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Is the Samsung 990 PRO (2TB) Worth It in 2026?
Conditionally. It's still a well-regarded PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, but 2026's industry-wide NAND shortage has pushed its price far above where it sat through most of 2024-2025, and Samsung's newer 9100 PRO (PCIe 5.0) is sometimes selling for close to the same money. Check both prices before you buy.
The Bottom Line
If your PC feels slow, the instinct is to blame the CPU, RAM, or GPU. Often the real bottleneck is storage: boot time, app launch time, load screens, file transfers, and cache-heavy workflows all ride on the SSD. A good NVMe drive is one of the most noticeable upgrades you can make to an existing system.
The Samsung 990 PRO has been one of the most consistently well-reviewed PCIe 4.0 NVMe drives since it launched, and the 2TB size remains the practical sweet spot for gaming libraries and creative work. That part of the story hasn’t changed.
What has changed in 2026 is the price. A global NAND and DRAM shortage, driven in large part by AI data centers absorbing flash-memory supply, pushed consumer SSD prices up sharply through the first half of 2026. The 990 PRO 2TB, which spent much of 2024-2025 selling in the $140 to $180 range, has traded well above that this year, and pricing has swung meaningfully month to month. Check the live price before you decide; don’t assume it matches what you remember from a year ago.
Check the current price: Samsung 990 PRO 2TB on Amazon
Who This Is For
Buy it if:
- you’re upgrading an existing PCIe 4.0 system and don’t need PCIe 5.0 headroom,
- you game and are tired of juggling storage between titles,
- you work with large files (photo, video, dev environments) and want the drive to stop being the bottleneck,
- the 990 PRO’s price, when you check it, is genuinely lower than Samsung’s 9100 PRO.
Skip it, or look elsewhere, if:
- you only browse the web and write documents; a mid-range SATA or entry NVMe drive is plenty,
- your motherboard doesn’t have an M.2 NVMe slot,
- the 9100 PRO is priced close to the 990 PRO where you’re shopping, since the newer drive is the better buy at parity.
The Trade-Off Nobody’s Spec Sheet Mentions: 990 PRO vs. 9100 PRO
Samsung has since released the 9100 PRO, a PCIe 5.0 drive built on a newer, more power-efficient controller, with roughly double the sequential throughput of the 990 PRO on paper. In a normal market, that would make the 990 PRO the clear “buy the previous generation for less” pick. But 2026’s shortage has occasionally compressed the price gap between the two, with some retailers pricing them close together during promotions.
The honest guidance: this is a moving target, not a fixed fact. Before buying either drive, put both product pages open side by side and compare the actual price you’re quoted that day. If your motherboard is PCIe 4.0 only, the 9100 PRO’s extra bandwidth is wasted and the cheaper of the two wins outright. If your board supports PCIe 5.0 and the prices are close, take the 9100 PRO.
Compatibility Checklist (Do This Before You Buy)
- Does your device have an M.2 NVMe slot? Check your motherboard or laptop’s spec sheet, not just “does it have storage.”
- Does it support the 2280 size (22mm wide, 80mm long)? That’s the standard the 990 PRO ships in. Handhelds and some ultraportables use the smaller 2230 size instead, which this drive will not fit.
- Do you need a heatsink? Desktop builds with decent airflow and a chipset-cooled slot are usually fine without one. Small-form-factor builds and console installs typically need one added.
If you’re upgrading a PS5, the drive fits (standard 2280, well above Sony’s minimum capacity), but you’ll need a compatible heatsink:
PS5-compatible NVMe SSD heatsink: PS5 NVMe heatsinks on Amazon
A note for handheld owners: if you’re expanding a Steam Deck rather than a desktop, this is the wrong drive entirely. It uses the smaller M.2 2230 format, not the 2280 size covered here. See our Steam Deck OLED review for what that machine’s storage options actually look like.
The Add-Ons That Make an Install Easier
External enclosure (for cloning your old drive or using this one as portable storage): NVMe enclosure on Amazon. If you’re also shopping for a dock to go with a new laptop build, our best USB-C hubs and docks guide covers which ones actually deliver the bandwidth this drive needs.
Precision screwdriver kit (small screws, small margin for error): Precision screwdriver kit on Amazon
If you’d rather not open your desktop or laptop at all, a portable external SSD gets you most of the speed with none of the install risk; see our best portable SSDs guide for current picks. And if this upgrade is part of a bigger PC-building project, our Framework Laptop 16 review covers a machine designed around exactly this kind of user-serviceable upgrade path.
Verdict
The Samsung 990 PRO 2TB is still a genuinely good drive: reliable, fast, and backed by years of strong reviews. What’s changed is the market around it, not the product. 2026’s NAND shortage means the price you see today may bear little resemblance to what this drive cost a year ago, and Samsung’s own 9100 PRO has narrowed the gap between “previous generation, cheaper” and “current generation, faster” more than usual.
Buy it if, when you check, it’s meaningfully cheaper than the 9100 PRO and your system doesn’t need PCIe 5.0 bandwidth. Wait or buy the 9100 PRO instead if the prices are close. Either way, verify the current price before you click; this is one of the most volatile product categories in tech right now.
Check the current price of the Samsung 990 PRO 2TB on Amazon
Affiliate disclosure: grimtech may earn a commission if you buy through the links above, at no additional cost to you. It doesn’t change our recommendation.
The Verdict
The 990 PRO 2TB is still a well-built, well-reviewed PCIe 4.0 SSD, but 2026's NAND shortage has pushed its price well above where it sat for most of 2024-2025, and Samsung's own PCIe 5.0 successor, the 9100 PRO, is sometimes priced within reach of it. Buy the 990 PRO only if it's genuinely cheaper than the 9100 PRO when you check, or if your board is PCIe 4.0 only.
Check Price on AmazonThe Good
- Long track record: one of the most-reviewed, most-trusted PCIe 4.0 drives on the market
- Real-world speed boost for boot, load times, and large file transfers
- 2TB is the practical sweet spot for gaming and creative work
- Widely compatible: works in most desktops, laptops, and the PS5 (2280 form factor)
The Bad
- 2026 NAND/DRAM shortage has pushed prices well above 2024-2025 levels
- Superseded by Samsung's own 9100 PRO (PCIe 5.0), which is sometimes similarly priced
- No included heatsink on the base SKU; small builds and the PS5 need one added
- Overkill if you only browse, email, and stream
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Tech reviews & buying advice
grimtech is an independent tech-review publication. We test and research gear, cut the hype, and give one clear recommendation you can act on. Our rule is simple: trust is the whole business, so we never let a commission shape a verdict, if the cheaper or older product is the right call, that's what we tell you. We earn affiliate commissions when you buy through our links, at no extra cost to you, and that never changes what we recommend.