The FireCuda 540's nominal speed is up to 10,000 MBps for sequential reads and writes, which Seagate says is up to 50% faster than Gen4 M.2 NVMe drives and 17 times faster than SATA-based SSDs, although a heat sink is required for optimal performance.

As for durability, the drive is rated at 2000TB of total bytes written, the equivalent of writing and deleting up to 1TB every day for five years.

The drive uses the latest 3D TLC NAND technology with a Seagate-validated E26 controller, and is available in capacities up to 2TB.

The FireCuda 540 comes with a three-year Rescue Data Recovery Service plan and a five-year limited warranty. It costs $389 for the 1TB version or $649 for 2TB.

“Gamers and content creators have asked for performance of PCIe Gen5 technology and we’ve listened,” said Seagate Technology vice president of product line management Lance Ohara.

“Seagate is thrilled to bring the fastest and best technology to the gaming and content creating community.”