Lexar NM990 4 TB vs Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500 GB
Short answer: which is best?
Lexar NM990 4 TB is 46.2 % stronger than Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500 GB. Lexar NM990 4 TB ranks #4 of 91 measured system drives at WhatFPS (15,889 Drive score over 1 verified runs). Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500 GB ranks #33 of 91 measured system drives at WhatFPS (10,870 Drive score over 12 verified runs). The numbers are measured in 13 verified WhatFPS runs — not estimated, not self-reported.
Measured comparison
| Metric | Lexar NM990 4 TB | Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500 GB |
|---|---|---|
| Drive score (the drive's own performance: sequential read + 4K IOPS) | 15,889 | 10,870 |
| Best rig (GAMING — whole PC) | 8,962 | 12,063 |
| Sequential read | 4,971 MB/s | 2,697 MB/s |
| 4K IOPS | 17,827 | 15,390 |
| 4K latency, median (lower is better) | 51 µs | 62 µs |
| Type | NVMe SSD | NVMe SSD |
| Size | 4 TB | 500 GB |
What the numbers mean
The drive score is the system drive's measured performance in the rigs it sat in — sequential read and 4K IOPS, unbuffered. PCIe generation, fill level and driver affect it. GAMING is the whole rig's score. We show both and never mix them.
All numbers come from our benchmark suite, the same test on every PC, written in Rust with no middleware. The methodology is open at https://whatfps.com/metodik
All measurements for Lexar NM990 4 TB · All measurements for Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500 GB