Fast SD cards with UHS II in the test: expensive, but faster

Has this ever happened to you while taking photos? The camera’s memory lamp flashes for what feels like forever, the shutter release blocks or only reacts with a significant delay. The memory card in the camera may be too slow. But for many snaps there is a simple (but not exactly cheap) solution: SD cards with UHS-II technology. They are up to three times as fast as the test by COMPUTER BILD shows.

Pace, Pace: The Sony SF-G UHS-II 128 gigabytes (Price at the time of testing: 250 euros) is clearly the fastest in the test. It reads at up to 240 megabytes per second and writes at up to 205 megabytes per second.

Really fast, not that expensive: The SanDisk Extreme Pro SD UHS-II U3 ​​64GB (Price at the time of the test: 120 euros) is not quite as big and not quite as fast as the test winner, but it also puts a lot less strain on the budget.

The most important thing in a memory card? Data must be transferred quickly! No matter how big they are. COMPUTER BILD therefore also tests the speed of the SD cards very large files (1 gigabyte per file), medium-sized files (several megabytes per file) and small files (a few kilobytes per file) when reading and writing. This corresponds to practical use with videos (very large files), photos or music titles (medium-sized files) and texts (small files). In addition to the transmission speed, the test laboratory determines how fast the SD cards react when accessing files. This is important when several files need to be written or read, for example when starting software from the SD card. For the tests, COMPUTER BILD uses a special structure (see picture above) so that the storage media run at full speed during the measurements.

UHS II plays the speed advantage especially when photographing series, since one card is enough 64 gigabytes off if you regularly transfer the images to the computer. On the other hand, if you are filming in RAW format or with an extremely high data rate (only then does UHS II bring an advantage), it is better to take a card with you 128 gigabytes – then you don’t have to change the card as often because it’s not always full.

The simpler SD cards with UHS I are available for little money. Even larger versions with 64 gigabytes are available for less than 10 euros. The faster models with UHS II are significantly more expensive: there are current cards with 64 gigabytes from about 30 euros, the larger ones with 128 gigabytes start at just under 50 euros. However, the price and speed differences between the UHS-II variants are quite large. A 64 gigabyte card may cost (if it delivers the maximum possible speed) over 100 euros (all prices as of April 2022).

mostly is SD the better choice, because the devices that can take advantage of the higher speed of UHS II usually have an SD card slot. A microSD card can also be used with an often supplied SD adapter, but the microSD cards are not particularly tight in the adapters. When inserting or removing it, you should look closely and not act too vigorously, otherwise the expensive card could fly out of the adapter and never be seen again.

Whether microSD or SD, the cards are often plastered with abbreviations and symbols. The most important at a glance:

SD/SDHC/SDXC

Almost all current SD cards comply with the SDXC standard, which makes cards with 64 and more gigabytes possible. SDHC is limited to 32 gigabytes, SD to 2 gigabytes.

Class

This used to be an indication of the speed, the number indicates the read speed in megabytes per second (MB/s). All new SD cards now manage more than 10 MB/s and are therefore Class 10.

U1/U3

This is about the speed of writing. U1 stands for 10 MB/s, U3 for 30 MB/s – many current cards can do that.

V6-V90

This is another indication of the writing speed, this time as a continuous speed when writing videos. The number after the V stands for MB/s. With the V90, 90 MB/s are possible – only the more expensive UHS-II cards offer them and only professional filmmakers need this data rate. If you want the videos to end up on the hard drive of the PC just as quickly, you need a reading device with UHS-II technology.

A1/A2

The figure represents the speed at which cameras, PCs and other devices access the card. A1 means at least 500 write or 1,500 read accesses per second, A2 is even faster – with 2,000 write or 4,000 read accesses per second.

Theoretically, the UHS-II standard can be used up to 312MB/s transferred – the tested cards do not quite reach this maximum value (three times as fast as that of UHS I): When reading very large files (videos with a file size of 1 gigabyte), the cards manage, for example 240MB/sfor medium-sized 170 to 180 MB/s. There are big speed differences when reading small files. Here is the test winner Sony SF-G UHS-II with around 37MB/s almost four times faster than the cards from Panasonic and SanDisk. Regardless of whether the files are really large or rather small, UHS II is significantly faster than UHS I across the board.

The cards tested are all much faster than UHS-I cards when writing. For very large files, the UHS-II cards achieve around 200MB/swhen writing medium-sized files 115MB/s (Panasonic, SanDisk) up to 131MB/s (Sony). The test winner from Sony is also the fastest when writing small files: with good 8MB/s it is about twice as fast as the cards from Panasonic and SanDisk.

With the cards tested, the differences in access times are usually fairly small: When writing, they react after about 2 millisecondswhen reading after about one 0.25 milliseconds – Clearly faster than most SD cards with UHS-I technology.

There are usually only a few accessories for memory cards: even the previously obligatory protective cover is now increasingly missing. Not a big problem, because if you want to take several memory cards with you, you’re better off with a case: This is usually more robust and often waterproof – and thus protects the valuable data better.

UHS II should remain the fastest standard in practice for a while. The successors to UHS II were originally intended to be UHS III cards, but in the meantime the SD cards, which are still under development, are more likely to do so SD Express be. This new standard allows cards with up to 128 terabytes and even more speed when transferring data – theoretically, SD Express cards with the SD 8.0 standard (depending on the technology up to 1,970 or 3,940 megabytes per second) could even be as fast as CFexpress cards (currently as type B up to 2 gigabytes per second, as type C up to 4 gigabytes per second). So far, however, manufacturers have only presented very few SD cards with SD Express (and no microSD yet). The first models use the standard SD 7.0 (maximum 985 megabytes per second) and are not yet available in Germany.

The clear test winner is the Sony SF-G UHS-II (Test score 1.2) – an extremely fast, but also quite expensive card. The price tip SanDisk Extreme Pro SD UHS-II U3 (Test score 1.9) is not quite as fast, especially when writing medium and small files, but it is a bit cheaper. Whether Sony or SanDisk, both cards are significantly faster than all SD cards with UHS-I technology.