Samsung 990 2TB SSD goes lower on Amazon – a bit of a value boost in the pricey NVMe market
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Introduced this year, Samsung’s 990 range arrived at a high price, but still cheaper than the highly regarded 990 Pro models. The slightly lower-priced 990 still delivers strong performance, and a new deal gives the 2TB variant some added value – at least relatively, in the current climate. The SSD 990 2TB is now $340, a $190 discount from its sky-high list price, and its lowest cost to date. Granted, it’s not particularly low, but if you need 2TB of quality SSD storage right now, here’s why we’d pick it.
Why we’d pick the Samsung 990 2TB
Speedy enough for gaming, creation, and more
Samsung states the 990 2TB has a 7,250 MB/s sequential read speed and 6,450 MB/s sequential write speed. That’s a little slower than the brilliant 990 Pro range, but barely noticeable in daily use. Its random read and write speeds are at a healthy 850K and 1,200K IOPS (respectively), too. So if you’re building or upgrading an enthusiast rig, this drive is a good SSD for gaming, editing, creative apps, and rapid access to archived or media files.
A drive large enough for gaming and content
In addition to its strong performance, the 990 2TB offers a handy amount of space. A 2TB SSD is sizable enough for a large gaming collection. For example, GTA V is around 105GB, so this drive could theoretically store that game 19 times over. It’s also a decent size for content creators encoding 4K video – assuming it’s not being done on a semi-professional or professional scale.
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Prices correct as of October 9th, 2026.
More energy efficient than the 990 Pro
Samsung itself states that the 990 series has “38% improved performance per watt over the 990 Pro”. That makes this drive a potential pick if power efficiency and a lower cost are a good combination – or at least a bit more performance is less important than saving money. At the time of writing, the 990 Pro 2TB is $50 more at $390, so the choice is yours.
What to consider before you buy
We’ll include our standard caveat here about the state of the SSD market. Whether you’re after the best drive for gaming or anything else, cost is perhaps the determining factor in 2026 when choosing storage. On that specific point, if you want more performance, the 2TB 990 Pro is the obvious step up. However, if you want to save more money on a still-quick 2TB SSD, we’d recommend this Lexar NM790 2TB deal, which is also available at a lower cost.
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