Lexar NM990 1TB PCIe 5.0 x4 NVMe M.2 2280

The Lexar NM990 is a blazing-fast PCIe 5.0 SSD with 14,000 MB/s reads that lands in the 96th percentile for speed. It runs hot and needs a heatsink, and the DRAM-less design is a compromise. Pricing is competitive, especially if you shop around in Canada where it ranges from CAD 270 to CAD 385. It's a great pick for a well-cooled desktop build, but laptop users should look elsewhere.

Let's talk numbers. The NM990 hits 14,000 MB/s sequential reads and 7,500 MB/s writes. To put that in perspective, that read speed is in the 96th percentile of all drives we track. It's genuinely one of the fastest drives you can buy right now. Loading a huge game or pulling a 4K video project onto your timeline is going to feel nearly instant. The random performance is also a standout, with 1,600K random read IOPS and 1,000K random write IOPS, which also lands in the 96th percentile. That means it's not just fast at moving big files, it's snappy when your system is doing a million little things at once.

But all that speed generates heat. A lot of it. The one customer review we have specifically calls out that this drive puts out way too much heat while gaming, and they had to slap a heatsink on it. That's not a surprise for a PCIe 5.0 drive, but it's worth knowing. If your motherboard doesn't have a built-in heatsink for the M.2 slot, you'll want to budget for an aftermarket one. Otherwise, you might see thermal throttling, which would tank those impressive numbers right when you need them most.

The NM990's biggest competition comes from the usual suspects: the Western Digital Black SN850X, Samsung 990 PRO, and Crucial T500. The SN850X and 990 PRO are PCIe 4.0 drives, so they top out around 7,000 MB/s. That's half the sequential read speed of the NM990. But here's the thing: for most people, you won't notice the difference. Loading a game in 2 seconds versus 1.5 seconds is not exactly life-changing. The SN850X and 990 PRO also have DRAM caches, which means they handle sustained writes more gracefully and don't run nearly as hot.

The Crucial T500 is an interesting middle ground. It's also PCIe 4.0, but it's newer and faster than the older Gen4 drives, and it's often priced very aggressively. If you're building a system and don't have a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot with a beefy heatsink, the T500 or SN850X are probably the smarter buy. The NM990 only makes sense if you have the right motherboard and you genuinely need the absolute fastest sequential speeds for things like video editing or massive file transfers.

Pricing on the NM990 is a bit of a rollercoaster depending on where you shop. In Canada, we're seeing it listed anywhere from CAD 270 to CAD 385 across three different stores. That's a CAD 115 spread, which is wild. If you're in Canada, it pays to shop around. Memory Express has it listed, and they're usually pretty competitive, but you should absolutely check the other listings before you pull the trigger. In the US, there's a single listing at USD 262.

For a PCIe 5.0 drive with these speeds, that's actually not bad at all. You're getting top-tier performance for less than some of the more established Gen5 drives out there. The catch is that you're also getting a DRAM-less design and a drive that runs hot. If you're willing to deal with those quirks, the price-to-performance ratio here is pretty compelling. Just don't forget to factor in the cost of a heatsink if your board doesn't have one.

The Lexar NM990 is one of those drives that looks absolutely bonkers on paper. 14,000 MB/s sequential reads. That's the kind of number that makes your current SSD look like it's running on carrier pigeons. This is a PCIe 5.0 drive, the new hotness in storage, and Lexar is swinging for the fences with a DRAM-less design that still manages to hit those speeds.

Who's this for? Honestly, it's for the enthusiast who wants bragging rights and doesn't mind dealing with a little drama. The NM990 is aimed at gamers and creators who are moving massive files around and want the absolute fastest load times possible. It's not really a drive for your grandma's Facebook machine, and it's definitely not for a laptop unless you enjoy the feeling of typing on a hot plate.

What makes it interesting is the trade-off Lexar made. They skipped the DRAM cache, which usually helps with sustained performance, and instead leaned hard on the raw speed of PCIe 5.0 and the host memory buffer. It's a bold move, and it mostly works, but it comes with a catch we'll get into. The drive is a bit of a unicorn right now, with very little social proof out there, so you're kind of an early adopter if you pick one up.

Laptop users should skip this drive entirely. The heat output is a real problem in a cramped chassis, and the power draw will hurt your battery life. You're better off with a PCIe 4.0 drive like the Crucial T500 or Samsung 990 PRO, which will run cooler and sip power by comparison.

Also, if you're not on a platform with PCIe 5.0 support, there's no point. The NM990 will just run at PCIe 4.0 speeds anyway, so you'd be paying for performance you can't use. And if you're the type who wants a drive with a proven track record and lots of user reviews to back it up, this isn't it. The social proof is basically nonexistent right now, so you're taking a bit of a gamble on long-term reliability.

If you're building a new high-end desktop with a motherboard that has a proper PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot and a built-in heatsink, the Lexar NM990 is a seriously tempting option. The speed is undeniable, and the price is right. You'll be getting one of the fastest drives on the market without paying the early-adopter tax that usually comes with cutting-edge storage. Just make sure you have adequate cooling, because this thing is a little furnace.

For everyone else, especially laptop users, this drive is a pass. The heat output alone makes it a bad fit for a cramped laptop chassis, and the DRAM-less design means you're not getting the full benefit of those speeds in real-world sustained workloads. If you're on a PCIe 4.0 platform or you just want a reliable drive that won't thermal throttle, grab a WD Black SN850X or a Samsung 990 PRO and call it a day. You'll save some money and avoid the headache.