SanDisk Extreme and Extreme PRO Memory Cards Review
by Ganesh T S on November 8, 2017 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
- SanDisk
- flash
- Memory Cards
- microSDXC
- SDXC
- CFast
- CompactFlash
Miscellaneous Aspects and Concluding Remarks
Readers are often interested in the type of flash being used inside the memory cards. While manufacturers such as ADATA are quite open about the type of flash used, most are not. SanDisk falls in the latter category, and it is not clear whether the cards that we have reviewed carry MLC or TLC flash.
In addition to raw performance and consistency, pricing is also an important aspect. This is particularly important in the casual user and semi-professional markets, where the value for money metric often trumps benchmark numbers. The table below presents the relevant data for the various memory cards we have evaluated so far. The cards are ordered by the $/GB metric.
| SD Cards - Pricing | ||||
| Card | Model Number | Capacity (GB) | Street Price (USD) | Price per GB (USD/GB) |
| ADATA Premier Pro SDXC UHS I 64GB | ASDX64GUI3CL10-R | 64 | 41 | 0.64 |
| Lexar 1000x 128GB | LSD128CRBNA1000 | 128 | 95 | 0.74 |
| ADATA XPG SDXC UHS I 64GB | ASDX64GXUI3CL10-R | 64 | 83 | 1.30 |
| ADATA Premier ONE SDXC UHS II 128GB | ASDX128GUII3CL10-C | 128 | 200 | 1.56 |
| SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS II 128GB | SDSDXPK-128G-ANCIN | 128 | 250 | 1.95 |
Considering the UHS-II cards alone, the SanDisk Extreme PRO has the worst pricing of all. The ADATA Premier ONE deliver comparable performance at a much better price point.
| uSD Cards - Pricing | ||||
| Card | Model Number | Capacity (GB) | Street Price (USD) | Price per GB (USD/GB) |
| SanDisk Extreme microSDXC UHS I 128GB | SDSQXAF-128G-GN6MA | 128 | 65 | 0.51 |
| ADATA XPG microSDXC UHS I 64GB | AUSDX64GXUI3-RA1 | 64 | 50 | 0.78 |
| ADATA Premier ONE microSDXC UHS II 256GB | AUSDX256GUII3CL10-C | 256 | 261 | 1.02 |
| SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC UHS II 128GB | SDSQXPJ-128G-GN6M3 | 128 | 206 | 1.61 |
| Lexar 1800x 128GB | LSDMI128CRBNA1800R | 128 | 233 | 1.82 |
Consumers considering the SanDisk Extreme UHS-I card can rest easy. Amongst the UHS-I cards, it has the most consistent performance and also the lowest pricing (in terms of USD/GB). On the UHS-II front, the Extreme PRO delivers similar performance to the Lexar 1800x card, and is more consistent compared to the ADATA Premier ONE (despite losing out on a number of benchmarks to it). At $1.61/GB, the Extreme PRO represents the right balance of performance and cost.
| CF Cards - Pricing | ||||
| Card | Model Number | Capacity (GB) | Street Price (USD) | Price per GB (USD/GB) |
| Freetail 800x 256GB | FTCF256A08 | 256 | 145 | 0.57 |
| Freetail 1066x 256GB | FTCF256A10 | 256 | 171 | 0.67 |
| Lexar 1066x 128GB | LCF128CRBNA1066 | 128 | 110 | 0.86 |
| SanDisk Extreme PRO CompactFlash 128GB | SDCFXPS-128G-X46 | 128 | 140 | 1.09 |
The SanDisk Extreme PRO CF card does not perform as well as the Lexar equivalent, and it costs significantly more. The Lexard card is the more sensible choice here, while users looking for higher capacity cards might find the FreeTail offerings more attractive.
| CFast Cards - Pricing | ||||
| Card | Model Number | Capacity (GB) | Street Price (USD) | Price per GB (USD/GB) |
| Lexar 3600x 128GB | LC128CRBNA3600 | 128 | 385 | 3.01 |
| SanDisk Extreme PRO CFast 2.0 64GB | SDCFSP-064G-A46D | 64 | 214 | 3.34 |
CFast cards tend to be priced quite high despite just being SATA SSDs in a different form factor. The firmware is obviously more optimized for real-time multimedia recording use-cases. Our pool of evaluated CFast cards is small. Even though they are at different capacity points, and it is not exactly fair to make a comparison, we have to note that the Lexar CFast card offers much better performance and consistency compared to the SanDisk Extreme PRO 64GB version. The cost per GB metric is also in favor of the Lexar card.
SanDisk is one of the few vendors with a comprehensive memory card portfolio. We evaluated a number of their memory cards across different formats for their performance, consistency, and pricing aspects. All the evaluated cards emerged unscathed from our evaluation routine. Performance is acceptable for the speed classes targeted by the cards. In particular, the microSDXC offerings are very compelling and provide great value for money.
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imaheadcase - Thursday, November 9, 2017 - link
I mentioned both those things..You can read ONE memory card micro, or two if one is used in small case as one. Thats it.While it seems like no big deal, it takes quite a long time to transfer over them already. If someone sold a single, multiport micro SD card reader to use they would make millions. lol
Liltorp - Thursday, November 9, 2017 - link
Might not be the card that limits you. Often it is the camera and it's interface to the card. Unless you KNOW that some cards can bring this performance.Railgun - Sunday, November 12, 2017 - link
The issues with these tests and using them as a baseline for camera usage is that’s it doesn’t take into account the camera HW itself. While generally using the fastest card you can will help, generally the camera will write slower, sometimes considerably than these kinds of tests suggest.ET - Thursday, November 9, 2017 - link
Thanks for the A1 mention. I didn't see that mentioned in the article, and it indeed explains the results. It doesn't matter how it's achieved (cache of otherwise), but it defines a minimum number of IOPS, and that should do the trick.MamiyaOtaru - Wednesday, November 8, 2017 - link
glad there are at least some random 4k write numbers (CrystalDiskMark screenshots) for those cases where they are used as primary storage, in a Raspberry Pi for instance. Can't expect too much from an SDXC card of course, but some of them are so much worse than othersSarah Terra - Wednesday, November 8, 2017 - link
3+ year old tech unfortunatelyThe extreme pro series has not been updated in quite some time.
Gee Ham - Wednesday, November 8, 2017 - link
Which is the best SD and SDmicro card, because I still don't understand the technical information.Lolimaster - Thursday, November 9, 2017 - link
For cameras and video cameras I think SD card should be replace by something like compact m.2 SSD's, even sata 250MB/s should be overkill with tons of 4K random writes improvements.SanX - Sunday, November 12, 2017 - link
Ok, do the test1) how many rewrites it will survive. 30, 20? Or just 10?
2) Do another test: pull the card without Eject. After how many such typical usage events it is dead?
This kind of overpriced junk does not last.
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