SanDisk Extreme 180MB/s 256GB SDXC Card Review

Introduction

As a market leader, SanDisk frequently updates their cards with new speeds to retain their position. Their lineu of Extreme SD memory cards has offered a good combination of speed and value. The latest Extreme SD UHS-I card brings the read speed to 180MB/s, leveraging SanDisk's QuickFlow technology (also known as DDR200). The increased speed is provided by a fater data rate which is supported in only a handful of card readers. When using the card in most existing SD devices it will operate in SDR104 mode and limited to 104MB/s and below. Performance analysis in various devices will be covered later.

SanDisk Extreme 180MB/s cards are rated Video Speed Class V30 to be able to sustain at least 30MB/s continuously for 4K video recording. The Extreme 180MB/s is offered in 128 and 256GB capacities. The 32GB model is rated 100MB/s read, while the 64GB is rated 170MB/s read. The write speed varies with capacity, with the 256GB offering 130MB/s write speed, and the smaller capacity cards offering lower write speeds. The card reiewed for this test is the 256GB SDXC card. The model name is SDSDXVV-256G-GNCIN and the product code (UPC) is 619659188948. SanDisk memory cards have a lifetime waranty (or 30 yers in countries that do not recognize lifetime warranties). The country of origin is Malaysia.

Performance

The performance of the 256GB card was tested in memory card readers. The benchmarks for sequential read speed reached up to 193.7 MB/s which is better than the 180MB/s read speed claimed by SanDisk. Moving to write speed benchmarks, the card confirmed its 130MB/s write speed claim and attained 130.9 MB/s sequential write speed. Getting these speeds requires a card reader that supports DDR200 mode. In most card readers this card will fall back to UHS-I SDR104 mode which will drop the speeds to under 104MB/s. Out of all the readers tested, just the latest readers from Kingston, Lexar and SanDisk supported DDR200 to reach the higher speeds.

Card: SanDisk Extreme 180MB/s 256GB
Benchmark: CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 x64
Program settings: 1000 MB, 5 passes, random test data
Operating system: Windows 11 Pro
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z690 UD AX DDR4
Processor: Intel Core i5 @ 3.30GHz
RAM: 32GB DDR4 3200

The SanDisk Extreme 180MB/s 256GB card will be included in upcoming camera tests for write speed. When the results are available the page will be updated.

Packaging

The following table contains information encoded in the SD card.

The card register shows the card was produced in May 2022. The Manufacturer ID 0x000003 and OEM ID "SD" mean the card is made by SanDisk.

Available sizes and prices

Compare prices on the SanDisk Extreme 180MB/s card. The lowest prices are highlighted in the table below. Prices are updated daily.