PLEXTOR, a leading manufacturer of award-winning solid-state drives (SSDs) and other high-performance digital storage devices for consumers, today announced the launch of its newest NVMe PCIe SSD the M9Pe Series. The new M9Pe SSD Series has adopted advanced 64-layer 3D NAND and flagship controller along with exclusive PlexNitro, smart cache technology, delivering unprecedented sequential read/write up to 3,200/2,100 MB/s and random read/write up to 400,000/300,000 IOPS. The M9Pe puts improved performance and durability in its crosshairs.

Aimed at high-level PC gaming such as eSports, the M9Pe boasts of its superior components to deliver less lags and 20% faster boot up times compared to a typical SATA drive. The new M9Pe (HHHL/AIC version only) also sports a new eye-catching design with its programmable 3-mode RGB LED lights for the perfect visual appeal on any desktop gaming setup. Similar to its predecessors, the new M9Pe features a high-performing thermal heatsink (M9PeY and M9PeG only) to help regulate SSD temperatures during prolonged gaming sessions resulting to stabilized performance.

Plextor's M9Pe is likely the company's worst-guarded secret by this point; the company has always hinted at a performance-part release that would supersede their M8Pe's offering performance and take the battle back to Samsung's reigning 960 Evo and 960 pro NVME SSDs, albeit at an expected lower price-point and a better $/GB ratio. The company is apparently so proud of what it sees as the future for its M9Pe SSDs, however, that they couldn't help themselves to contain their excitement, and shared a small teaser image for the M9Pe's performance.

The performance figures come courtesy of Plextor's USA Facebook page, and are represented in a CrystalDiskMark run. Performance numbers for this NVME drive are impressive, to say the least, with the results of this 1 TB drive besting Samsung's 960 EVO, and coming very close to Samsung's 960 PRO NVME SSD. Of course, pricing should still be one of the determinant factors in consumers' choice, but it seems that the NVME high-performance storage space is seeing some companies fighting to overturn Samsung's dominance - and fiercer competition is usually better for consumers. Of course, users should be aware that for most use cases, a good SATA III SSD will still deliver performance in spades and the best $/performance ratio on the high-speed SSD market, but for those that want uncompromising performance, having another player in the Samsung space is definitely good news.