Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD
The Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB hits the sweet spot between capacity and price in Samsung's PCIe 3.0 lineup, offering 3,200 MB/s writes and 300 TBW endurance with proven Phoenix hardware.
Samsung\'s 970 EVO Plus 500GB uses the same Phoenix controller and 92-layer (V5) 3D TLC V-NAND as the rest of the family, paired with 512 MB of LPDDR4 DRAM. The 256Gb TLC dies give the 500 GB model enough parallelism to reach 3,200 MB/s sequential writes within the TurboWrite cache, a notable step up from the 250 GB model's 2,300 MB/s.
The TurboWrite allocation is 4 GB fixed plus up to 18 GB of Intelligent TurboWrite, yielding a total cache of up to 22 GB when the drive has free space. After the cache fills, direct-to-TLC writes settle around 900 MB/s, more than double the 250 GB model. Random read IOPS jump to 480,000 (from 250K on the 250 GB), while random write IOPS remain at 550,000 across most capacities.
This capacity is a practical choice for a boot drive with room for a handful of games or a moderate application library. The 300 TBW endurance rating covers years of typical use. All models in the 970 EVO Plus range are single-sided M.2 2280, fitting laptops and desktops alike. The main competition comes from the WD Blue SN570 and the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro at similar capacities, both of which are DRAM-less designs that trade some consistency for lower cost.
✅ Storage Comparisons:
🚀 Performance and benchmarks
Samsung rates the 500 GB 970 EVO Plus at 3,500 MB/s sequential reads and 3,200 MB/s sequential writes inside the TurboWrite cache, with direct-to-TLC writes settling around 900 MB/s. Random performance reaches up to 480,000 read IOPS and 550,000 write IOPS. These figures represent a significant jump from the 250 GB model in write speed and random reads, and come close to matching the 1 TB model.
Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500 GB 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 500 GB (this drive): 3,500 MB/s read, 3,200 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
For gaming, OS boot, and general productivity the 500 GB capacity rarely encounters the cache-exhaustion scenario in daily use. File transfers under 22 GB stay within the SLC cache, and most consumer workloads never push past it. Independent reviewers consistently report that the 500 GB model trades blows with the original 970 Pro in real-world benchmarks, a remarkable result for a TLC drive that launched at a lower price point than the MLC-based Pro.
🖥️ Endurance and warranty
The Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB ships with a five-year limited warranty, subject to a 300 TBW endurance ceiling. At 20 GB of writes per day, a typical consumer workload, 300 TBW translates to roughly 41 years of use, making the endurance rating effectively a non-constraint. Samsung's Magician software tracks the remaining TBW percentage in real time. If the drive fails within five years and has not exceeded its TBW rating, Samsung replaces it through its service portal or via the original retailer.
📊 Specs
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Capacity [?] | 500 GB |
| 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) [?] | 3200 |
| Read IOPS [?] | 480000 |
| Write IOPS [?] | 560000 |
| Endurance (TBW) [?] | 300 |
| MTBF (million hours) [?] | 1.5 |
| Warranty (years) [?] | 5 |
Conclusion
The Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB is the value sweet spot of Samsung's PCIe 3.0 lineup, offering near-flagship write speeds and 300 TBW endurance at a capacity large enough for a boot drive with room for games. Buyers who regularly transfer files larger than 20 GB should consider the 1 TB model for its larger TurboWrite cache and higher sustained writes. The ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB is a close competitor on speed but lacks DRAM, trading some consistency under load for a lower price. For a PCIe 3.0 system that needs reliable, well-supported NVMe storage, the 970 EVO Plus 500GB is a sound pick.
+ Pros
- 3,500/3,200 MB/s sequential read/write speeds
- 480,000 random read IOPS at this capacity
- 512 MB LPDDR4 DRAM cache
- 300 TBW endurance with five-year warranty
- Single-sided M.2 2280 fits laptops
- Samsung Magician software and firmware support
- Cons
- TLC write speed drops to 900 MB/s after cache fills
- TurboWrite cache limited to 22 GB maximum
- PCIe 3.0 interface caps at 3,500 MB/s
- No included heatsink
🛒 Buy this or similar SSD Storage:
✨ Video Review
Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB M.2 Review
