Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD
The Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB is the capacity most reviewers benchmarked and the one that cemented this drive's reputation, delivering 3,300 MB/s writes and 600 TBW on Samsung's 92-layer V-NAND.
Inside the 1 TB 970 EVO Plus, Samsung pairs its Phoenix controller with 1 GB of LPDDR4 DRAM and 92-layer (V5) 3D TLC V-NAND across enough 256Gb dies to hit the rated speeds with headroom. The TurboWrite allocation grows to 6 GB fixed plus up to 36 GB of Intelligent TurboWrite, giving a maximum SLC cache of 42 GB when the drive has free space. After the cache fills, direct-to-TLC writes hold at roughly 1,700 MB/s, the best in the EVO Plus family and competitive with the MLC-based 970 Pro.
The 1 TB model is rated for 3,500 MB/s sequential reads, 3,300 MB/s sequential writes, 600,000 random read IOPS, and 550,000 random write IOPS. The endurance rating is 600 TBW, sufficient for decades of consumer use. Samsung includes AES 256-bit hardware encryption, TCG Opal 2.0, and Microsoft eDrive support.
This capacity targets gamers, content creators, and enthusiasts who want a single drive for OS, applications, and a substantial game library. The single-sided M.2 2280 form factor maintains laptop compatibility. Direct competitors include the WD Black SN750 and the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 1TB, though neither matches the 970 EVO Plus\'s combination of DRAM cache, endurance, and sustained write speeds at this capacity. The 970 EVO Plus also sits below the MLC-based Samsung 970 Pro, which costs more but offers consistent sustained writes without SLC caching.
✅ Storage Comparisons:
🚀 Performance and benchmarks
Samsung rates the 1 TB 970 EVO Plus at 3,500 MB/s sequential reads and 3,300 MB/s sequential writes within the TurboWrite SLC cache, with 600,000 random read IOPS and 550,000 random write IOPS. The Intelligent TurboWrite cache scales up to 42 GB on this model, significantly larger than the 22 GB on the 500 GB model, which means most consumer workloads never exhaust it.
Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1 TB vs M.2 3.0 x 4 peers
Switch between sequential throughput and random IOPS to see how this drive stacks up against other M.2 3.0 x 4 SSDs in our database. The highlighted bar is the drive on this page — click any other bar to open that drive.
- Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1 TB (this drive): 3,500 MB/s read, 3,300 MB/s write
- ADATA SX 8800 Pro 512 GB: 3,500 MB/s read, 2,700 MB/s write
- ADATA SX 8800 Pro 1 TB: 3,500 MB/s read, 2,700 MB/s write
- ADATA XPG Spectrix S40G RGB 256 GB: 3,500 MB/s read, 3,000 MB/s write
- ADATA XPG Spectrix S40G RGB 512 GB: 3,500 MB/s read, 3,000 MB/s write
Once the cache fills, the drive writes directly to TLC at approximately 1,700 MB/s, which is fast enough that the step-down is barely noticeable in everyday use. Independent reviewers consistently found the 1 TB model trading blows with the more expensive Samsung 970 Pro in mixed workloads, sometimes exceeding it in real-world application tests and game load benchmarks. The only scenario where the 970 Pro retains a clear advantage is sustained writes of hundreds of gigabytes without pause, where the Pro's MLC architecture avoids the cache-exhaustion penalty entirely.
🖥️ Endurance and warranty
Samsung covers the 970 EVO Plus 1TB with a five-year limited warranty, subject to a 600 TBW endurance rating. At a consumer-typical 20 GB of writes per day, 600 TBW translates to approximately 82 years of use. Even at a heavier 50 GB per day, the drive would take 33 years to reach the TBW limit. Samsung's Magician software provides real-time health monitoring, including remaining TBW percentage, and firmware updates can be applied in-place. Warranty claims are processed through Samsung's service portal or the point of purchase.
📊 Specs
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Capacity [?] | 1 TB |
| Interface [?] | M.2 3.0 x 4 |
| Controller [?] | Samsung Phoenix |
| Memory type [?] | Samsung 3D TLC |
| DRAM [?] | Samsung 512MB - 2GB LPDDR4 |
| Read speed (MB/s) [?] | 3500 |
| Write speed (MB/s) [?] | 3300 |
| Read IOPS [?] | 600000 |
| Write IOPS [?] | 560000 |
| Endurance (TBW) [?] | 600 |
| MTBF (million hours) [?] | 1.5 |
| Warranty (years) [?] | 5 |
Conclusion
The Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB is arguably the best all-round PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD Samsung produced in this generation, combining high sustained writes, large TurboWrite cache, and 600 TBW endurance at a capacity that fits most users' needs. Buyers doing sustained multi-hundred-GB transfers should look at the Samsung 970 Pro for its MLC-based consistent writes, and anyone building a PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 system should consider the 980 Pro or 990 Pro instead. For existing PCIe 3.0 platforms, the 970 EVO Plus 1TB remains one of the strongest picks available.
+ Pros
- 3,500/3,300 MB/s sequential read/write
- 600,000 random read IOPS at 1 TB
- 1 GB LPDDR4 DRAM cache
- 42 GB Intelligent TurboWrite buffer
- 600 TBW endurance with five-year warranty
- Sustained TLC writes hold at 1,700 MB/s
- Cons
- PCIe 3.0 caps reads at 3,500 MB/s
- No included heatsink
- SLC cache dependency for peak writes
- Newer PCIe 4.0 drives offer double the bandwidth
🛒 Buy this or similar SSD Storage:
✨ Video Review
Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD Review
