We’re tracking 284 NVMe drives from 52 brands this week. Most of the market held steady. The useful story is structural: per gigabyte, the bigger the drive, the cheaper the storage. 4TB beats 2TB, and 2TB beats 1TB. If you’ve been putting off a big upgrade, the pricing now favors going large.
4TB is the best value per GB, but check the review counts
There are 58 drives 4TB drives on the 4TB tracker. The cheapest is $395.99 and the median is $599.99. On a per-GB basis, the bottom of the 4TB tier undercuts the best 2TB and 1TB deals.
The listings at the very bottom need a closer look, though. The cheapest 4TB drive is the TEAMGROUP T-Force G50 4TB, and this listing has zero reviews. Teamgroup is a legitimate brand and the G50 is a real product line, so it’s not a scam signal. You’re just buying without a track record on this particular SKU. The KLEVV CRAS C910G 4TB sits right beside it, also with zero reviews. Right behind those are a couple of no-name listings whose “brand” is literally “4TB.” Skip those.
You give up almost nothing by moving one step up to drives with thousands of reviews:
| Model | Price | $/GB | Capacity | Gen | Read | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Digital 4TB WD | $449.99 | $0.1125 | 4TB | Gen 4 | 5,500 MB/s | 4.6 ★ | Buy → |
| Kingston NV3 4TB M.2 | $518.50 | $0.1296 | 4TB | Gen 4 | 6,000 MB/s | 4.7 ★ | Buy → |
| TEAMGROUP MP44 4TB SLC | $512.99 | $0.1282 | 4TB | Gen 4 | 6,000 MB/s | 4.7 ★ | Buy → |
The WD Blue SN5000 4TB at $449.99 is the pick for most people. It has 2,900 reviews and costs only a hair more per GB than the zero-review listings. The Kingston NV3 4TB has a 14,000-review base. The Teamgroup MP44 4TB and Crucial P310 4TB round out a solid shortlist.
All four are budget-tier drives. They are excellent game libraries but not workstation scratch disks. If you push huge sustained writes, step up to a DRAM-equipped TLC drive.
One note on the 4TB tier’s numbers: a Samsung 990 PRO 4TB two-pack is listed as a single 4TB drive. It inflates the top of the price range, so don’t read too much into the tier’s high end.
Lexar cuts prices across the NM790 line
Lexar had the most notable movement this week. The Lexar NM790 4TB posted the biggest 7-day drop on the board. That’s not a dramatic cut in percentage terms. It does matter because this is a 7,400MB/s-class drive with 1,200 reviews and a 4.8 rating, now priced close to the budget drives above.
The Lexar NM790 2TB with heatsink also dropped, to $334.99. The heatsink means it fits a PS5 without extra parts.
The Predator GM7000 2TB slipped to $329.99. It’s one of the few drives in this price band with confirmed DRAM and TLC NAND, plus 3,400 reviews. It’s an easy recommendation for a primary OS drive, and it’s on our radar for the Best NVMe for PS5 list if you add a heatsink.
Lexar’s Gen 5 drives moved too. The NM1090 PRO 2TB fell over the week. The NM1090 PRO 4TB took the largest single-day drop we recorded and now sits at $729.99.
2TB: the Crucial P310 is still the safe pick
The 2TB tracker lists 85 drives drives, with a median of $329.69.
The cheapest 2TB drive is the KingSpec 2TB. It’s rated for only 4,000/3,500MB/s, which is Gen 3-class speed on a Gen 4 label. That’s fine for a secondary bulk drive and not much else.
For a small premium, the Crucial P310 2TB at $253.68 is the better buy. It has 11,200 reviews and 7,100MB/s reads. The Crucial E100 2TB dipped this week and lands in the same neighborhood if you’d rather save a little more. Both feature in our Best Budget NVMe roundup.
1TB is the worst deal per GB
The 1TB tier averages $204.70, with a median of $189.99. Unless you’re filling a second slot on a tight budget, 2TB is the smarter spend.
The cheapest 1TB listing is the DIGIERA LNV480. It has two reviews and comes from a brand we can’t vouch for, so we won’t recommend it. The Kingston NV3 1TB at $156.50 and the Crucial P310 1TB at $169.95 cost slightly more and come with a massive review history.
Handheld owners, take note. The Crucial P310 1TB 2230 had the biggest 7-day price rise of any drive we track and now sits at $279.49. Meanwhile, the Crucial P310 2TB 2230 is $327.99. That’s double the storage for a modest step up. If you’re upgrading a Steam Deck or ROG Ally right now, buy the 2TB.
Gen 5 premium holds at 15.62%
Across all 63 Gen 5 drives we track, the per-GB premium over Gen 4 is 15.62%. For gaming, that money is still better spent on capacity. Load-time differences between a good Gen 4 drive and a Gen 5 drive remain marginal.
There is one exception worth knowing. The Crucial P510 1TB at $174.95 is priced below the 1TB median, with 1,000 reviews behind it. If you’re buying 1TB anyway and have a Gen 5 slot, it costs you basically nothing extra. Our Best Gen 5 NVMe guide covers the 2TB options.
Take Sandisk’s sales numbers with a grain of salt
Sandisk holds five of the top ten “bought past month” slots. The numbers don’t pass a sniff test:
- The Optimus GX PRO 8100 4TB shows roughly 82,400 bought in the past month against 32 reviews.
- The GX PRO 8100 1TB with heatsink shows 82,100 against one review.
- The GX PRO 850X 4TB shows 81,400 with a 3.6-star rating.
Four different products all landing within about 1,300 units of each other usually means Amazon is applying one shared counter across a listing family. These aren’t real per-SKU sales. Don’t let those figures persuade you. The 850X 4TB in particular is pricey per GB for a Gen 4 drive with a weak early rating.
For a sales signal you can trust, look at the Samsung 990 PRO 2TB. It’s Amazon’s Choice, has 13,400 reviews, and moves about 6,000 units a month at $395.62. It’s not a bargain, but it remains a top gaming SSD pick if you want a proven high-end Gen 4 drive.
Quick takes
- The Samsung 990 EVO Plus 4TB rose this week to $665.00. Wait it out. The 4TB drives in the table above are cheaper.
- About a quarter of tracked drives (26.41%) ship with a heatsink. PS5 buyers should filter for these to skip the extra purchase.
- The best move this week: buy 4TB if you can stretch to it, stick to drives with real review histories, and ignore the zero-review floor listings.