Samsung 950 PRO 512GB PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe M.2 2280

The Samsung 950 PRO was a pioneer, but its 2,500 MB/s reads are average at best today. Endurance is great and the warranty is solid, but the 512GB capacity and dated performance make it a tough sell. Only worth buying if you find it dirt cheap.

The headline numbers are 2,500 MB/s sequential read and 1,500 MB/s write. That was blazing fast in 2015, but it lands right in the middle of the pack today. Random performance is a bit more respectable, with 300K read IOPS putting it well above average in our database. The Samsung UBX controller and DRAM cache keep things snappy for everyday tasks, but sustained heavy writes will eventually hit the TLC NAND's limits. It's fine for booting Windows and loading games, just not a benchmark champion anymore.

Stacked against the Western Digital Black SN850X, Crucial T500, or Kingston FURY Renegade G5, the 950 PRO gets left in the dust. Those drives offer 7,000+ MB/s sequential reads and much larger capacities for similar or less money. The Seagate FireCuda 530R and SanDisk WD_BLACK SN8100 also blow past it. The only area where the 950 PRO holds its own is endurance, where its 400 TBW rating is still respectable. But endurance doesn't matter much if you're out of space and waiting on slow transfers.

This is where things get tricky. The 950 PRO launched at a premium price, and even used, it often costs more than a brand new Gen4 drive with double the capacity and triple the speed. Unless you find one for pocket change, the value just isn't there. You're paying for the Samsung name and a warranty that may already be expired depending on when the drive was originally purchased.

The Samsung 950 PRO is a bit of a time capsule. It was a monster when it launched, one of the first consumer NVMe drives to really show what PCIe 3.0 could do. But time marches on, and the specs that once turned heads now look pretty pedestrian next to modern Gen4 and Gen5 drives.

That said, it's still a Samsung. The endurance rating is excellent, the build quality is solid, and the 5-year warranty is a nice safety net. If you can find one cheap on the used market, it might be worth a look for a secondary system. Just don't expect it to keep up with today's heavy hitters.

Skip this if you need fast transfers for video editing or large file work. The 1,500 MB/s write speed will feel sluggish compared to even budget Gen4 drives. Also skip it if you need more than 512GB of storage, because you'll fill this thing up in a weekend of game installs.

The Samsung 950 PRO is a relic of the early NVMe era. It's not a bad drive, it's just been surpassed by everything that came after it. If you're building a retro PC or need a cheap boot drive for a secondary machine and find one for under $30, go for it. Otherwise, spend your money on something newer.