10 SDXC/SDHC Memory Cards, Rounded Up And Benchmarked

SanDisk Extreme Pro (16 GB)

The SanDisk Extreme Pro is the second SD memory card that is based on the UHS-I standard, and it’s designed for DSLR cameras and HD camcorders. Therefore, our performance expectations are rather high. SanDisk states that the card reaches up to 45 MB/s (or 300x speed) for both reads and writes. Although we’ve seen more than 60 MB/s on Kingston’s card, 45 MB/s writes would be quite significant.

We received the 16 GB model for review, which can be considered the mainstream capacity for 2011. The card starts at roughly $70, making it much cheaper than the Kingston Ultimate XX. There is also a 32 GB version that starts at less than $140. An 8 GB version can be found at $33.

Benchmarking in h2benchw yields peak sequential read performance of 44.8 MB/s, whereas CrystalDiskMark 3.0 returns only 41.2 MB/s. The 42 MB/s sequential write maximum in h2benchw is state-of-the-art, although we found that the minimum transfer rate can drop significantly. Write throughput in CrystalDiskMark is 36.5 MB/s, making this card equivalent to Kingston’s Ultimate XX. SanDisk is also second fastest in 512 KB random reads. All other disciplines are typically average.