Samsung Launches QLC 860 QVO SSDs with TB+ Cappacities

Regardless of what you are using your PC for, it is hard to deny that file sizes are getting larger, be it for modern games, which can sometimes reach over 100GB, video, thanks to the growing popularity of high resolution and high framerate content, or photo editing, thanks to the ever increasing use of high resolution displays and ultra-high resolution cameras.

With today’s growing storage needs and the demand for high-speed storage devices, SSDs need to get larger and more affordable. This is where Samsung’s high-density 4-bit QLC (Quad Level Cell) NAND comes into play, allowing terabyte and multi-terabyte drives to reach more affordable price points.

The creation of QLC NAND has inspired a new entry into Samsung’s SSD lineup, the 860 QVO, which ships with Samsung’s MJX controller and QLC NAND to deliver performance levels that offer the “same level of performance as today’s 3-bit MLC SSDs”. At least according to Samsung. 

Samsung will release their QVO drives with 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities, offering sequential read/write speeds of 550/520MB/s and random read/write performance levels of 97/89K IOPS. 

The main sacrifice here is that Samsung does not offer QVO drives that are less than a terabyte in size, parallelising their QLC NAND to provide performance levels that are similar to their TLC-based 860 EVO drives. 

Samsung says that they achieve these speeds using “TurboWrite Technology” and that their drive uses a write buffer to accelerate its performance, but that write speeds can decrease if this buffer size is exceeded. Samsung states that their TurboWrite cache is Up to 42GB for their 1TB model and 78GB for their 2TB model and 4TB models. 

In the UK Samsung’s 860 QVO 1TB SSD will release in mid-December for £136.99, with the US pricing being $149.99. The drive’s 2TB and 4TB models will release shortly after. 

You can join the discussion on Samsung’s QLC-based 860 QVO series 1TB+ SSDs on the OC3D Forums.