Samsung PM9A3 2T
Basic Information
PM9A3 is an enterprise SSD from Samsung, while 980Pro (a.k.a. 9A1) is its client SSD. Let’s check what’s the difference between Client SSD and Enterrpise SSD.
| Model Name | Firmware Version | |
|---|---|---|
| PM9A3 | SAMSUNG MZQL21T9HCJR-00A07 | GDC55Z2Q |
| 980PRO | Samsung SSD 980 PRO 1TB | 5B2QGXA7 |
Latency
We still check their IO latency first.
Max Write Latency
| 10 IOPS (ms) | 4K 1QD (ms) | 512B 1QD 10p filled (ms) | 512B 1QD 50% filled (ms) | 4K mix RW 90% filled (ms) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PM9A3 | 0.066 | 0.048 | 0.400 | 0.028 | 7.059 |
| 980PRO | 8.616 | 8.461 | 8.462 | 14.148 | 42.767 |
980PRO controls max latency well, but PM9A3, as the enterprise product, improves the latency to another level.
Speed
Sequential Write
| 10% filled (MB/s) | 90% filled (MB/s) | 50% trimmed (MB/s) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PM9A3 | 2806.896 | 2779.884 | 2806.708 |
| 980PRO | 3065.800 | 1796.586 | 2938.130 |
980PRO has SLC cache, so its performance at FOB state is better. But when the drive is filled up, the performance drops. Enterprise PM9A3 does not use SLC cache, and it maintains the performance stable even when the drive is full filled.
Here is the speed diagram of writing empty drive for 200 seconds. Due to SLC cache and thermal throttling, 980PRO performance keeps changing, while PM9A3 is as stable as a line.
Random Write
| 10% filled (K IOPS) | 90% filled (K IOPS) | 50% trimmed (K IOPS) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PM9A3 | 684.982 | 604.416 | 684.971 |
| 980PRO | 386.622 | 544.405 | 506.412 |
Same as sequentail write, the random write performance of PM9A3 is higher and stabler.
Trim
Except for read and write, Trim is also a common command in nowadays’ OS. We test its performance by trim half LBA space.
| IOPS (K) | Max Latency (ms) | Average Latency (ms) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PM9A3 | 3.045 | 7.066 | 5.249 |
| 980PRO | 1.676 | 58.529 | 9.535 |
PM9A3’s trim performance is also better on both latency and throughput.
