In context: SanDisk recently released its Extreme Pro UHS-II V90 full-size SD card, available in capacities of up to 2TB. Its pricing makes the new memory card significantly more expensive per gigabyte than the company's other offerings, even after accounting for recent price increases driven by the ongoing DRAM and NAND supply crunch.
The highest-capacity variant's eye-watering $2,000 price is already a notable discount from its $2,500 MSRP. Meanwhile, buyers willing to sacrifice storage space to save money still have to pay at least $240 for the 128GB version (down from $300).
For comparison, the company's Extreme microSDXC cards – which TechSpot recommends for handheld gaming devices such as the Steam Deck and the original Nintendo Switch – were previously available in 2TB for around $200, before supply shortages pushed their price closer to $400 earlier this year. Speed partially explains the difference, as the Extreme microSDXC features a UHS-I interface and tops out with read/write speeds of 240/140 MB/s.
Also read: The Modern SD Card Buying Guide
The new Extreme Pro UHS-II V90 is essentially a 2TB version of the card that TechSpot previously recommended for high-resolution video cameras. Its faster interface supports bidirectional speeds of up to approximately 300 MB/s.
However, at $2,000, it even exceeds the per-gigabyte cost of SanDisk's microSD Express cards, which achieve read/write speeds of up to 800/650 MB/s by accessing PCIe lanes directly.
So far, the Nintendo Switch 2 is the only device that requires microSD Express cards. Initially, unexpectedly high demand for these cards made them difficult to acquire. Fortunately, they appear unaffected by price hikes, and 512GB variants – the largest currently available from SanDisk – remain priced around $120.
Other speed rating labels further highlight the discrepancy. The "V90" symbol on the Extreme Pro UHS-II card indicates a sustained minimum write speed of 90 MB/s, necessary for recording 4K or 8K footage in real time. By contrast, the microSD Express cards – despite relying on older UHS-I technology and carrying a U3 speed class rating, which guarantees a 30 MB/s minimum write speed – advertise sustained minimum write speeds of 220 MB/s.
Although ongoing AI data center construction continues to divert DRAM and NAND production capacity, the ripple effects have not fundamentally altered the cost differences between cards designed for different use cases.