Should I Buy the Samsung 9100 Pro or 990 Pro for Gaming?

You don’t necessarily need a DRAM-equipped SSD for gaming. Host Memory Buffer can handle the mapping data well enough for this use case, and TLC NAND is more important than paying extra for specifications you won’t notice. I’d compare prices, capacity, warranty, and endurance rather than choosing solely between the 9100 Pro and 990 Pro.

Anything above roughly 1.5 GB/s is difficult to notice in most games and everyday applications right now. DirectStorage could make faster storage more relevant in the future, but for current gaming, either Samsung drive is likely overkill. Use the B850-F’s heatsink as long as it has the correct thermal pad and makes proper contact with the SSD.

I’d skip both Gen 5 options unless you have a workload that benefits from extremely high sequential speeds. Gen 5 drives tend to run hotter, while a good Gen 4 TLC drive is already more than fast enough for Minecraft and normal desktop use. Models such as the Lexar NM790 or WD/SanDisk SN850X would be sensible alternatives and should run cooler under the motherboard heatsink.

For gaming, you probably won’t notice a meaningful difference between these drives. Game loading usually depends more on random-access latency than the headline sequential speeds, and even an older SATA SSD can feel similar in many games. The motherboard’s M.2 heatsink should be perfectly adequate. SSDs mainly need serious cooling during very large, sustained writes.