Camera Memory Speed
Memory Card Comparison & Performance Tests for Digital Cameras

SanDisk Extreme Pro 280MB/s 32GB UHS-II SDHC Memory Card

SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II 280MB/s 32GB SD Card

Introduction

The SanDisk Extreme Pro 280 MB/s UHS-II SD card uses the new UHS-II interface to provide the fastest SD memory card to date. UHS-II cards have a second row of contacts to provide a 4-lane bus and operate at a maximum 312 MB/s speed. UHS-II cards are reverse compatible with standard SD and UHS-I capable devices, but will operate at lower speed. The Extreme Pro UHS-II is available in 16, 32 and 64GB capacities.

SanDisk Extreme Pro 280MB/s UHS-II 32GB SDHC Card Back

Who should consider UHS-II cards? Primarilly those who have UHS-II devices. As of November 2014, the only digital cameras to support UHS-II are the Fuji X-T1 and Samsung NX1 (announced September 2014). See the updated list of cameras that support UHS-II for current cameras. Some recent Panasonic video cameras use microP2 which is the same format as UHS-II. Even if you don't have a UHS-II camera yet, you can still take advantage of the fast download speed UHS-II can provide. A UHS-II card reader connected through a USB 3.0 connection can provide over 200MB/s actual transfer speed.

SanDisk Extreme Pro 280B/s 32GB UHS-II SDHC Card SanDisk Extreme Pro 280MB/s 32GB UHS-II SDHC Card Back

Performance

Measuring the speed potential of the Extreme Pro UHS-II card requires a UHS-II enabled card reader. When the card was introduced only a few readers were UHS-II enabled. They were the SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II Reader, the Kingston MobileLite G4 and the Panasonic Micro P2 reader.

Since the initial review, additional UHS-II card readers have been released. After testing the card is several UHS-II readers, the highest read speed benchmark was 279.3 MB/s. The fastest sequential write speed reached 230.9 MB/s.

Computer hardware, drivers and operating system need to be up to date to experience the best performance. There was a significant increase in USB 3.0 performance after updating from Windows 7 to Windows 8.

In UHS-I card readers that do not support UHS-II, the Extreme Pro UHS-II reverts to UHS-I performance. However it does not support the fastest SDR104 (104MB/s bus speed) variant; it is limited to 50MB/s bus speed. In UHS-I readers, the maximum sequential read speed we recorded was 48 MB/s, while maximum write speed was 46 MB/s. Compare this with the SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s UHS-I card that performs up to 98MB/s read and 92MB/s write in UHS-I mode. Also consider the Toshiba Exceria Pro UHS-II card, which is able to provide UHS-II speed in addition to UHS-I SDR104. We measured the Toshiba UHS-II at 96MB/s read and 92MB/s write performance in UHS-I mode. It was also marginally faster than the SanDisk card at UHS-II speed.

Card: SanDisk Extreme Pro 280MB/s UHS-II 32GB
Benchmark: CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64
Program settings: 1000 MB, 5 passes, random test data
Operating system: Windows 10 Pro
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.40GHz
RAM: 32GB DDR3 1600

SanDisk Extreme Pro 280MB/s UHS-II 32GB
Card Reader Benchmarks
Seq.
Read
1000MB
MB/s
Seq.
Write
1000MB
MB/s
Rand.
Read
512KB
MB/s
Rand.
Write
512KB
MB/s
Rand.
Read
4KB
MB/s
QD1
Rand.
Read
4KB
IOPS
QD1
Rand.
Write
4KB
MB/s
QD1
Rand.
Write
4KB
IOPS
QD1
Rand.
Read
4KB
MB/s
QD32
Rand.
Read
4KB
IOPS
QD32
Rand.
Write
4KB
MB/s
QD32
Rand.
Write
4KB
IOPS
QD32
Delkin Black Rugged Card Reader287.833241.107195.2143.0886.6481623.11.440351.55.7251397.61.024250.0
SanDisk Extreme Pro SD UHS-II Reader/Writer279.285230.938194.2773.2407.1741751.51.405343.16.1351497.81.173286.4
Sony S1 High Speed UHS-II Reader/Writer276.450230.659194.4383.1787.4921829.01.468358.56.2601528.31.394340.4
SanDisk Extreme Pro SD UHS-II USB-C Reader276.450230.355193.8573.4197.4301814.01.343327.86.0601479.61.265308.8
SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II USB-C Reader SDDR-409275.181230.229191.4093.1697.0351717.61.366333.65.9111443.21.373335.2
Lexar LRWM04U-7000 UHS-II Reader274.496226.891197.3173.2267.8161908.21.601390.86.6751629.61.274311.0
SanDisk ImageMate Pro Multi-Card Reader/Writer273.708222.392190.5873.1645.7261398.01.334325.64.9981220.11.310319.9
Lexar Professional Workflow SR2 UHS-II268.969225.403185.2183.3784.3911072.11.479361.14.7381156.71.404342.9
Hama USB Type-C 3.1 UHS-II SD Card Reader268.315216.805188.9173.2008.0171957.31.463357.36.6731629.11.192291.0
Hama USB 3.0 UHS-II SD Card Reader256.564212.736184.4803.3504.019981.10.697170.14.4981098.00.612149.3
Lexar Professional Dual Slot UHS-II Card Reader240.444201.166177.5483.2727.0711726.41.412344.86.3871559.31.361332.2
SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II SD Reader/Writer240.086202.957176.5513.2967.6331863.61.591388.37.2491769.71.408343.8
Delkin Dual Slot SD UHS-II and CF Card Reader239.702198.237175.2253.2747.1131736.61.502366.77.1031734.21.334325.6
Kingston MobileLite G4 UHS-II239.675202.623176.6283.2067.6231861.11.571383.67.1741751.41.465357.7
Transcend Multi-Card Reader RDF9239.019197.789174.7053.1087.0251715.01.502366.66.7221641.11.367333.7
Kingston FCR-HS4 Card Reader238.367200.838174.3273.2676.9671701.01.497365.56.4591576.91.436350.7
Delkin Multi-Card CFast SD UHS-II microSD Reader238.286201.940173.2173.3147.7371888.91.491364.17.0511721.31.398341.3
DriverGenius USB 3.1(G1) / 3.0 UHS-II SD Card Reader232.810191.748154.2793.2224.031984.01.432349.75.5421353.11.497365.4
Sony MRW-E90 XQD 2.0 / SD UHS-II Card Reader230.786189.428186.7783.0756.3901560.11.370334.56.0181469.31.228299.7
Lexar Professional Workflow SR148.22845.98446.0433.1316.3191542.81.458356.05.5041343.61.555379.7
Transcend SD Card Reader RDF5 Black48.12045.88445.8193.1284.9461207.51.420346.74.3141053.21.203293.6
Lexar Professional Dual Slot Reader47.81946.06746.0653.1086.5331594.91.449353.95.5981366.81.280312.4
Transcend Multi-Card Reader RDF8 Black47.80446.05546.0653.0616.5201591.81.457355.85.6161371.21.451354.3
Delkin Travel Reader47.77544.99244.9443.0336.7421645.91.568382.85.9341448.71.219297.7
Delkin Universal Memory Card Reader47.55045.60845.6423.0336.1591503.71.511368.85.4551331.81.509368.3
Kingston Multi-Card Reader FCR-HS347.42143.11637.8493.0144.5251104.71.574384.44.2671041.71.386338.4
SanDisk ImageMate All-In-One USB 3.047.14844.87042.3503.0343.516858.41.272310.53.207782.91.174286.6

In cameras that do not have UHS-II support, the SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II card will operate at UHS-I speed. However this SanDisk card does not support UHS-I mode SDR104, so it will be limited to under 50MB/s speed. If you thought spending extra for the fastest card was a going to make your camera faster, you will have wasted your money. In UHS-I cameras such as the Nikon D800 and D7100 the card is only as fast as the Extreme 45MB/s card: In the D800 its maximum write speed was 29.5MB/s and in the D7100 its write speed was 38.3MB/s. The Canon 7D Mark II reached 39.8MB/s write speed.

SanDisk Extreme Pro 280MB/s UHS-II 32GB
Tested in Camera
Write Speed
(MB/s)
Canon EOS R162.3
Sony A9139.5
Nikon D500138.7
Olympus E-M1 II99.6
Fuji X-Pro296.8
Fuji X-T392.7
Olympus PEN-F86.9
Olympus E-M5 II75.6
Panasonic GH574.2
Samsung NX158.0
Canon Rebel T7i43.0
Nikon D750041.8
Canon 77D41.7
Canon 80D41.7
Canon 5D Mark IV41.3
Canon EOS M541.2
Canon Rebel T6i/T6s41.1
Canon 7D Mark II39.8
Nikon D560039.7
Nikon D720039.2
Canon 5Ds38.9
Nikon D550038.2
Nikon D710038.2
Nikon D75037.8
Sony A7R II35.8
Sony A600034.4
Sony A630034.0
Canon 70D33.4
Canon 6D33.1
Pentax K-3 II32.7
Fuji X-T1031.8
Nikon D80029.5
Nikon Coolpix P100024.4

Cameras tested with this card: Canon EOS R, Canon 5D Mark IV, Canon 5Ds, Canon 6D, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon 70D, Canon 77D, Canon 80D, Canon EOS M5, Canon Rebel T6i/T6s, Canon Rebel T7i, Fuji X-T3, Fuji X-Pro2, Fuji X-T10, Nikon D500, Nikon D750, Nikon D800, Nikon D7500, Nikon D7200, Nikon D7100, Nikon D5600, Nikon D5500, Nikon Coolpix P1000, Olympus E-M1 II, Olympus E-M5 II, Olympus PEN-F, Panasonic GH5, Pentax K-3 II, Samsung NX1, Sony A7R II, Sony A9, Sony A6000, Sony A6300

Recommendation

For the most demanding high-speed applications, UHS-II has a clear advantage over UHS-I. Its reverse compatibility also assures it will work in existing devices. However, unless you have a UHS-II camera it may be hard to justify the cost of this card. You could spend less and get better UHS-I performance with the SanDisk Extreme Pro 95MB/s UHS-I card. If you want better UHS-I performance from a UHS-II card, you might consider the Toshiba Exceria Pro UHS-II card because it supports SDR104 (104 MB/s bus speed), but the Toshiba card is expensive and hard to obtain outside of Europe or Japan. The SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II will still provide high speed downloading of images to your computer.

The following table contains information encoded in the SD card.

SanDisk Extreme Pro 280MB/s UHS-II 32GB SD — Internal Card Information
Serial number (PSN)1374627996
Product Name (PNM)SP32G
Product Revision8.0
Manufacturer ID (MID)0x000003
OEM ID (OID)SD
Manufacture Date (MDT)03/2014
Total capacity31,641,829,376 bytes

Available sizes and prices

Compare prices on the SanDisk Extreme Pro 280MB/s card. The lowest prices are highlighted in the table below. Prices are updated daily.

CardSize
GB
Lowest
$ / GB
Prices
AmazonB&H PhotoAdorama
SanDisk Extreme Pro 280MB/s SD UHS-II16N/ACheck price Check priceCheck price
SanDisk Extreme Pro 280MB/s SD UHS-II32$2.16$69.00Check priceCheck price
SanDisk Extreme Pro 280MB/s SD UHS-II64$2.16$137.95Check priceCheck price