New 170 MB/s SanDisk Extreme Pro Pricing and Speed
SanDisk has a new version of its SanDisk Extreme Pro SDXC cards that are weirdly priced and weirdly marketed. The speed of the card is listed as 170 MB/s… but that is only its READ speed. The WRITE speed is nearly identical to the previous version.
New versions specs…
- Read Speed 170 MB/s Maximum
- Write Speed 90 MB/s Maximum
- Write Speed 30 MB/s Minimum
Old version specs…
- Read Speed 95 MB/s Maximum
- Write Speed 90 MB/s Maximum
- Write Speed 30 MB/s Minimum
Which means that when you plug the card into your computer you’ll be able to transfer files faster… but when in your camera your photos will not be written to the card faster than the previous version.
There is no real advantage to using the new version of SanDisk’s Extreme Pro card in your camera.
Which is made even worse by the pricing scheme adopted for the new 170 MB/s cards.
| Card Size | Old SanDisk Card Price | New Sandisk Card Price | Price Difference |
| 64 GB | N/A | $40.81 | N/A |
| 128 GB | $60.70 | $70.86 | ~ 16% more |
| 256 GB | $123.15 | $123.15 | 0% |
| 512 GB | $289.95 | $337.49 | ~ 16% more |
So except the 256 GB cards which are priced exactly the same, the new cards are about 16% more but offer the same performance. This has the marketing department’s sticky fingers all over it.
The product is an incremental improvement only offering higher read speeds and nothing else, but is being marketed, and priced as a fancy new faster card.
The Best Value SanDisk Pro Cards per GB
The cheapest card, on a cost per gigabyte basis, is obviously the 256 GB card.
| Card Size | Cost Per GB |
| 64 GB | 63 cents per GB |
| 128 GB | 55 cents per GB |
| 256 GB | 48 cents per GB |
| 512 GB | 66 cents per GB |
The most expensive card is the 512 GB one… which is a bit unusual… since in general cost on a GB basis goes down as the size increases. It seems SanDisk is in essence trying to extort the handful of people who genuinely need a 512 GB card.
Ultimately
SanDisk’s new “170 Mb/s” Extreme Pro cards are weirdly priced and do not offer real value when compared to the previous version of Extreme Pro cards.
Your camera won’t thank you for overspending on these cards.