Lexar Thor Ultra: Ridiculously fast M.2 drives arrive with up to 3 petabyte endurance

Lexar has introduced its latest offering in the high-end SSD segment. Dubbed the Thor Ultra, the new PCIe Gen 5-based family of SSDs sport up to 4 TB capacities, all the way from 512 GB. 1 TB and 2 TB options are also available.

As can be expected from a PCIe Gen 5 x4 SSD, read and write speeds are simply ludicrous, and undoubtedly overkill for the vast majority of consumers. The 1, 2, and 4 TB variants can hit an impressive 11 GB/s in sequential reads and an equally impressive 10 GB/s in sequential writes. 

Random r/w performance is arguably much more important, and the Thor Ultra lineups does not fail to impress here either. The 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB variants are rated at 1500K/1900K, 2200K/1900K, and 2000K/1900K IOPs respectively.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the smallest 512 GB drive is a quite a lot slower, featuring 9.9 and 5 GB/s sequential reads and writes. Random read/write performance is rated at a much more modest 900K/1200K IOPs.

At such high speeds, endurance becomes a crucial aspect for folks who move heavy amounts of data on a regular basis. The 512 GB, 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB variants are rated for 350 TBW, 750 TBW, 1500 TBW, and a whopping 3000 TBW respectively, clearly indicating that longevity won't be a woe anytime soon for its users. Moreover, all the drives also sport an MTBF rating of 1.5 million hours.

Should things not go to plan, Lexar also provides a five-year limited warranty for the Thor Ultra lineup. Pricing and availability details are under wraps for now, but given the ongoing DRAM and storage shortages, the Thor Ultra lineup of drives is more than likely to be just as expensive as it is fast.

Folks who do not require obscene performance, might be better off with a slower PCIe Gen 4 drive, such as the WD Black SN7100 1 TB, currently available for around $188 on Amazon.