According to Japan's AKIBA PC Hotline, a wave of highly convincing counterfeit Samsung 990 PRO SSDs has hit the market. These fakes boast packaging and labels that are nearly indistinguishable from the real deal. They even register as 1TB Samsung 990 PRO (PCIe 4.0 x4) in Windows and CrystalDiskInfo, making them a challenge to identify with standard detection techniques. However, a closer look reveals a different story: the counterfeit drives are equipped with a Maxio MAP1602 controller that lacks an independent DRAM cache, a significant departure from the genuine model's setup.
When put through their paces in regular speed tests, these fake drives impress with read speeds of up to 7255MB/s and write speeds of 6090MB/s, closely mirroring the performance of authentic products. But the illusion shatters during prolonged large file writing sessions, where the average speed of the counterfeit drives plummets to a mere 261MB/s, in stark contrast to the genuine drives' 1861MB/s.
At present, the most reliable method to spot these fakes is by using Samsung's official Magician tool, which promptly flags them as 'Non-Samsung'. AKIBA cautions consumers that the counterfeit problem is escalating and strongly advises purchasing through official channels to avoid falling victim.