is equipped with twice as many NANDs as the SM961 512GB, which gives it the advantage of greater parallelism and improves its performance.
Continuous Random Write
The SM961 512GB SSD provides the highest steady-state 4KB serial random number data write performance. The Zotac Sonix 480GB peaks at higher speeds, but can’t sustain performance for very long; it also falls off a lot after sustained use. Intel SSD 750 takes up space between two SM9 drives61 while the SM961 with 256GB is behind it.
Software Performance and Conclusion
PCMark 8 Real-World Performance Software
For more information on software performance testing methods, please click here.
The Samsung SM961 drives didn’t top out in our software performance tests, as one might expect. We tested the drives using the Microsoft NVMe driver built into Windows 8.1. 9The 50 Pro comes with Samsung’s dedicated NVMe driver that improves performance, but the driver won’t install with the SM961. We also tried the HP NVMe INF drivers from other Samsung NVMe products with only marginal performance gains compared to the SM961 1TB.
SM961 SSDs are near the 950 Pro but are in desperate need of a driver update to overtake it. We contacted Samsung Semiconductor to get an NVMe driver for the Polaris controller but were told to use the Microsoft drivers for now. Over time, we will see a driver customized specifically for SM961. There are only drivers for this SSD from Lenovo, but P70 and X1 Carbon Gen 4 are not included in the list of drivers supported by SM961. We will monitor and report new test results as soon as a new driver becomes available.
PCMark 8 Advanced Workload Performance
To learn how we experience high performance workloads, please click here.
SM961 performance issues in real software applications appear in the heavy and moderate workload tests. Both SM961 SSDs take longer than our test allows to recover to peak performance. A little over-provisioning will improve performance with the new 48-layer NAND memory in these low-capacity SSDs. And as a compromise, the user can manually assign a fallback area during the formatting process, but this will lose some performance.
Access time
The Intel SSD 750 is running late and it also uses the largest spare space (total 112GB). SM961 512GB slightly outperforms the 950 Pro 512GB in many recovery tests, but the SM961 256GB lacks enough parallel read and write speed to overtake the 950 Pro 256GB.
Disk busy time
Perhaps many readers are not familiar with measuring disk busy time. The SSD goes into action when an input/output request arrives at the drive. The SSD completes the task as quickly as possible and then transitions back to the idle state. «Busy Time» is the length of time from request to completion (if at least there is an external 1 I/O connection). SSDs typically use less power when they can complete their task and quickly transition back to a non-working state.
The SM961 and 950 Pro 512GB show almost identical results in this test. The SM961 256GB performs somewhat better under high loads than the 950 Pro with the same power, but loses the advantage as the load decreases.
Laptop battery life
Our new Lenovo Y700 laptops allow you to test NVMe SSDs with MobileMark Bapco 2014. Many of the M.2 SSDs provide approximately 330 minutes of battery life during the office application test. Samsung 950 Pro NVMe SSDs provide approximately 40+ minutes of battery life than other SSDs and score better than the SM961’s performance during the test.
Output
If you already own a 950 Pro, or its sibling SM951, I don’t see any reason to buy a new SM961 unless you’re looking for a higher capacity SSD. Prior to this drive, the lowest price for a 1TB NVMe SSD was $770. Samsung’s aggressive pricing for the SM961 will certainly make the 1TB upgrade more acceptable.
The two smaller SM961 SSDs we tested today also lower entry costs. The SM961 256GB for less than $160 is a great deal that competes with premium SATA SSDs. Price parity with SATA 6Gb drives is a good way to drive NVMe sales. The same can be said for the SM961 with 512GB of memory, but we’re still talking about $280.
Both tested SM961 SSDs don’t show much of a performance boost for the user, and the 950 Pro SSDs provide slightly better performance in some real world applications. The difference in performance is relatively small and not enough to cover the price gap. Don’t rely on firmware updates as most of them will come from unauthorized sources due to OEM-SM9 status61. We believe that SM961 will have more to offer in the future after flashing the flash or updating the NVMe driver.
In any case, the prices speak for themselves, the SM961 provides the best bang for your buck in HPC.
SAMSUNG SM961 SSD
| POS | MINUS |
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Conclusion
The Samsung SM961 series of SSD drives is, in our opinion, an excellent price/performance ratio. The 256Gb and 512Gb drives look very attractive, but we expect more performance optimizations in the future, as well as software support, including Samsung Magician software.
RUVDS, following the global trends in reducing prices for SSDs, also announces a price reduction. Until the end of summer, we are reducing prices by 40% for SSD drives on RUVDS virtual servers.
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3DNews Technologies and IT market. News RAM modules, memory cards, flash drives… Samsung showcases the latest SSDs with… The most interesting in the reviews
03/24/2016 [15:00], Anton Testov Samsung Electronics showcased two formally unannounced high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) at its Samsung SSD Forum Japan.
The Journey Continues Samsung is not only the world’s largest manufacturer of NAND flash and solid state drives, but also one of the companies that is raising the bar for SSD performance and functionality to new levels. In recent years, Samsung has played an important role in popularizing PCI Express NVMe drives. The Samsung XP941 was one of the first high performance M.2 SSDs targeted at PC manufacturers. It was he who largely contributed to the spread of the form factor among PC builders in 2014. Samsung SM951 significantly increased performance over its predecessor and introduced the NVMe protocol to numerous manufacturers a year later. Samsung M.2 SSD
The Samsung XP941 and SM951 were the flagship SSD models for OEMs and their high-end PCs. Last year, the company decided to slightly change its strategy for advanced OEM SSDs and introduced the second family of high-performance x SSDs, which differed from the flagship with a lower price and inexpensive three-bit cell memory — PM951. Although these drives were quite fast, they were significantly inferior to the SM951 in terms of sequential read and write speeds. This year, the company plans to change its approach to SSDs for OEM customers once again. Samsung will offer two families of drives — SM961 and PM961 — with slightly different speed characteristics. Thus, the company plans to once again raise the performance bar, while at the same time making fast SSDs more accessible to a wider audience. This tactic could help Samsung increase its share of the premium flash storage market. Samsung SM961 and PM961: First SSDs Based on the Polaris Platform Samsung’s new SSDs will be the company’s first standard SSDs for OEM customers to use V-NAND memory. The novelties will be based on the new Polaris platform, delivered in the M.2 2280 form factor with a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface, and also support the NVMe protocol. At the moment, the company is not revealing a lot of details about its new SSDs. For example, it is not known if they are using third-generation 48-layer V-NAND flash memory, or whether they rely on the time-tested second-generation 32-layer V-NAND flash. While the use of modern memory for the new SSDs is logical, Samsung hasn’t officially confirmed this. Samsung SM961 SSD. Image from the PC Watch website. The Samsung SM961 family will be the company’s new flagship SSD for OEMs, and will be offered in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB non-volatile memory configurations. New items will use Polaris controllers and multi-layer V-NAND memory with a two-bit cell (MLC). Samsung PM961 SSD. Image on PC Watch. The Samsung PM961 family will be based on a Polaris controller and three-bit cell (TLC) V-NAND memory. The PM961 lineup will consist of four models: with 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB of memory. These SSDs support sequential read speeds up to 3000 MB/s, and their sequential write speed is 1150 MB/s (as in the previous case, specific models that support maximum performance are not indicated). For PM961 Samsung claims a maximum random read speed of 360,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS), while a random write speed of 280,000 IOPS. The Samsung PM961 will be more affordable than the SM961, but it will be only slightly behind the flagship model in terms of sequential read speed (the difference of 6%, in fact, can be neglected). Sequential write speed of the novelty will be lower compared to that offered by SM951 and 950 Pro, but will still be significantly faster than the sequential write speed of its immediate predecessor, the PM951. In addition, the new PM961 will be significantly faster than its predecessors in random read or write operations. Tests will show how good Samsung PM961 drives will be in real conditions compared to high-performance SSDs from other manufacturers. However, the maximum sequential read speed of 3000 MB / s and very high performance in random read and write operations will clearly play their positive roles. Samsung has yet to officially announce the SM961 and PM961, but according to a report from Japan’s PC Watch website, the company expects the new products to appear in pre-built PCs in the second half of the year. Initially, Samsung will only use its Polaris platform for SSDs targeted at PC manufacturers. However, it’s only logical to expect the company to use these controllers for its consumer SSDs over time. Unfortunately, we do not know for sure whether this will happen at all, and if it happens, then when. However, given that SM951 and PM951 can easily be found on Amazon, buying new Samsung-made SSDs there is hardly a problem unless the company decides to somehow prevent it. PCIe 3.0 x4 could be a performance limiter for SSDs The Samsung SM961’s maximum sustained sequential read speed is 3200 MB/s, which is very close to the real maximum throughput of a quad-lane PCI Express 3.0 interface (PCIe 3.0 data transfer rate is 8G transfers) /s per lane). If this is the case, then the SM961 will be Samsung’s fastest SSD for consumer applications for quite some time (until PCIe 4.0 arrives). In the event that a company develops successors to the SM961 with an M.2 interface, then it will have to focus on improving other aspects of SSD performance (for example, performance under mixed workloads, durability, energy efficiency, etc.). Samsung M.2 SSD Given the fact that the Samsung 950 Pro is somewhat faster than the SM951 despite using the same controller, it will be interesting to see how Samsung could differentiate the performance of a hypothetical Polaris-based SSD and MLC V-NAND for retail versus the SM961 . Although the performance of some Samsung SSDs may hit the barrier imposed by the PCIe 3.0 x4 interface later this year, this bus will be sufficient for the vast majority of SSDs from different manufacturers for a long time to come. Sources:
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Fastest SSD Review — Samsung SM961 (960 Pro) 128GB
Review of Samsung SM961 (this is the OEM version of Samsung 960 Pro) — one of the fastest M. 2 drives in the world. At the same time, let’s figure out what kind of beast this NVMe is and why some are afraid of it (unreasonably).
Details under the cut.
A few words about the cost: I took it on eBay for $80, but the seller ran out of them. For $90-$100, it probably doesn’t make sense to take the 128GB version. for $145 you can already buy a 256GB model.
The disc arrived from Japan in a week (I ordered it on the 15th and took it on the 22nd). I asked the seller to pack carefully, which he did — in addition to the pimple, he put it in a large hard box with filler.
Form factor: M.2 (2280)
Interface: PCIe 3.0 x4
Protocol: NVMe
Capacity: 128GB
Speed (linear): 3100 / 700 MB/s
Speed (arbitrary): 330 / 170 KIOPS
Official page
Review hero
With my friends — XG3 and XG4
About NVMe and write speed
Some are afraid to buy NVMe drives — they say the technology is not yet mature, the drivers are raw. But actually it is not. Let’s get to the heart of the problem.
To be precise, there is no problem — it is far-fetched. The main [erroneous] statement says: the NVMe Windows driver is wildly slow when writing, only the Samsung driver works normally, and for everyone else, in order to get high write speed, you need to disable the buffered disk cache flash in the disk settings (i.e. flushing data from the buffer OS directly to disk).
First, disabling cache flush is not recommended, because. if the power is suddenly turned off, all unreset data will simply be lost. And secondly, this is not necessary, because the slow write speed is a synthetic problem, it does not occur in real life.
So why are these low numbers in benchmarks? The answer is in the wrong benchmarks. Let’s take AS SSD Benchmark as an example. But first, a little theory.
NVMe drives support a special FUA (Force Unit Access) command. When it is sent, it is written to the disk bypassing the cache of the disk itself, i. e. directly to NAND memory. This operation is horribly inefficient, and is only needed in very rare cases for servers. For ordinary user systems, it is useless and even harmful (for speed) if it is used where it is not needed. One of the places where FUA should not be used is in benchmarks.
Benchmarks create a large file on the tested disk, write data to it, then read it from there, measuring the speed of operations along the way. To exclude the effect of OS optimizations (software cache, etc.) on speed measurements, benchmarks open a file with special flags that tell the OS how to behave with this file when reading / writing. We are interested in 2 flags: FILE_FLAG_WRITE_THROUGH and FILE_FLAG_NO_BUFFERING. The first involves writing to persistent storage, which is exactly what the FUA command does. The second involves disabling OS read and write caching — just what you need to get honest disk speeds.
i.e. in fact FILE_FLAG_WRITE_THROUGH is not needed for the benchmark. So why then do I use it in some benchmarks? It’s just that this set of flags (i.e., the disk operation mode) was selected at a time when FUA did not yet exist, and, accordingly, the disk driver did nothing in this regard — it simply wrote data to the disk in the most common way. Those. The flag seemed to be ignored and everything worked fine.
With the advent of NVMe, a more advanced driver for it appeared, which began to more accurately respond to program requests: «You want me to flush data to physical memory bypassing the disk’s hardware cache and get stuck waiting for a response? OK, I’ll do as you say. Wait…» — This is how an NVMe drive behaves when using the FILE_FLAG_WRITE_THROUGH flag. Some of the benchmarks updated the code by deleting an unnecessary flag, or adding a checkmark in the settings where it can be turned on / off at the request of the user. AS SSD Benchmark is an example of an old benchmark, where the flag is hardcoded and cannot be turned off.
But then the question arises why the Samsung driver gives high write speeds in any benchmark. The answer is simple — it simply ignores and does not execute the FUA command.
I encountered a similar situation when working with a Toshiba XG3 drive. This is an OEM drive and the retail version is called OCZ RD400. When installing the XG3 driver, the speed in the old benchmarks remained low, and when installing the RD400 driver, the speed increased, as in the case of Samsung. It is interesting that the same driver file was installed in both cases (which is logical — after all, this is the same disk, just with different VID / PID). Then I got into the inf file of the driver, and saw an interesting thing: the driver file is the same in both cases, but in the case of XG3, the StrictFUA=1 flag was set in the driver settings, and in the case of RD400, StrictFUA=0. Those. as with Samsung, the FUA command was simply ignored for the RD400.
By the way, neither Windows itself nor the programs in it use this flag, so there are no brakes when writing in real life — that’s why I said above that the problem is synthetic.
But enough theory, let’s move on to the most delicious — tests.
I installed the NVMe driver for the Samsung 960 Pro to be able to run the old benchmarks.
Testing was performed «live», i.e. the tested disk was the system disk and the OC was launched from it, in which the testing was carried out, so the OS running from the same disk could slightly underestimate the performance.
Pros:
— Reliability, huge resource
— SPEED!!!
Cons:
— Relatively high price
M.2 NVMe SSD 128GB Samsung SM961 [80mm, PCIe 3.0 x4, R/W 310
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Warranty: 36 months.
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Features
| Feature | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Storage capacity | 120 GB |
| Type of memory cells | MLC V-NAND |
| Maximum write speed | 501-1000 MB/s |
| Maximum read speed | 3001-3500 MB/s |
Description
The SD Samsung SM961 is intended primarily for OEM PC builders, large system integrators, etc. These drives use a Polaris controller (presumably eight-channel) with NVMe support, LPDDR3 buffer memory, and MLC V-NAND flash.
If for SM951-NVMe drives the maximum w reads and writes reached 2260 MB/s and 1600 MB/s, respectively, then for SM961 they already reach 3200 MB/s and 1800 MB/s, respectively. True, only the top-end SSD version is capable of such speeds: if the read speeds of other models do not differ much (3100 MB / s in 128 and 256 GB versions), then the write speeds differ more significantly — 700 MB / s (128 GB model), 1400MB/s (256GB) and 1700MB/s (512GB). Random read performance ranges from 330,000-450,000 IOPS, and random write performance ranges from 170,000-320,000 IOPS.
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Samsung SM961 M.
2 256 GB PCI Express 3.0 Internal SSD (MZVPW256HEGL-00000)
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Samsung SM961. SSD Capacity: 256 GB, Euro Solid Disk Form Factor: M.2
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Specifications
Properties
Eurobody drive form factor
*
M.2
SSD capacity
*
256 GB
Interface
*
PCI Express 3.0
Operating environment
Temperature range during operation
0 — 70 ° C
Operation Conditions
9000
Green
Internal
Reviews
| Source | Review from source | Account |
|---|---|---|
|
overclockers. Updated: |
In addition to retail models, many manufacturers produce solutions designed for corporate customers (for example, for companies that assemble finished computers and some industrial systems). However, in stores you can also find such products… The new platform based on the five-core Samsung Polaris controller is not revolutionary, it’s just an evolution. But this small step turned out to be an important milestone: the limit of the M.2 interface has been reached in terms of marketing. Yes, it’s mostly about linear speeds… Read full review |
|
|
3dnews. Updated: |
3DNews Lab traditionally pays great attention to tests of solid state drives, exploring both the performance and reliability of such solutions. And there is a simple explanation for this: SSD is one of the most impactful technologies of recent times, which … Testing has shown that there are no good reasons to avoid NVMe drives. If we are talking about modern systems, then NVMe SSDs in the M.2 form factor have no compatibility problems, and their consumer qualities are certainly better than those of SSDs with legacy… Read full review |
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Samsung SM961 (960 Pro) is one of the fastest M.2 drives in the world
published
Survey
|
05/26/2017
Samsung SM961 review (this is the OEM version of the Samsung 960 Pro), one of the fastest M.2 drives in the world. At the same time, let’s figure out what kind of beast this NVMe is and why some are afraid of it (unreasonably).
Details under the cut.
A couple of words about the cost: I took on eBay for $80, but the seller ran out of them. For $90-$100, it probably makes no sense to take the 128GB version, because for $145 you can already buy a 256GB model.
The disc arrived from Japan in a week (ordered on the 15th, received it on the 22nd). I asked the seller to pack carefully, which he did — in addition to the bubble wrap, he put it in a large hard box with a filler.
in the event of a sudden power outage, all non-reset data will simply be lost. And secondly, this is not necessary, because the slow recording speed is a synthetic problem, it does not occur in real life.
So why then these low numbers in benchmarks? The answer is in the wrong benchmarks. Let’s take AS SSD Benchmark as an example. But for starters, a little theory.
NVMe drives support the special FUA (Force Unit Access) command. When it is sent, it is written to the disk bypassing the cache of the disk itself, i.e. directly to NAND memory. This operation is terribly inefficient, and is only needed in very rare cases for servers. For ordinary user systems, it is useless and even harmful (for speed), if it is used where it is not needed. One of the places where FUA should not be used is benchmarks.
Benchmarks create a large file on the disk being tested, write data to it, then read it from there, measuring the speed of operations along the way. To exclude the influence of OS optimizations (software cache, etc. ) on speed measurements, benchmarks open a file with special flags that tell the OS how to behave with this file when reading / writing. We are interested in 2 flags: FILE_FLAG_WRITE_THROUGH and FILE_FLAG_NO_BUFFERING. The first one involves writing to the permanent memory of the drive (persistent storage) — just what the FUA command does. The second involves disabling read and write caching of the OS — just what you need to get honest disk speeds. «Do you want me to flush the data to physical memory, bypassing the hardware disk cache and stuck waiting for a response? OK, I will do as you order. Wait…” — this is how an NVMe drive behaves when using the FILE_FLAG_WRITE_THROUGH flag. Part of the benchmarks updated the code, deleting an unnecessary flag, or adding a checkmark in the settings, where it can be turned on / off at the request of the user. AS SSD Benchmark is an example of an old benchmark, where the flag is hard-coded and cannot be turned off.
But then the question arises — why does the Samsung driver give high write speeds in any benchmark. The answer is simple — it simply ignores and does not execute the FUA command.
I encountered a similar situation when working with a Toshiba XG3 disk. This is an OEM drive, and the retail version is called OCZ RD400. When installing the XG3 driver, the speed in the old benchmarks remained low, and when installing the RD400 driver, the speed increased as in the cases with Samsung. It is interesting that the driver file in both cases was the same (which is logical — after all, this is the same disk, just with different VID / PID). Then I got into the inf file of the driver, and saw an interesting thing: the driver file in both cases is one, but in the cases of XG3, the StrictAFUA=1 flag was set in the driver settings, and in the cases — Stric RD400. i.e. as in the case of Samsung, for the RD400 the FUA command was simply ignored.
By the way, neither Windows itself nor the programs in it use this flag, so there are no brakes when recording in real life — that’s why I said above that it was a problem.