SanDisk Extreme Pro 300MB/s UHS-II 128GB SDXC Memory Card Review

Introduction

The SanDisk Extreme Pro 300MB/s UHS-II 128GB SDXC card is rated up to 300MB/s read speed and 260MB/s write speed, SanDisk's fastest SD card to date. This UHS-II card is also backwards compatible with Standard SD and UHS-I devices, although it will operate at reduced speed. Extreme Pro 300MB/s UHS-II cards are available in 32, 64 and 128GB capacities. The 128GB SDXC card, model SDSDXPK-128G-ANCIN and UPC 619659151164, is covered in this review.

To operate in UHS-II mode, a separate set of contacts is located next to the traditional SD card contacts. In order to use the highest transfer rates, devices must be equipped with matching pins to interface the second row. Otherwise the card will operate at reduced rate, up to SDR104 in UHS-I mode.

The Extreme Pro 300MB/s UHS-II card is an improvement over the former Extreme Pro 280MB/s UHS-II cards. The old 280MB/s cards were only offered in 32 and 64GB capacities, and lacked SDR104 support in UHS-I mode, limiting them to under 50MB/s in devices that did not support UHS-II.

While the card is extremely fast, not all devices support UHS-II. Some high-end digital cameras that support UHS-II, and UHS-II card readers are available. Even if a camera does not support UHS-II, the card can be used like any UHS-I card and still offeres the benefit of fast trasnfers using a UHS-II card reader.

Performance

The Extreme Pro 300MB/s UHS-II 128GB SDXC was benchmarked in card readers. The sequential read speed reached up to 301.8 MB/s, just above the 300MB/s claimed by SanDisk. Write speed measured up to 247.7 MB/s, slightly below the 260 MB/s write speed claim, but still extremely fast for an SD card.

In UHS-I card readers its maximum UHS-I mode speeds were 96.7 MB/s seuqential read and 88.6 MB/s sequential write speed. It is much faster than the older SanDisk Extreme Pro 280MB/s UHS-I card which maxed out at 48.2 MB/s read and 46.1 MB/s write speed in similar testing.

Card: SanDisk Extreme Pro 300MB/s UHS-II 128GB
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

The 128GB SDXC Extreme Pro 300MB/s UHS-II card performed well in camera testing. The table below shows the average write speed during continuous shooting in various cameras. Additional results will be added as the card is tested in more cameras.

Cameras tested with this card: Canon EOS R, Canon 77D, Canon EOS M5, Canon Rebel T7i, Fuji X-T3, Nikon D7500, Nikon Coolpix P1000, Panasonic GH5, Sony A9

The following table contains information encoded in the SD card.

Available sizes and prices

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