SanDisk Unveils World's First 8TB SD Card, Setting New Storage Record
They're also unveiling a staggering 4TB microSD card.
By Syazwan Bahri — 12 Aug 2024, 05:50 PM
SanDisk owner Western Digital has unveiled two groundbreaking memory cards: the world’s first 8TB SD card and the world’s first 4TB microSD card
Earlier this year, Western Digital made headlines by announcing a 4TB SD card and a 2TB microSD card at the NAB Show in April.
Now, they've taken it a step further by unveiling even larger capacities with the 8TB SD card and 4TB microSD card.
While pricing and release dates haven't been disclosed yet, it's safe to assume that these higher-capacity cards will come with a significant price increase. For context, their 1TB Extreme Pro card is priced around RM1,700 on the ShaShinKi marketplace, so the 8TB version is likely to be considerably more expensive.
Here are some figures to put those massive storage into perspective:
With a SanDisk 8TB SDUC UHS-I card in a top-tier camera, you could capture around 165,000 RAW format photos at 24MP — a massive amount of storage for any photographer.
Likewise, using a SanDisk 4TB microSDUC UHS-I card in a Nintendo Switch, you'd have enough space to hold over 660 games, assuming an average file size of 12GB per game.
There's a small caveat to this massive storage cards though
Both of the new cards from Western Digital are UHS-I, which means they’re slower compared to UHS-II cards. While you’ll get significantly more storage, the trade-off is reduced transfer speeds.
Western Digital hasn't disclosed the V classification for these new cards yet. For reference, their 1.5TB Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card has a V10 rating, offering a minimum transfer speed of just 10MB/s. The 4TB Extreme Pro SDUC announced earlier has a V30 rating, providing a minimum of 30MB/s. However, even this rating might limit burst speeds and video frame rates.
Despite the convenience of an 8TB memory card, there's a valid concern about the risk of data loss or failure. Best practices have always recommended using backup cards and spreading your data across multiple cards to mitigate the risk. This way, if one card fails or gets lost, you won't lose your entire library. While an 8TB card offers significant storage in one place, many users may still prefer to use several smaller cards for added security and peace of mind.
Regardless of the caveats, it's undeniable that Western Digital has achieved a significant breakthrough
Considering that the largest SD cards in 1999 had only 32MB of storage, the introduction of an 8TB memory card marks an incredible leap in storage technology.
This advancement highlights just how far we've come in expanding digital storage capabilities, allowing for vast amounts of data to be stored on a single card that would have been unimaginable just a couple of decades ago.
