Pros Sizzling hot throughput speedsExcellent 4K write speedWill be available in capacities up to 4TB Cons Lackluster PCMark 10 Overall Storage scoreLowest score on 3DMark Storage gaming benchmark of all the Gen 5 drives we've reviewed Lexar Professional NM1090 Pro PCIe 5.0 SSD Specs Bus Type PCI Express 5.0 Capacity (Tested) 4 Controller Maker Silicon Motion Interface (Computer Side) PCI Express Internal Form Factor M.2 Type-2280 Internal or External Internal NAND Type TLC NVMe Support Rated Maximum Sequential Read 14000 Rated Maximum Sequential Write 13000 Terabytes Written (TBW) Rating 2800 Warranty Length 5 All Specs The Lexar Professional NM1090 Pro (starts at $179.99 for 1TB; $494.99 for 4TB as tested) easily beats its rated sequential throughput speeds, according to our extensive tests, and it has the second-highest throughput scores we have seen from an SSD. But the NM1090 Pro's other test results are largely unimpressive; this PCI Express 5.0 internal SSD's sheer raw speed does not translate into great overall performance. So while it doesn't unseat the Editors' Choice-winning WD Black SN8100, it's an acceptable alternative. Design and Specs: Up to 4TB of Storage SpaceThe NM1090 is a four-lane solid-state drive running the NVMe 2.0 protocol over a PCIe 5.0 bus. This internal SSD comes in the standard M.2 Type-2280 "gumstick" format. This drive uses Micron 232-layer 3D TLC NAND flash and a Silicon Motion (SMI) SM2508 controller. Lexar cites this controller's 6nm architecture for helping to control the heat that Gen 5 drives are wont to generate and to minimize thermal throttlng. (Baffled by some of this lingo? Check out our handy guide to SSD jargon.)Physically speaking, this drive is also flashier than many of its competitors. It's adorned with a gold stripe across the front, which contrasts nicely with the black accents. It's sure to complement a classy PC build. The NM1090 Pro comes in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities. The 4TB stick that I reviewed is expected to go on sale in the US in the near future.Pricewise, the NM1090 Pro is midrange, below some of the elite Gen 5 sticks but higher than the modest-performing DRAM-less models we've tested: the Crucial P510 and the soon-to-be-reviewed Addlink G55H.As for durability, expressed as lifetime write capacity in total terabytes written (TBW), the NM1090 Pro matches the Crucial P510, T700, and T705 in the capacities they share. Its durability rating is a notch below the Corsair MP700 Pro, the ADATA Legend 970, and the Aorus 10000, which are rated at 700TBW for 1TB and 1,400TBW for 2TB. The Seagate FireCuda 540 is the reigning Gen 5 durability champ, with ratings of 1,000TBW for the 1TB stick and 2,000TBW for 2TB.The terabytes-written spec is a manufacturer's estimate of how much data can be written to a drive before some cells begin to fail and get taken out of service. Lexar warranties the NM1090 Pro for five years or until you hit the rated TBW figure in data writes, whichever comes first. But the drive's durability rating is such that unless you're writing unusually large amounts of data to the SSD, it's a safe bet that this drive will last the full warranty period and well beyond.The NM1090 includes the Lexar DiskMaster SSD Management tool, which lets you perform firmware updates, manage drive data, securely erase private files, and monitor drive health.System Requirements: Recent Motherboard RequiredPCIe 5.0 SSDs promise a major speed boost over PCIe 4.0 drives, but you can take advantage of it only if you have recent hardware that supports the standard. Only recent enthusiast-grade desktops and a handful of laptops are likely to be PCIe 5.0 SSD-ready off the shelf, so you may have to build your own PC from the ground up or update an existing system to gain the connectivity required. You'll need an Intel 12th Gen or later Core CPU with a motherboard based on Intel's Z690/Z790 or a more recent chipset; or an AMD Ryzen 7000 or 9000 processor with an AM5 motherboard built around an X670, X670E, B650E, or later chipset.Recommended by Our Editors(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Now, an important point: Just because you have one of those chipsets doesn't guarantee that the motherboard maker actually implemented a PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 SSD slot. That's up to the board maker, so check your system's or motherboard's specs and documentation to make sure you actually have such a slot before investing in one of these drives. Some boards have PCIe 5.0 expansion slots for graphics cards and other PCI Express cards, but no PCIe 5.0 slots for SSDs. You need a PCIe 5.0-capable M.2 slot, specifically.Performance: Raw Speed Isn't EverythingIn benchmarking the NM1090 Pro, we used our latest testbed PC, designed specifically for benchmarking PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs. It is built around an ASRock X670E Taichi motherboard with an AMD X670 chipset, 32GB of DDR5 memory, one PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot (with lanes that have direct access to the CPU), and three PCIe 4.0 slots. The system has an AMD Ryzen 9 7900 CPU using an AMD stock cooler; a GeForce RTX 2070 Super graphics card with 8GB of GDDR6 SDRAM; and a Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 Snow 750-watt power supply. The boot drive is an ADATA Legend 850 PCIe 4.0 SSD. (The reviewed SSD is tested as a secondary data drive.)We put the Lexar drive through our usual slate of internal solid-state drive benchmarks: Crystal DiskMark 6.0, UL's PCMark 10 Storage, and UL's 3DMark Storage benchmark. The last measures a drive's performance in a number of gaming-related load and launch tasks.Crystal DiskMark's sequential speed tests provide a traditional measure of drive throughput, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of large files. We use this test largely to see if our tested speeds are in line with the manufacturer's rated speeds.The NM1090 Pro put up some scorching Crystal DiskMark numbers, easily beating its sequential read and write speed ratings while turning in the second-highest throughput results we've recorded, after the WD SN8100. And while its 4K read was middling for a Gen 5 drive and far behind the SN8100's prodigious score, the NM1090 Pro eked out a high score in 4K write, edging out the SN8100. Good 4K write performance is especially important for an SSD used as a boot drive, though we test them as secondary drives.The PCMark 10 Overall Storage test measures a drive's speed in performing a variety of routine tasks such as launching Windows, loading games and creative apps, and copying both small and large files.The NM1090 Pro's PCMark 10 Overall score was toward the low end of our comparison group, ahead of the two DRAM-less PCI Express 5.0 SSDs (the Addlink G55H and Crucial P510), as well as the two Gen 4 drives we included in the chart above. As for the individual traces that make up the PCMark 10 Overall score, the NM1090 Pro's scores were below average, generally similar to the DRAM-less PCIe 5.0 SSDs and ahead of the Gen 4 sticks. A bright spot was the NM1090 Pro's second-place finish in Adobe Premiere Pro loading (after the WD SN8100), though it was brought down to earth with a last-place finish in Photoshop loading, behind even the two PCIe 4.0 SSDs. The NM1090 Pro also had a last-place finish in the Windows loading trace.In 3DMark Storage, which aggregates a drive's performance at a variety of gaming-related tasks, the NM1090 Pro's score was at the bottom of the pack, with its nearest rival, the Crucial P510, besting it by 18%.