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Today at the 2015 Samsung Global SSD Summit in Seoul, South Korea, Samsung announced their newest consumer NVMe SSD, the 950 Pro.
Utilizing Samsung’s 3D V-NAND memory and supporting PCIe 3.o x4, the 950 Pro is only available in M.2 form factor and promises to be the smallest, lightest and most powerful SSD platform available to the consumer today.
Available in capacities of 256 and 512GB, it comes with performance specs of 2.5GB/s read and 1.5GB/s write with up to 300,000 read and 110,000 write IOPS.
It also features Samsung’s own MLC V-NAND 32-layer 128Gb die with a UBX controller and updated Samsung Magician software.
The Samsung 950 Pro M.2 NVMe SSD has AES 256-bit encryption as well as Dynamic Thermal Guard, capable of protecting the drive in temperatures ranging from 0 to 70 degrees Celsius. In addition, it is capable of withstanding shock up to 1.5G and vibrations to 20G.
It comes with a 5 year limited warranty with an endurance spec of up to 200 TBW for the 256GB size, and 400TBW for the 512GB capacity. It is expected to be available as of October 2015 with an MSRP of $199 (256GB) and $349 (512GB).
Last but not least, Samsung’s release of 256 and 512GB capacities is just a start and we will be seeing a 1TB version at some point in the future. In fact, if you look closely at the 950 Pro, you will notice that all the components are located on its face, leaving the bottom completely empty for future capacity upgrades. This is only possible through use of Samsung’s newest V-NAND memory.
Does it have an option rom like the kingston hyperx predator or is
it like the sm951 which needs motherboard support in order to boot?
I suppose the latter but it would be nice if it has an option rom for booting.
I don’t believe it has optional ROM or it would have been mentioned. Stay tuned for a full report in early October.
I can confirm that the 950 Pro is bootable in UEFI mode on my X79 Rampage IV provided provided CSM is enabled (but everything in CSM can be set to UEFI only).
Is Samsung offering an adapter card to use this on a non-M.2 mobo?
Not at this time; it was brought up in the Q&A period and they stated that it wasn’t part of the immediate release, however, might be a consideration for the future.
I sure hope they do because it won’t work with my Asus Maximus Vll motherboard. I don’t have clearance with my M.2 slot?
WE have addressed ASUS issues with M.2 SSDs for what seems like years now on the site and in the forums. In a nut shell…check out ASRock. There is a reason that we use them pretty much exclusively for SSD testing. As a matter of fact, we are about to build the Extreme 7 which has 3 PCIe 3.0 x3 M.2 slots…. We will be testing the Intel 750 and Samsung 950 pro very soon in standard and RAID modes with this.
Thanks I’ll be waiting for that review….might just go with a 750.
What about Gigabyte?? Their new mobos, clearly states (on the manuals) that their m.2 ports are NVME ready
What if you don’t have a motherboard capable of PCI express? I have an Alienware 18. I’ve tried the M.2 to SATA III 2.5 enclosure by Syba and my OS Windows 7 Ultimate only recognized 100mb but wouldn’t recognize the m.2 m951 ssd I bought. Any suggestions? Will they have converters? Or will they make the M.2 950 Pro in 2.5 and mSATA versions?
Thanks Les, you seem very knowledgeable.
Adapters that fit into the PCI E slots are available.
If I wanted to use an m.2 to sata adapter, will it work for my Alienware 18? Here’s a link to the adaptor:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ITJ7U20?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_2&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Thanks Les!
It will have a samsung native nvme driver like intel for the 750 series?
Wait for it…
“…updated Samsung Magician software.”
With full Windows 10 functionality? If so, release it to the rest of us plebes who are getting really tired of the wait.
We will be receiving the updated software in the next week or so for testing.
Do you really need Magician in order your SSD work?!? I don’t think so…
I expect to get all of the functionality that I purchased.
But what functionality?!? To run you only need the appropriated drivers !!! Even the generic ones, from Microsoft, are good enough…
Any news about 48 layers V-NAND SATA SSD?
dose it work withe the new macbook pro (macbook pro 2015)
No of course not…Mac has its own proprietary SSD interface.
Can this work in my macbook pro mid 2014 model? It has 256gb flash currently.
I tried installing the 950 in my Asus z97i and it doesn’t appear compatible. Says m.2 empty in bios, but detects it in boot override menu. Asus tech support said no Samsung M.2 works.
Any ideas on how to make this work?
Sorry this is because that SSD is NVMe and the board doesn’t support it. See our latest article:
https://www.thessdreview.com/our-reviews/understanding-m2-3xraid0-nvme-boot-performance/
Hey Les, great article btw. The Asus z97i does support NVMe, there is a configuration settings for NVMe in the bios (since an update).
Any tips in bios the get it to recognize the drive, or is there still something beyond NVMe that’s causing this not to work?
Are you saying that the BIOS update as Intel RST in it and visible?
The bios update added NVMe support. I can enable Intel RST. The board isn’t detecting the drive in the M.2 slot (it says empty), but in the BOOT menu, it lists the device properly as a boot override option.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/136253302@N06/shares/n1x4Xd
There’s a link to what I’m seeing.
I will await your return but that is the same as ASRock where the drive isn’t seen. It is recognized in RST, however, and thats what counts. If ASUS is the same as ASRock, they are remapping the NVMe SSDs through RST which results in the drive not being seen where you are hoping to see it.
Update, I think it’s now working…even though the board doesn’t properly detect it as being in the M.2 slot, I was able to get windows to see it under a UEFI boot after installing the samsung controller driver.
Les, your input on getting the ASROCK to work despite not seeing it in the bios helped trouble shoot this. Also used the following REDDit post to snag the driver.
https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/3rvoop/samsung_950_pro_nvme_ssd_windows_7_64/
Congrats and excellent find on that link. Bookmarked it myself.
As for the bios update…great news. As for your issue, it is more common than you think with older and newer version ASUS BIOS and quite common.
I know with the ASRock board it won’t be seen in the M.2 slot view but it will be present when you open up RST and then the RAID can be configured.
Hi, can I install it (using an M2 to SATA adaptor) into my MacBook Pro 9,1 (mid 2012, NOT Retina display)? Thanks!
Helen
Hi,dose it work withe the new macbook pro 13″(macbook pro 13″ 2015).Thanks