Sony SF-G Series 300MB/s UHS-II 64GB SDXC Card Review

Introduction

Sony announced SF-G UHS-II memory cards in in February 2017 and promoted their 300MB/s read speed and 299MB/s write speed. The write speed was the highest speed of any UHS-II card to date. The G Series card carries a U3 speed rating meaning it is capable of continuous write speeds of at least 30MB/s making it suitable for recording HD and 4K video. The SF-G cards are available in 32, 64 and 128 GB capacities. This review covers the 64GB SDXC card, model SF-G64/T1 with UPC 027242904330. The card tested is marked Made in Taiwan on the back.

While UHS-II cards claim extremely high transfer rates, these speeds require a UHS-II interface. The cards are backwards compatible and will operate in Standard SD and UHS-I modes although their speed will be limited when used in such devices. The UHS-II interface requires a second set of pins to communicate in the high-speed UHS-II bus mode. Devices lacking those connection will connect to the card using the standard row of SD contacts and will be limited to UHS-I or lower speeds. In UHS-I mode the SF-G card supports SDR104 bus mode which is limited to 104MB/s.

Performance

The 64GB Sony SF-G UHS-II card was benchmarked in several USB 3.0 card readers. In UHS-II mode the card measured up to 298.3 MB/s sequential read speed. The card posted a 273.4 MB/s sequential write speed in the fastest test. The write speed was slightly lower than expected given the 299MB/s speed claimed by Sony.

In UHS-I mode the SF-G 64GB SDXC card reached 96.7 MB/s sequential read and 93.3 MB/s sequential write benchmarks.

Card: Sony SF-G 300MB/s UHS-II 64GB
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

This G Series 64GB UHS-II card is scheduled to be included in upcoming camera tests. The write speed will be evaluated in continuous shooting and the results will be posted in the following table.

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

Sony backs the SF-G Series SD cards with a 5-year limited warranty.

The following table contains information encoded in the SD card.

Available sizes and prices

Compare prices on the Sony SF-G UHS-II SD card. The lowest prices are highlighted in the table below. Prices are updated daily.