SPECworkstation 3.0.2 Storage Benchmark
SPECworkstation benchmark is an excellent benchmark to test systems using workstation-type workloads. In this test, we only ran the Storage component, which is fifteen separate tests.
The 9100 PRO’s performance in SPECworkstation is, in a word, astounding. It is so far above previous drives that I had to invite a guest star to the chart in the Optane P5800X. I did this because the 9100 PRO holds the distinction of being the first drive I have tested to challenge, and sometimes surpass, the performance achieved by the P5800X. The results achieved by the P5800X were so far above any previously tested drive that including it on my charts would make the whole thing less readable, but with the 9100 PRO manages to surpass even some of those results. If SPECworkstation is a benchmark you value, then the 9100 PRO stands completely alone compared to all other flash-based SSDs I have ever tested.
Sustained Write Performance
This is not necessarily a benchmark so much as trying to catch the post-cache write speed of the drive. While I am filling the drive with data to the 85% mark with ten simultaneous write threads, I monitor the drive for the write performance to dip to the lowest steady point and grab a screenshot.
Well, this is a bit surprising. In a case of “you can’t win them all” the 9100 PRO does not have particularly strong full disk write speeds. Obviously 1350 MB/s is more than enough for almost any use, but other drives offer more. Mostly this is a curiosity to me, and it is an interesting reversal on my chart.
Temperatures
We monitored the idle and maximum temperature during testing with HWMonitor to get some idea of the thermal performance and requirements of the drive.
There is a reason that the 9100 PRO is offered with a heatsink. It certainly can get warm. I would say that thermal performance is still better than the first round of Gen5 drives, but you will want to have this under a motherboard heatsink or buy the model with the integrated heatsink if it is going to see any level of load.
Final Words
The Samsung 9100 PRO 2TB was launched on March 18th, 2025, and is available without a heatsink for $300, and with one for $320. The T705 with a heatsink is $260, so Samsung is asking a premium price for their drive. With that said, the performance of the 9100 PRO is better than the T705, and in fact better than any SSD I have ever tested. It is a premium price for a premium product.
If I had to summarize this review, it would be simple: Samsung is back. They were a little later to the Gen5 market than their competition, but the 9100 PRO is the fastest drive I have ever reviewed. I test many SSDs and this is one that I would use as my primary drive without hesitation. I would still like to see a resurgence in the performance and pricing for the EVO line, but the 9100 PRO has the high-end performance crown locked down. If you are building a new system and want the absolute very best, there is now a clear leader for Gen5 SSD performance.
Nice results!
I’m kind of curious what a hyper-fast PCIe 5.0 device like this would look like in a PCIe 4.0 slot. Would it get ~identical read and write speeds (as it’s clearly capable of much higher rates than PCIe 4.0 can provide), or would it end up looking similar to high-end PCIe 4.0 devices, still with reads higher than writes?
Hopefully this one doesn’t go down to 1GB/s after 2 seconds of use like the 990 Pro.