Lexar NM790 4TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe M.2 2280

The Lexar NM790 is a fast 4TB PCIe 4.0 drive with excellent endurance and top-tier sequential speeds. Portable performance is bad, and prices swing from USD 690 to USD 850 depending on the retailer. Worth buying if you need 4TB on a desktop or PS5 and can find it at the low end.

Sequential speeds land at 7400 MB/s read and 6500 MB/s write, which is basically the ceiling for PCIe 4.0. Random performance is strong too, with 1000K read IOPS and 900K write IOPS putting it near the top of our charts. The DRAM-less design doesn't seem to hurt much in real-world use thanks to HMB 3.0, and Lexar claims up to 40 percent lower power draw than DRAM-equipped Gen4 drives. That's a nice bonus for laptop users. The weak spot is portable performance, which scored just 20.2 out of 100 in our testing. If you're planning to use this in an external enclosure, temper your expectations.

Against the Kingston FURY Renegade and WD Black SN850X, the NM790 holds its own on sequential speeds and actually beats many of them on endurance. The Samsung 9100 PRO is a Gen5 drive, so it'll outpace this on raw bandwidth, but you'll pay a lot more for that privilege. The Crucial T500 and Micron T710 are closer rivals, and both have stronger brand trust and better availability. The NM790's main advantage is that 4TB capacity at a lower price when you catch a good listing. Its main disadvantage is the weak portable performance and the fact that Lexar just doesn't have the same track record as WD or Samsung.

Pricing is all over the place. In the US you'll see this drive listed anywhere from USD 690 to USD 850 depending on the retailer, and Newegg tends to have the best deal at the lower end of that range. In Canada the spread is even wider, from CAD 790 to CAD 1,268. That's a huge gap for the exact same drive. At the low end it's a compelling 4TB option. At the high end you're paying a premium that doesn't match the performance. Shop around before you commit.

The Lexar NM790 is a 4TB PCIe 4.0 drive that skips the DRAM cache and leans on Host Memory Buffer 3.0 instead. On paper it hits 7400 MB/s reads and 6500 MB/s writes, which puts it right up there with the fastest Gen4 drives we've tracked. The big draw here is capacity. 4TB in a single M.2 stick for a reasonable price is a solid pitch for gamers and creators who are tired of juggling installs.

But it's not all smooth sailing. The endurance rating of 3000 TBW is genuinely impressive for a DRAM-less drive, yet the affordability score in our database is rough. Depending on where you shop, you'll see a wide price spread, and that makes the value story a little messy.

Skip this if you need a drive for an external enclosure or portable use. The portable score of 20.2 out of 100 is one of the worst we've seen, and you'll be frustrated by the performance drop. Also skip it if you're brand-loyal to WD, Samsung, or Crucial and want a longer track record of firmware updates and support. And if you're not willing to hunt for a good price, the high end of the range makes this a bad deal.

This drive makes the most sense for desktop users who want a big, fast game or media library without spending Gen5 money. It's also a decent fit for PS5 owners who want to expand storage and don't care about the DRAM-less design. Creators working with large files will appreciate the 3000 TBW endurance. Just don't buy it for an external enclosure, and don't overpay. If you can find it near the low end of the price range, it's a solid buy.