128L TLC with an updated controller

Samsung is releasing the latest iteration of its TLC-based consumer SATA SSDs. The new 870 EVO brings the same generational updates to Samsung’s 3D NAND and SSD controller that we saw with last year’s 870 QVO. The updated EVO SATA SSD comes three years after the Samsung 860 EVO and 860 PRO launched.

The 870 EVO uses the same sixth-generation Samsung V-NAND (3D NAND) that debuted in the high-end 980 PRO NVMe SSD. Officially it is “1xx layers”, but all signs point to it being 128L 3D NAND. It might seem unimpressive when Micron and SK hynix have already announced their 176-layer 3D NAND, but Samsung’s NAND manufacturing process is arguably more advanced: they are still able to manufacture all 128L in one batch, whereas competition adopted them all long ago. stacking chains to divide the process into two batches (for example, two groups of 88 layers).

The 870 EVO uses the same Samsung MKX controller that we first saw with the 870 QVO. Samsung still hasn’t shared what has been improved with this generation of controllers, but we have a small clue that they claim the 870 EVO offers a 38% improvement in queue depth random read latency. wait 1 compared to the 860 EVO. Given that Samsung previously shared that their TLC 3D 128L only offers a 10% improvement in raw read latency, it looks like the updated controller may be a bigger factor in increasing overall performance. of the reader. Either way, a 38% improvement in one of the few performance metrics that SATA SSDs can improve on is a bold statement.

Samsung 870 EVO Specifications
Capacity	250 GB	500 GB	1 TB	2 TB	4 TB
Form factor	2.5 “7mm SATA
Controller	Samsung mkx
NAND flash	Samsung 512Gbit 128L 3D TLC
LPDDR4 DRAM	512 MB		1 GB	2 GB	4GB
Sequential reading	560 MB / s
Sequential writing	530 MB / s
Shuffle playback	98,000 IOPS
Random writing	88,000 IOPS
guarantee	5 years
Write Endurance	150 TB 0.3 DWPD	300 TB 0.3 DWPD	600 TB 0.3 DWPD	1200 TB 0.3 DWPD	2400 TB 0.3 DWPD
Start MSRP	$ 49.99 (20 ¢ / GB)	$ 79.99 (16 ¢ / GB)	$ 139.99 (14 ¢ / GB)	$ 269.99 (13 ¢ / GB)	$ 529.99 (13 ¢ / GB)

Samsung didn’t give us the full detailed spec sheet, but among the basic specs there are no surprises. The maximum throughput is as usual limited by the SATA interface. Write endurance is still 0.3 drive writes per day with a five year warranty. Capacity options still range from 250GB to 4TB. Introductory MSRPs are significantly higher than current list prices for the 860 EVO and are well within NVMe price territory, but we would expect pricing of the 870 EVO drop quite quickly given the general state of the market with a little overproduction of NAND flash memory.

We don’t have a full review of the 870 EVO ready today as the timing is rather difficult. It’s a bit cheeky of Samsung to launch this player just two business days after CES ends, and with just a week’s notice. We also hadn’t started running SATA drives through our new 2021 SSD test suite, so the last few days have been busy with our new test beds testing the 870 EVO and various other SATA drives to compare with. Preliminary results show that the 870 EVO improves performance across the board for our AnandTech Storage Bench trace tests, but with slight increases in power consumption. Samsung’s claim of 38% better QD1 random read performance also seems like an exaggeration, but we’ll come back later this week with a full analysis of the test results.

We also haven’t heard any new official information from Samsung about an 870 PRO to complement this generation of SATA drives, but they did mention an 870 PRO in passing in a newsletter last fall. Since their consumer NVMe line has switched to using TLC NAND for the 980 PRO, there is some uncertainty as to whether an 870 PRO will continue to use MLC NAND. If so, this will be the first appearance of Samsung’s 128L MLC.