Side-by-side: Crucial T705 4TB ($749) vs Lexar NM790 4TB ($269). $/TB winner, specs, real-world picks for May 2026.
This is a generational matchup at 4 TB: the older-gen drive offers proven reliability and better $/TB, while the newer-gen sibling brings raw bandwidth that most users never tap.
Hardware-wise, the Crucial T705 4TB runs on the Phison E26 — the first widely-deployed Gen 5 controller, capable but thermally demanding. The Lexar NM790 4TB pairs MaxioTech's MAP1602 silicon, the default choice for budget Gen 4 drives in 2024-2026.
Money matters here — $67.25/TB on the Lexar NM790 4TB versus $187.25/TB on the Crucial T705 4TB. That's enough of a spread that for budget-conscious builders, the Lexar NM790 4TB becomes the default unless reviews of your specific workload prefer the Crucial T705 4TB.
Read speeds favor the Crucial T705 4TB: 14,500 MB/s versus 7,400 MB/s for the Lexar NM790 4TB, a 49% advantage. Sequential-heavy workloads notice; transactional workloads don't.
The Crucial T705 4TB writes about 49% faster (12,700 MB/s vs 6,500 MB/s). Whether that matters depends entirely on what you write to the drive — gameplay capture and large project saves benefit, browsing and gaming do not.
The DRAM-vs-HMB question divides opinion: Crucial T705 4TB's on-board DRAM theoretically helps under sustained workloads, while Lexar NM790 4TB's HMB approach has matured enough that most users won't see the difference. Pick on price if everything else is similar.
If this purchase is for a PS5 storage expansion, the comparison flattens — Sony's PCIe Gen 4 controller normalizes both Crucial T705 4TB and Lexar NM790 4TB to roughly equal in-game load times. The cheaper drive is the smart pick. Comparing across generations always invites the same question: does the bandwidth gap convert into user-visible improvements? Honest answer for the Crucial T705 4TB vs Lexar NM790 4TB pairing: only for sustained sequential reads of multi-GB files. Heavy write workloads — video editing, RAW photo libraries, backup operations — favor the Crucial T705 4TB's 12,700 MB/s sustained write speed. Both drives use the 2280 form factor, which is too long for Steam Deck or ROG Ally — you'd need a 2230 variant if either manufacturer offers one, or a dedicated handheld-format drive instead.
Go with the Crucial T705 4TB for meaningfully faster reads (14,500 MB/s), higher sustained writes (12,700 MB/s), and a dedicated DRAM cache chip. Crucial drives benefit from being a direct Micron product — the same NAND that powers competitors' drives, but at lower margins.
Go with the Lexar NM790 4TB for the lower retail price ($269 vs $749), and better $/TB economics ($67.25/TB). Budget-tier drives like the Lexar NM790 4TB have closed the gap with premium NVMes — the MAP1602 controller is genuinely competitive for everyday workloads at half the price.