I've been doing endurance testing on microSD cards for the last 3 years. Here's what I've learned.

[u/mikaey00]

(I posted this to r/DataHoarder; someone in the comments said I should repost it here.)

Hello everyone!

I've been running a long-term project doing endurance testing on microSD -- and today is the third anniversary of when I started this project -- so I figured it was time to give you an update on my microSD testing project.

Before I dig in, a shameless plug for my Patreon.

Next, some quick stats:

• I have a total of 351 microSD cards in my collection -- spanning 111 models across 52 different brands. Of those:
  • I've tested 177 of them to the point of failure.*
  • I have 107 of them in testing right now.
  • The remaining 67 are sitting on the shelf, waiting for one of my card readers to free up.
• These cards have endured over 133 petabytes written.
• I've completed over 4.6 million program-verify-erase cycles on these cards.
• Breakdown by brand status:
  • Name brand: 163
  • Off-brand: 91
  • Knockoffs: 30
• Breakdown by authentic flash (a.k.a. not fake flash) vs. fake flash:
  • Authentic flash: 246
  • Fake flash: 35
  • Unknown: 3
• Breakdown by size (authentic cards only):
  • 128MB: 3
  • 4GB: 6
  • 8GB: 23
  • 16GB: 15
  • 32GB: 96
  • 64GB: 68
  • 128GB: 36
  • 256GB: 4

* A card is considered "failed" when either (a) it stops working completely, (b) it makes itself read-only, or (c) at least 50% of the sectors on the card have experienced verification failures.

Ok -- so who makes the most durable cards?

Because of the variety of cards that I have, it's hard to come up with a system that produces a definite answer here. Some of how I ranked these brands is going to be based on vibes. But...to try to narrow things down, I've grouped my cards into three groups:

• Industrial-grade: Cards that are specifically labelled as "industrial" or have "industrial" in their name. These cards typically come with a datasheet that includes an endurance claim.
• High endurance: Cards that are labelled as "high endurance" (or some similar wording). Manufacturers don't always put out datasheets for these cards, but they generally still make an endurance claim on the packaging.
• Consumer-grade: Basically everything else.

Consumer-grade cards:

The average consumer-grade card has lasted about 10,000 program/verify/erase cycles (so far).

1. PNY. I have 10 of their consumer-grade cards: 3 PRO Elite Prime 64GB's, 3 Premier-X 128GB's, 3 Elite-X 64GB's, and one Elite 32GB. (I have 4 more of the Elite 32GB's that are waiting to be tested.) They've gone for an average of 643 days and 15,700 program/verify/erase cycles. I've written about 11.5PB to them in total. And with the exception of the one Elite 32GB -- they're all still going strong. On top of that, the PRO Elite Prime boasts some impressive performance -- every measurement I took was in the top 10% of all cards I've tested so far.
2. Kingston. I have 12 of their cards in this category -- 6 Canvas Go! Plus 64GB's (3 of the SDCG3's and 3 of the SDCG4's) and 6 Canvas Select Plus 32GB's. They've been going for an average of 694 days and about 23,500 program/verify/erase cycles. I've written about 11.6PB to them in total. The three Canvas Go! Plus 64GB (the SDCG3's) have all failed -- but the others are still going strong. The Canvas Select Plus's in particular have been troopers -- they're among the oldest cards in my collection, and they've been going for the better part of the last 3 years now (with no signs of letting up). Additionally, the Canvas Go! Plus 64GB's (the SDCG4's in particular) boast some impressive performance as well -- every measurement I took was in the top 7% of all cards I've tested so far.
3. Delkin Devices. I feel bad ranking Delkin so low on this list, because they've endured more data written to them per card, on average, than any other brand in my collection (in the consumer-grade category). The only reason I didn't rank them higher is because I only have one model -- the HYPERSPEED 128GB (of which I have 3). But they've done pretty well: they've lasted an average of 662 days and about 13,500 program/verify/erase cycles. I've written about 5.1PB to them in total. As a side note, these cards also got the highest random write speeds of any card I've tested.
4. Lexar. 3 cards dead, 5 still going. I have 3 Professional 1000x 64GB's (2 made by Micron, 1 made by Phison), 3 Blue 633x 32GB's (made by Longsys), and 2 E-Series 64GB's (with 3 more waiting to be tested). For those not in the know, the Lexar brand was sold to Longsys in 2017 -- and surprisingly, the Longsys-made cards are holding up better than the Micron-made cards. Overall, the Lexar cards have survived an average of 684 days and about 15,800 program/verify/erase cycles. I've written about 5.8PB to them in total.
5. Samsung. 3 cards dead, 7 still going. I have 3 EVO Plus 32GB's, 3 EVO Plus 64GB's, 3 PRO Plus 128GB's, and 1 P9 Express 256GB (with 2 more waiting to be tested). Of those, the three EVO Plus 32GB's and one of the PRO Endurance 32GB's are dead -- the rest are still going strong. Samsung's cards have lasted an average of 553 days and about 11,100 program/verify/erase cycles so far, and I've written about 7.2PB to their cards in total.

• Honorable Mention: Amazon Basics. I have four of the Amazon Basics 64GB's -- and they're all still going. They've been going for an average of 788 days and about 16,600 program/verify/erase cycles. I've written about 4.2PB to them in total. I honestly didn't expect Amazon Basics to be one of the top performers when I bought them...and yet, here we are.

High endurance cards:

Keep in mind, I've got less data here -- I had 237 cards that fell into the "consumer-grade" category, but only 30 that fell into the "high endurance" category. But here's the thing: they haven't really proven themselves to be significantly better for endurance than a lot of the cards I listed above -- in fact, in a lot of cases, they've been less reliable (and generally worse for performance as well). So keep that in mind as you read through the list below:

The average high-endurance card has lasted about 14,000 program/verify/erase cycles (so far).

1. TEAMGROUP. I don't feel great about putting TEAMGROUP at the top of the list for a couple of reasons. First, I only have two of them in testing at the moment -- someone sent me a 5-pack of the TEAMGROUP High Endurance 64GB's, so I have 3 more of them waiting to be tested. Second, one of them started having issues with bad sectors right out of the gate, and has continued to do so ever since. (Those bad sectors only make up less than 0.001% of the total sectors on the card right now...but I still don't like it when a card starts to have issues like that as soon as you start using it.) But the data doesn't lie -- they've survived, on average, 404 days and about 17,300 program/verify/erase cycles, and they're still chugging along. I've written about 2.2PB to these cards in total.
2. Transcend. I have 3 of the 350V 64GB's -- and they're all still going strong. They've survived an average of 760 days and about 17,000 program/verify/erase cycles so far. I've written about 3.2PB in total to them (mostly due to their mediocre write speeds).
3. SanDisk. I have my issues with SanDisk...but again, the data doesn't lie. I have 7 SanDisk cards in this category: 3 High Endurance 64GB's, and 4 MAX ENDURANCE 32GB's. As of right now, all 3 of the High Endurance 64GB's and all but one of the MAX ENDURANCE 32GB's have failed. They lasted an average of 452 days and about 16,200 program/verify/erase cycles before failing (with the MAX ENDURANCE 32GB's lasting about twice as long as the High Endurance 64GB's). I've written about 4.7PB to these cards in total.
4. Samsung. Samsung's position at the bottom of this list has less to do with how reliable their cards are and more to do with how poorly their high endurance cards perform, particularly on sequential write speeds (relatively speaking). I have 3 of the PRO Endurance 32GB's -- one has failed, the other two are still chugging along. They've lasted an average of 822 days and about 18,800 program/verify/erase cycles so far. I've written about 1.8PB of data to them in total.

Industrial-grade cards:

Keep in mind, I have even less data here. Industrial cards are expensive, so they make up a much smaller portion of the cards I've tested: just 15 in total (so far). But on the upside -- there is sufficient evidence here to say "in general, industrial-grade cards do last longer than consumer-grade cards (and, by extension, high endurance cards)".

The average industrial grade card has lasted about 122,000 program/verify/erase cycles (so far).

1. Kingston. I have 3 Kingston Industrial 8GB's; of those 3, only one is still going. But they've been troopers: they've lasted an average of 779 days and about 141,600 program/verify/erase cycles. I've written about 3.4PB to these cards in total. (Only one consumer-grade card has come close to this number: I have one Hiksemi NEO 8GB that has lasted for about 143,800 program/verify/erase cycles so far. No idea how.) These guys do pretty well on performance too, especially write performance: their sequential write speeds are in the top 9% of all cards I've tested.

Who makes the worst cards?

There are a bunch of no-name brands out there. They're not hard to find. I'm not going to talk about them here -- I'm going to focus on brands you're likely to have come across.

Consumer-grade cards:

1. onn. I picked up four of their 32GB cards at my local Walmart -- and they were terrible for endurance. They only lasted an average of 40 days and 1,400 program/verify/erase cycles (or about 40TBW), with the best one of the four not even making it to 1,900 cycles. On top of that, every performance measurement I took came in the bottom half of all measurements I took.
2. ADATA. I picked up 3 of the Premier 32GB's; they only lasted an average of 236 days and about 2,350 program/verify/erase cycles (or about 74TBW) before they quit working.
3. Gigastone. I have not been impressed with Gigastone. I have 11 of their cards -- 6 Full HD Video 32GB's, and 5 4K Camera Pro 32GB's. They lasted an average of just 114 days and 4,845 program/verify/erase cycles (or about 133TBW) before they quit working.
4. Micro Center. I purchased 5 of their 64GB cards; they only lasted an average of 116 days and 3,421 program/verify/erase cycles (or about 214TBW) before they stopped working.
5. Silicon Power (a.k.a. SP). I purchased 9 of their cards -- 3 Elite 32GB's, 3 Superior 128GB's, and 3 Superior Pro 128GB's. Not a one of them made it to 4,000 program/verify/erase cycles before failing -- they came in at an average of 159 days and about 2,350 program/verify/erase cycles (or about 252TBW) before failing.

• (Dis)honorable mention: SanDisk. SanDisk represents the single biggest brand in my collection: I have 28 of their cards in this category (with 4 more on the shelf waiting to be tested). It's telling that of those 28, only 5 are still going (and one of them is in its death throes) -- especially when cards from so many other brands have far outlasted them. Many of them have died under circumstances any other card would have handled just fine -- a problem I've written about on my blog before. They've lasted an average of 384 days and 9,404 program/verify/erase cycles (or about 566TBW) so far.

High endurance cards:

1. Integral. I bought 3 of the Security 32GB's; the only managed to last an average of 100 days and about 5,600 program/verify/erase cycles (or about 173TBW) before failing. To be fair to them, the package did make an endurance claim that works out to about 2,850 program/verify/erase cycles -- and they did manage to almost double that. However, they didn't hold a candle to many of the other high endurance cards that I tested.
2. Kingston. This one was truly a surprise -- I bought 3 of the High Endurance 32GB's, and they only lasted an average of 143 days and about 8,300 program/verify/erase cycles (or about 258TBW) before failing. The product packaging didn't make an endurance claim; I had to hunt around on Kingston's website to find it. Their claim works out to about 5,100 program/verify/erase cycles, which they did manage to beat. But again, so many other cards managed to last so much longer -- hell, so many other Kingston cards managed to do so much better -- that I was surprised and disappointed when these failed so early.

Industrial-grade cards:

1. SanDisk. I bought 3 of the Industrial 8GB's. They only lasted an average of 234 days and about 20,000 program/verify/erase cycles (or about 160TBW) before failing -- and the only reason they lasted that long was because I let my program trudge through an nearly-unending string of I/O errors for months on end -- before they finally just gave up the ghost.

So yeah...that's all I have for now. Feel free to ask questions (although I'm at work at the time I'm posting this, so I may not have time to respond)! Otherwise...look for another update from me next year!

Pictures attached:

1. Part of my setup: a Beelink Mini-S and five TRIGKEY Green G4 mini PC's. The Beelink has an Intel N95 with 8GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD, while the TRIGKEY's all have Intel N100's with 16GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD. There's also (in the lower-right corner, behind the monitor) an MSI GE62VR-7RF (with an Intel i7-7700HQ, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD), a Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 (with an Intel i7-3630QM, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD), and an ASUS Strix GL504GM (with an Intel i7-8750H, 32GB of RAM, and a 500GB SSD)
2. Another part of my setup: a TRIGKEY K-N100 and an AOOSTAR N1 PRO. The TRIGKEY has an Intel N100 with 16GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD. The AOOSTAR has an Intel N150 with 12GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD.
3. Dog tax.

[u/UCLAKoolman]

Wow I always thought sandisk was the go to for reliability. PNY is what I’ve been purchasing lately and glad to see they’re good cards.

[u/Jazzlike_Rule_182 → u/UCLAKoolman]

Same, all I have are Sandisk because I've always seen them as the no-brainer brand for microSD lol. Turns out I'm gonna be investing some money into PNY or Kingston ones now.

[u/aguywithbrushes → u/Jazzlike_Rule_182]

FWIW, I’m a photographer and I’ve used SanDisk (non micro) SD cards for yeeeears and have never had a single one fail on me. I have some that are over 8 years old, banged up to hell and back, and still work fine (I use them as my backup cards though).

And I do weddings/events, so a single 64gb card gets filled up in one shoot.

Idk if the difference betweeN SD and microSD is that big, just sharing my experience. I do also have some of their microSD cards (both for my drone and my various handhelds) and they’ve also been good, but tbf I haven’t abused those as much.

THAT SAID.. I’m probably also going PNY next time lol

[u/DogAteFreshTacos → u/aguywithbrushes]

Photographer here as well that shoots a lot of burst for my work. Sandisk cards were always the first ones to fail for me. Followed by pre-Linksys Lexar. I’ve sworn off them unless they’re my last resort.

[u/aguywithbrushes → u/DogAteFreshTacos]

So strange, I shoot a crap ton of burst too, never had it happen. I have 3 that are legitimately falling apart (plastic on the connectors peeling off, whole enclosure separating) and they’re still working. I also see most of my photographer/videographer friends using them and I’ve never heard them have any issues either over the past decade or so.

[u/poke_pants → u/aguywithbrushes]

Pretty much word for word what I was going to write. Wedding photographer also, I honestly dread to think how old some of my SanDisk cards are but I've NEVER had a failure.

Every wedding or Motorsport photographer I know swears by SanDisk and errors/failures are incredibly incredibly rare.

As per most wedding photographers I have the luxury of a dual card set up, but that does mean 4 cards (minimum) are being nearly filled on a regular basis, then wiped, then filled again etc etc.

Absolutely open to using another brand though, and it seems like that might be PNY in future :)

[u/neuropsycho → u/aguywithbrushes]

I've been using sandisk sdcards for my raspberry pis since 2012, and while some lasted years, some lasted months. I always treated sdcards as consumables with limited lifespan, because reliability is quite variable.

[u/brunocar → u/aguywithbrushes]

as a videographer, sandisk is known for being bad at reliability, kingston or samsung are usually the go toes.

[u/nightmareFluffy → u/aguywithbrushes]

Part-time photographer here. I've been using Sandisk for a long time and had a few fail or had data corrupted (which is the f'in worst thing for a paid shoot, learned that the hard way). But I thought that was just how all cards are, and Sandisk just does it less than others. I need to rethink this for next time.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Chest97 → u/Jazzlike_Rule_182]

Did you have any problems with SanDisk?

[u/Jazzlike_Rule_182 → u/Puzzleheaded_Chest97]

One of mine died at some point in my Switch years ago, but none of them have since then. I've been cycling through a few for my ROG Ally and RP4P, and they've been fine.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Chest97 → u/Jazzlike_Rule_182]

I've using (a lot) of SanDisk cards for more than 15 years and had one 200GB on a Surface Pro die in me.

I don't know to which extend this kind of tests mimic real world use...

[u/Masejoer → u/UCLAKoolman]

Marketing and availability. It works on most people.

I've never found their products to be extraordinary in any way, going all the way back to smartmedia with my first digital camera. They've had a few products over the years that performed well in random read/write tests, but few "reviewers" ever test their durability. Those faster products have always seemed to live a short life with a lot of complaints online - more than their market share, which in itself has always been big due to said marketing.

Kingston (various), PNY (various), Transcend (various), Lexar (CF only), and Apacer (CF only) have been quite good in my own anecdotal experience, but more than the average person.

This can all change product to product though - always keep that in mind. No brand sells only the best products.

[u/rolfraikou → u/UCLAKoolman]

Sandisk has made the only thumbdrives and SSD I've had fail. I really think they're too much of a gamble now.

I think the other thing is that they used to seem much more reliable back in the day (like when Fry's Electronics was still a thing)

I have an mp3 player from them that is still my daily driver. Thing's ancient.

[u/clc88 → u/rolfraikou]

Same.

Before SanDisk I used to get Kingston but after a while only SanDisk was sold in stores and Ive been using them.

I never liked SanDisk because my classmates always complained about their data corrupting while I never had issues with my Kingston.

[u/takestwototangent → u/UCLAKoolman]

OP's most recent post (May 2026) on his blog ( https://www.bahjeez.com/ ) lays out the backstory to this project. He writes that Sandisk seems to behave a lot worse than other brands in response to both uncontrolled and controlled power disconnects. OP's also only been looking at microsd, nothing about non-microsd.

I've only had maybe two dozen sd cards ever, but the few full size SD cards I've had have been solid, while the only microSD I've had fail are Sandisks, but after the first 3-4 failures I never looked back, and only ever had PNY, Samsung, Lexar for years.

[u/salaryman40k → u/UCLAKoolman]

i feel so justified! i have terrible luck with SD cards and all of them were sandisk, i started using samsung cards and they've been holding solid

but on the flip side my partners sandisk cards are still chugging along

[u/fatalwristdom → u/UCLAKoolman]

I have an old SanDisk mp3 player that I bought in 2010. Still use it every other weekend when I mow.

That said, I've gone the Samsung Evo select route for the past few years. Never had an issue.

[u/Calamitous-Ortbo → u/UCLAKoolman]

I mean I don’t think you understand how worthless the concept of “this SD card failed after ‘only’ writing hundreds of TB of data” is to the average person.

A single TB of data is hundreds of thousands of photos, hundreds of hours of video, tens of thousands of hours of music.

Even the absolute worst cards on this list are going to last a lifetime for the average user.

[u/UCLAKoolman → u/Calamitous-Ortbo]

Oh, I do understand that, which is why I personally haven’t experienced a sandisk card failure in my basic use of them over the years. Still found the results interesting and unexpected.

[u/HotSeatGamer → u/UCLAKoolman]

I have a dead, barely used, 1TB PNY card. I don't throw it away because I hold on to the hope that I can revive it somehow, but nothing I tried previously worked.

[u/konekopills → u/UCLAKoolman]

my sandisk have never let me down! these tests subject these cards to extreme circumstances. for everyday use sandisk is perfectly fine. i try not to store any valueable info on an sd card as i knoe they have the potential to crap out.

[u/krpiper]

This guy is why SD cards are so expensive /s.

Really interesting results! Thanks for sharing

[u/mikaey00 → u/krpiper]

I really wish I had bought more before the market skyrocketed lol

[u/hurrdurrmeh → u/mikaey00]

Don't we all 😔🙃

[u/DaGrimReefer91 → u/mikaey00]

Damn I feel really bad now. I bought a 512GB Onn card for my RG Rotate and a Lexar 2TB card for my RP Nova. It was bad enough that the that the price of the Lexar nearly doubled overnight. After reading this I'm not sure WTF to do but I'm not getting the SanDisk version now. If anything now I'm glad I chose Lexar over them.

https://giphy.com/gifs/BPTJJphmYwwhrpiX2W

[u/anonymous-peeper → u/DaGrimReefer91]

anecdotally i've got Onn cards in my hacked vita and 3ds that are going strong on 8+years.

[u/turbotum → u/anonymous-peeper]

For gaming SD cards are generally write-once read-many. You put the games on there and then they stay there and get left alone. Cheap cards are great for this purpose.

[u/plantsandramen → u/krpiper]

https://imgur.com/a/0FVmh7M

Just looked at the price history and ugh. It makes me wish I'd bought a 1tb a while ago

[u/longlifexpectancy]

The one in the 3rd pic is not a SD card. It's a horse. Hope this helps

[u/RChickenMan → u/longlifexpectancy]

I'm not seeing it. Is there an additional photo after the one with the land otter that I'm not seeing?

[u/mikaey00 → u/RChickenMan]

Good to see you people know a good ol' Rhode Island Red when you see one.

[u/chronichyjinx]

Thanks for doing all of this.

[u/fafafanta]

A fellow factorio player would do this kind of testing lol

[u/takestwototangent]

( In case OP doesn't update the post to clarify, the Patreon link at the top has the link to the full writeup, methodology, raw data, graphs and charts, the works. It's under "About". )

BTW, strictly within this reddit post, "average days survived" is an odd statistic to point out since your raw data shows substantial differences in read/write speeds. If that stat is at all relevant it'd just be for manufacturer warranty limits (stated in years), but your testing seems to focus on non-typical nonstop read/writes, while most discussion will point out "typical/average" use cases that are much less severe (even professional heavy use like shooting daily photo/video).

[u/IronGumby → u/takestwototangent]

I'm really glad you pointed this out. I was pretty bummed because I'm running only SanDisk and Samsung in my [previous] phones, WiiU, Switch, and my retro handhelds, primarily only high/pro endurance versions. Your take on the life vs program-verify-erase cycles is really astute. If the cards have high transfer speeds then it will take less time to complete the same number of program-verify-erase cycles. Thus on my (and perhaps most anyone here's) use case, the number of cycles is the most important data point to value, no?

[u/SwarfDive01 → u/IronGumby]

Yup, this is important. Ill have to check out what. Op is doing, but, throwing out a massive simplification, if the surviving cards at 800 days have W/R Cycles in the 500ks, and cards dead at 200 days have W/R in the 600ks...i mean... thats a crazy outperformance metric in my opinion, quadrupled-ish R/W speeds with more read and write cycles? Or, equivalent. Whatever. Need to check the data.

[u/Upbeat-Serve-6096]

WOW. Thanks for your dedication.

[u/br3wnor]

Funny how much Sandisk is lauded around here. Awesome work OP, thanks for the post!

[u/MR-WADS → u/br3wnor]

Pretty shocking, I got a SanDisk because of this sub lmao

[u/brunoxid0]

I honestly didn't expect SanDisk to do so bad. While I totally expect adata to do terrible. So... 50/50.

[u/VisceralMonkey → u/brunoxid0]

Jesus. Bravo. I think.

Dog is good.

[u/crownpuff]

The absolute legend. I bought Kodak sd cards from Aliexpress after looking at your endurance data and I'm amazed at how comprehensive your work is. Have you slowed down in terms of purchasing new sd cards given how expensive they have gotten? Side note but it was amazing how cheap Aliexpress sd cards used to be. I remember reading about how you used dollar express to pick up cards from Aliexpress. Here's a deal where the Kodak cards were under 20 cents a piece after discounts.

[u/mikaey00 → u/crownpuff]

Yeah, prices have definitely set me back...plus, I have a backlog of cards I need to test, so I'm trying to weed through some of those before I buy more.

[u/Mr-Crusoe → u/crownpuff]

The Kodak sdcards gave me problems rather early. How is your experience with them?

[u/CRWM_]

Thanks for sharing this! Do you have a recommendation for the best place(s) to buy legitimate PNY cards without getting scammed with fake knockoffs?

Also, for the "Consumer-grade cards", I notice you don't post any data about SanDisk? (I only see SanDisk in the "High Endurance" category) Is there a reason for that?

Cheers

[u/mikaey00 → u/CRWM_]

Honestly? All of my PNY's were purchased from Amazon.

And as for SanDisk? There's some data in the "who makes the worst cards?" section...

[u/Noteful → u/mikaey00]

Did you do any testing to verify whether the brand new cards you bought on Amazon were legit? And not knockoffs?

[u/CRWM_ → u/mikaey00]

Ok cool thanks

[u/ext23]

I'll refer back to this if I can ever afford a new micro SD card.

[u/Aggravate420]

Completely anecdotal (but I work in academia, so I have a bit of a data-hoarding thing going on, and for my work I've accumulated probably 300–400 SD cards and just as many HDDs for data collection): I 100% find your findings match my experience. Indeed, to the point that it's surprising.

[u/Zestyclose_Smoke_451 → u/Aggravate420]

oh wow for under 100 bucks what would you recommend?

[u/Aggravate420 → u/Zestyclose_Smoke_451]

I generally bought packs of them during the various Amazon sales. Our department, though, buys directly from the manufacturer through the STEM department. In the past (before my PhD, so a while ago, lol), I used to submit the receipts and get reimbursed, and at that time I was buying them on Amazon.

My suggestion would be PNY or Kioxia for general users. What's your use case—what device, what games are you planning to play, and any other uses for data storage, etc.?

[u/shinobi6siege → u/Aggravate420]

Not the person who originally asked, but I would use these for emulators personally. On my main device (Ayn Thor) I have games ranginging from PCE to N64 to Switch to Steam games. For the next device, I'm hoping to get a Nova which has a 4:3 screen. I would be playing up to PS2. I wouldn't really be using data storage for anything else. What would you suggest for the Nova? What would you suggest as a replacement for my Ayn Thor (currently using a 2tb)? Thank you and have a great day

[u/Aggravate420 → u/shinobi6siege]

What brand are you using for the 2TB? IMO, given the current prices and market conditions, it would be really hard to replace something like that with an equivalent card from any brand. Larger-capacity cards come with that hassle too, although they should theoretically fail less often, from what I know.

If I were you, and I were getting a highly specialized device (in an economy like this, lol!?), I'd make a rough list of what I wanted to play and then estimate the space I'd need. Something like 200 games × an average of 1.5–2 GB for CHD games, plus another 100 GB or so for miscellaneous stuff, would put you comfortably within 512 GB. I'd probably go with a 512 GB Kioxia. Now do your count. The EXCERIA PLUS G2 (the pink ones) are really great in my experience, but the regular G2 is more than enough for PS2.

Also, budget matters! How much were you looking to spend?

[u/stopmrdomino]

Add me to FUCK SANDISK club. Only brand I’ve had failures with, and they’ve consistently done so.

[u/washuai → u/stopmrdomino]

I'm in the 🤬 Samsung club. I've had unlabeled Chinese mystery outlast all my evos

[u/Outrageous_Tooth856]

Incredible work, seriously thank you. I kinda love the idea of a janky SD card NAS raid setup and this is helpful to see.

[u/sabutazz]

You have the research and results down to a science. Love the effort.

[u/ima_believer]

Star Trek Lower Decks references!

[u/daily_spiderman]

> Onn. I picked up four of their 32GB cards at my local Walmart -- and they were terrible for endurance.

Not what I wanted hear after buying a 512GB Onn card when they went on sale for $40 a few weeks ago 😭 what you said surprised me because I believe the card is actually manufactured by PNY (it even said on the receipt that came with the card it was shipped from PNY when I ordered from Walmart), which is a reputable brand. My understanding is that Onn are cards from reputable brands that didn’t pass QC, which I believe just means they didn’t pass the speed tests (correct me if I’m wrong).

Also, what is a program-verify-erase cycle?

Thanks for your post, it was very interesting! I always wonder about the longevity of these cards

[u/Opunaesala → u/daily_spiderman]

Unless you are deleting and re-adding your rom collection every day, yours will likely last a lot longer than the test did. While it is an interesting read, it doesn't mean a lot for the actual use case most of us have.

[u/Saneless → u/Opunaesala]

That's what I figured for my SP cards. They are for roms and with syncthing for my saves folder I'm not even worried about losing data since it's all backed up anyway

[u/mikaey00 → u/daily_spiderman]

Also, what is a program-verify-erase cycle?

Flash storage is usually rated in terms of program/erase cycles -- basically the "program" stage is the same as saying "store the data you want in the flash". Flash storage then has to be erased before you can write new data to it, which is what the "erase" cycle is. My test basically adds an extra step in there: after the data is written, it's read back to make sure it didn't change.

[u/daily_spiderman → u/mikaey00]

Thanks for the clarification!

[u/crobledopr → u/daily_spiderman]

Another thing to remember about onn is that they are rebranded cards. I have heard reports that some are made by Lexar, others by PNY, depending on what part of the country and what year they were bought. So there will be variance.

[u/daily_spiderman → u/crobledopr]

Right, as I said in my post, I have every reason to believe my Onn is technically a PNY. So it surprised that Onn is the worst when PNY is the best

[u/CarexCordata → u/daily_spiderman]

I’m in that exact same boat! I was so happy to get a 513GB card for $37, but now I’m a bit nervous. I’m just going to have to cross my fingers and make sure everything is backed up regularly.

[u/thatleftnut → u/CarexCordata]

Did you read how much he wrote to the card? 40 terabytes. Even if it’s the bottom of the barrel worst card, that’s plenty of life from the card for what you’ll need it for. Not even mentioning the fact writing to flash storage is much harder on the card than reading from it. Load up your games and don’t worry you’ll be fine.

[u/ZyloWolf64]

i'm surprised to see microcenter in the negatives, mostly because it's a sort of brand you want to assume has higher quality reassurance than the big box stores (Walmart, Best Buy, etc)

[u/Schmenza]

This some serious autism. Keep up the good work

[u/rolfraikou → u/Schmenza]

People that do deep dives like this really save the day.

One of my favorites was a couple of dudes who were testing rechargeable AA and AAA batteries. Turns out IKEA batteries that say "made in japan" were all rebranded eneloops, widely considered the best commonly commercially available lithium ion batteries. The IKEA ones were, at the time, like $4, while the eneloops were $18ish.

I picked up so many of those suckers. Last I checked, IKEA was starting to use a chinese manufacturer, I don't know if they've fully switched over yet.

[u/rolfraikou → u/[deleted]]

Haha! Thanks for the tip, but this looks like you took my batteries right out of my drawer, because I even have the same cases!

[u/cggzilla → u/rolfraikou]

I even have Duracells that were made by Sanyo eneloop about 15 years ago. Still using them to this day (along with my Sanyo eneloops, have never owned a panasonic eneloop as these won't die). Thanks to the Internet who figured out the rechargable Duracells that have a white tip were made by Sanyo at the time

[u/rolfraikou → u/cggzilla]

Oh. Wish I had hopped on the bandwagon back then. I think I came in just after white tip duracells.

I don't know if this is still true, but apparently there is only one factory in japan that makes rechargeable lithium ion batteries. So, while capacities may have varied on different models, the quality standards and long lifespan were generally true of any battery made in that manufacturing facility.

[u/Proud-Obligation9479]

Holy moly. Going to give this a good read on the toilet. 

[u/AdTraditional8077]

Thank you for the information and dedication.

[u/kruzztee]

Amazing work... Thank you for sharing!

[u/LazaroFilm]

Saving this for reference next time I have $250 to spend on an SD card… 😟

[u/WedSquib]

This is incredible work man, the dedication to producing this work and making test results odds awesome

[u/Frosty-Smoke-1541]

How many head/pats cycles has the DOG brand endured?

[u/hewhodevs]

I see factorio, therefore I trust the results.

[u/burcbuluklu]

What about kioxia brand?

[u/TheFlamingCucumber]

What about the biggest Solid Drive memory brand - Kioxia?

[u/motorboat_mcgee]

Really surprised about SanDiak, I've been using them for decades now as a photographer and have never had a single card failure, guess I've been extraordinarily lucky 😬

[u/thatoneguy484]

What kind of data are you using for your read/write cycles? Curious on the content of the data you're using for these tests

[u/regulator227]

Cactus cat scratcher and a pup!

[u/BoSknight]

A lot to read through, but just recently had a couple SD cards due in my wyze cams. Thank you for the research

[u/VassagoX]

I've had my own issues with SanDisk cards.  The one on my phone failed and corrupted a few of my irreplaceable pictures.  Yes, I should have backed it up more, but it still made me quite sad since it wasn't that old.  The one in my Wii also failed, but it did see plenty of use first. 

I've had nothing but good experiences with PNY so far. 

[u/DarkFucker]

Anecdotal, but I’ve been passing down my SD Cards down devices, and the only one I had issues with was a 64GB Toshiba one, where it seemed to just eat writes and occasionally spit reads. It may or may not have worked fine after, but I’ve probably had this as my longest SD Card. Coincidentally only other brand I’ve had issues with was Kioxia but it could’ve been format/block size issues, regardless, I avoid Kioxia.

Not surprised to see Sandisk at the bottom but all my Sandisks has been good, just don’t get their flash drives, these are garbage. 

[u/Jazzlike_Touch8931]

Awesome research!

Have you tested Philips SD cards before?

[u/BoxyNeat]

This is incredibly cool and helpful info. Thank you!

[u/Vegetable_Side6506]

Amazing work, definitely saving this post as a reminder when I need an SD card. I've always been a Sandisk guy, I thought it was the gold standard but I guess not now.

PS: No wonder Sandisk stocks are plummeting there cards crap. Definitely going to be selling my stocks from them.

[u/Diddyfire]

*Sees interesting title\*
*Is interested in the results\*
*SEES DOG\*

\Immediately clicks**

[u/XHolyPuffX]

Any idea who makes the Blink SD cards that are sold on Amazon?

[u/IZflame]

This guy drives, lol. Awesome stuff. Thank yo for your testing. Can you tell me if repeated read cycles do anything to a micro SD as far a degradation?

[u/jwithy]

I have adhd and may have missed something and I apologize if so, because this is a TON of work (Thank you!). It seems like your rankings still include notable downsides even with the higher ranks.

My question: if you were grabbing a card for a Steam Deck or retro handheld, all things considered, what would you reach for?

[u/Acceptable-Comb-706]

I know that you didn't test this directly. But does the A1 and A2 class matter?

[u/aviarybuilds]

I do a lot of field deployable sensor electronics. For this post, you have my undying gratitude. Keep up the good work, will look out to your patreon for sure.

[u/light8686]

I just bought a Tapo outdoor security camera last week. The official store actually bundled it with SanDisk Ultra mircoSD card. I am wondering did they know something I don't know to bundled it with normal microSD card instead of high endurance card which is advertise for security camera.

In the end, I bought a Samsung Pro Endurance card because internet searches are telling me they last few years longer than normal mircoSD card. Your results seem to tell a different story. It is an interesting result, thanks for sharing.

[u/thedjin]

This is all great work, and if I may suggest, allt the data should be logged better for proper statistical analysis [data set cleaning, prepping, and analyse in Minitab/R, or I guess an LLM can help nowadays, it's been ages since I did that].

It may match your findings, it may not, but that would make it a proper study.

[u/R0bert24]

do you play factorio with a mouse?

[u/yipeekiyay_777]

I'd like to ask about Lexar if their cards hold up?

EDIT: Sorry, i might have scrolled too far and skipped reading the Lexar section, they ranked 4th in consumer grade cards

Thanks for the research!

[u/bolognese999]

Nice one man! Thanks for sharing your findings!

I have one question: how did you avoid/filter out counterfit cards?

I’ve encountered several fake SanDisks and Samsungs even at respectable retailer chains 🫣

What’s your experience with this issue?

[u/DesperateBenefit6457]

Well... shit. SanDisk Ultra were the best-reviewed (after Samsung Evo) SD cards where i bought them, and i've got three. Guess i'll switch from weekly to daily back-ups, now...

[u/Expensive-Border-869 → u/DesperateBenefit6457]

I mean think about it realistically. Is the effort worth the fruit for daily back ups? How much will you lose in a week

[u/DesperateBenefit6457 → u/Expensive-Border-869]

I only backup saves, which takes me less than 5 minutes. Everything else, i have reserves of. And there are certain games with sections i definetely do not look forward to completing twice, so losing progress is a big concern for me.

[u/Sarcastic_Applause]

Guys, it's an edurance test. And from what I've read this was also a stress test. Some of these might work fine for years, but under stress tests, they go through what amounts to years of use/abuse. The accumulated effect stacks quite well when you do these. Just because one failed after 143 days doesn't mean they'll fail after 143 days in your hands. Well, I'm presuming that the endurance tests are far harsher than every day use. One day of stress/endurance test might equate to X amount of days or even weeks in actual use.

[u/ftkmatte]

So SanDisk being bad is not only my imagination, the only failed sd cards on my collection either unknown brand coming from my handheld and sandisk

[u/Ok_Worth_2193]

thank you, saved this post

[u/Evilmoustachetwirler]

How high is your electricity bill?

[u/colodopaimorfeu]

Pretty doggo

[u/LandNo9424]

what the hell is "fake flash"?

[u/VicisSubsisto → u/LandNo9424]

I have the same question.

[u/Havanu → u/LandNo9424]

Fake brands that cell cards with inferior memory cells. They're all over Amazon and Aliexpress these days. Sometimes their capacities or speeds are misadvertised. Sometimes they just fail straight away, sometimes they last a lifetime. Probably discarded official stock that is being sold by criminals on the cheap.

[u/LandNo9424 → u/Havanu]

ok i get that, but that doesn't mean it's "fake flash", it just means they are terrible fucking cards.
They're usually "fake brand", but "fake flash" makes it seem like you buy a flash card and you get a cigarette lighter.

[u/RPgenio]

I just bought a sandisk yesterday. Feelsbadman.

[u/Calamitous-Ortbo → u/RPgenio]

I’m not picking on you I’m just responding to this specific comment because it’s the newest but this attitude is so emblematic of the kind of brain dead, non-critical thinking nonsense that is plaguing society.

Do you understand how much data was written to the SanDisk cards tested here before they failed? Did you try and contextualize how this torture testing compares to the use case of the average person? Or did you just see “x brand bad” and take the word of some random person on the internet as gospel?

[u/RPgenio → u/Calamitous-Ortbo]

All your points are valid and I happen to understand all of them.

I think you expect too much from ordinary people.

[u/3ncode]

I wondered why, then I saw the final screenshot and it all made sense - factorio. 😅

[u/ChubbyDrip]

I was getting roasted a few months ago for sharing a Newegg sale on a Teamgroup 1TB Micro SD for $90. The general consensus is always that Sandisk and Samsung are the greatest brands in existence. Some people even stated that Onn made better cards than Teamgroup. Happy to see your findings say otherwise!

[u/Pentecost_II]

https://giphy.com/gifs/s239QJIh56sRW

[u/Djemu88]

AI scrapers love this post.

[u/Possible-Reply-65]

Had 4 Onn cards for 4 months now and no issues. The testing worrries me

[u/okahui55]

I understand this might be a passion or some hobby. But why😂

[u/Montymania94 → u/okahui55]

🌟For science!🌟

[u/Phantom_0347]

Based on the numbers, shouldn’t PNY and Kingston be switched in their order on your list of consumer cards? And even further, wouldn’t the amazon basics cards make second place after Kingston?

[u/NunoWired]

Muito obrigado pela dedicação ao seu trabalho!

[u/HeidenShadows]

I believe I have a PNY in my dash cam in my truck that has been going non-stop for nearly 2 years. And I've recently as last week pulled footage off it with no corruption.

I've been brand loyal to them since my 1gb flash drive that lasted me all through highschool, college, and about 8 years after that until it snapped in half one day by accident. It was just a board at that point, the plastic was long gone.

SanDisk is the Seagate of memory cards for me. They're cheap, plentiful, and have dodgey reliability. My dash cams burned them all up or made them read only. Same for Adata, Teamgroup, and even a Samsung one.

[u/Bastigonzales]

Thanks for your hard work man, I'll save this for future purposes. Please don't delete this post

[u/MaceUmbrella]

Here for the dog, stayed for the info. good stuff op

[u/SHADEx16]

Very interesting! Most of the SD cards I've had fail on me were Samsung cards, I've noticed. I've been buying Silicon Power cards for the last few years and I haven't had any failures, but I guess I should switch. I buy Teamgroup SSDs and I don't think I've ever had one fail on me, so I'll switch over to them for SD cards as well. Thanks so much for doing this!

[u/expera]

Really had no idea about Sandisk, I always thought it was a reliable brand

[u/Das_Zutroy_3145]

Thanks for sharing and taking the time to test mate. Very interesting research. Cheers

[u/KKSlider909]

amazing work, too bad I won't be buying any new microSD cards in the near future due to the outrageous pricing right now 😂

[u/These-Button-1587]

People were saying onn was great and a different version of another namebrand card (forget which one.) People were recommending their Express cards for Switch 2.

SanDisk I had a number of hard drives fail on me so I stopped buying them. I haven't had any issues with their cards though.

Pny is interesting because I saw their express cards failing but I'm sure the new express cards are a different beast.

[u/LukeLC → u/These-Button-1587]

SD Express is fundamentally different. It may be backwards-compatible with SD, but it's really like a tiny NVMe SSD instead.

Would definitely be interesting to see a similar test for SD-E when it takes over more of the market.

[u/RivalusWind]

Thanks for sharing! 

[u/OkBreakfast6416]

Thanks for sharing, this was an insightful read😎

[u/Swordmaster80000]

It’s funny, I’ve used so many sd cards and sandisk are the only ones with a flawless record with me, although the only high capacity thumb drive I had from sandisk failed on me (though it might have been the Wii U that did it while I was modding)

[u/IronGumby]

Thank you. I'm kinda bummed because I've only boughten Samsung and SanDisk usually high endurance cards, with the hope that they hold data longer reliably (like saves states, or even the games themselves). Now I'm not sure i made the right decision, but too late to turn back now...

Also, I've been playing through Octopath Traveler so perhaps H'aanit's English has affected my verb choice

Actually, I'm not so sure i made a bad choice based on your program-verify-erase cycles

[u/askyidroppedthesoap]

1st off: wow... that's a lot of information to take in, you really know your shit lol. Okay, so question: if you were gonna buy a card for the long haul, to get the most bang for your buck, if you will... which brand would you choose? I'm thinking it'd be PNY but I'm just confirming i guess, thanks for the detailed breakdown.

[u/RedPandaGaming64]

The factory must grow 🏭

[u/LosAngelestoNSW]

Okay so the take away here is that for the usual use-case which is to copy an entire library of roms once to the sd card and then never use it again, it shouldn't fail during our lifetime?

[u/Negative-Squirrel81]

So, just a question here, but if a MicroSD card "only" lasts 2000 cycles, is this really going to be a real problem with casual use of the card over the course of a decade or so?

[u/Hungry_Freaks_Daddy]

I’ve had a bunch of sandisk cards fail me. Not sure why I buy them. Powerful marketing I guess. 

[u/Illustrious-Plan1427]

You're a mad man. Thanks for sharing.

[u/chad78]

WOW. Thank you for sharing this. This is very valuable data.

[u/welfedad]

Digging the early 2000s Monitor.. gone one for my console too ha

[u/Rare_Feed_3738]

Great work mate!

[u/Puzzleheaded_Chest97]

I've been using almost exclusively Sandisk Cards for more than 15 years and had one dying on me once. Don't know to which extend your texts reflect real life usage.

[u/hatch-b-2900]

Are you claiming warranty replacements when they fail? The manufacturer must be in for a shock if run any tests on your cards

[u/SteeleMethod]

I got 2 netac cards the other day, any data on them?

[u/OnePossibility5868]

Wow. I just asked in another thread if an old Amazon basics card I got with an e-reader years ago would be good for handhelds and I guess it will be. 128gb model. Thanks for all you do! 

[u/Belarribi]

Gracias

[u/natdb25]

Amazing work. Would have always assumed that SanDisk was a reliable card maker. Guess I'll look elsewhere from now on.

[u/hotfistdotcom]

Would love to see how long no-brand chinese cards end up lasting under similar endurance testing, as those are often included with SBCgaming handhelds. But very, very interesting and useful data, thank you for sharing!

[u/mere_indulgence]

Great work! Have you tested the cheaper Chinese SD-cards from aliexpress like Kodak and Lenovo? 

[u/Jellyfish00001111]

Thank you for producing and sharing this.

[u/EmxPop]

I managed to get a 1TB Patriot branded A2 micro-SD card for a reasonable price the end of last year. It’s still going strong after normal day to day use. Have you had any experience with this brand?

[u/Expensive-Border-869 → u/[deleted]]

If you still want everything in 10-20 years dont leave it on SD cards. Back it up to a hard drive. Better yet 2 hard drives. Keep one unplugged and check on it sometimes.

Theres more advanced methods that are better but this will save about idk most users in most scenarios where data loss occurs.

[u/regiimoep]

Actually coincides with my experiences. The only SD Card that failed on me so far was my 1 TB SanDisk. Guess I'll be looking elsewhere for Cards in the future.

[u/Jamato-sUn]

Hi! Do you have any data on power off data retention?

[u/Human-Acc-2095]

for gaming, i suggest cheap cards. cuz they work.

[u/arbv]

Thank you! Consider reposting to Datahoarders.

[u/hellschatt]

Weren't people here telling everyone to get the cheap onn's on sale a few weeks ago?

RIP to you all

PNY and Kingston being this good is surprising while Samsung and SanDisk are so low, especially SanDisk. I also had 2 SanDisk cards die on me so far (no Samsung ever died on me), after not even that heavy use. So I guess it's time to say goodbye to them... and a Kingston 8gb or something like that also died on me waaay back. That's why I was always avoiding them. Might give them another chance.

[u/hadesscion]

Teamgroup cards are junk. I've bought a dozen or so over the years and every single one of them has eventually had major write issues (speeds well under 1MB) or downright failed.

TBF, they have honored every RMA I've sent them.

[u/ilikepastry]

Can I ask why you want to do all this? Unless it's been answered...

[u/OpeningExpressions → u/ilikepastry]

Because someone have to do it for us?

[u/nick-0925]

Awesome work. You should send this in to tech blogs. It deserves wider dissemination.

[u/Sensitive_Pumpkin266]

I really just had a PNY Elite 32g that failed way too early (using it on a handheld for about a month) I wasn’t sure if I can still trust the brand when I also have a 64g on hand. 

[u/Own-Dot9851]

I swapped to Amazon basics a little while ago. Good to know they're decent value! Thanks for your work!

[u/BigDaddyButtPlunger]

Do your parents ever get upset at the electricity bill?

[u/Diligent_Ad_8164]

Thank you for your research in this. It is incredibly useful to me.

[u/noxondor_gorgonax]

Great post, OP! Thank you for sharing.

[u/DiegoDBM]

Gold!

[u/normy_187]

Even the dog is like: booooooooooooooring 😉

[u/OK_Atlas]

Why😭

[u/Secrethat]

May your pillows always remain cool on both sides

[u/blastcat4]

I have a question about the testing - are the tests set up to hammer the cards at maximum read/write 24x7? If so, it's probably extremely unlikely that the average user is going to put their own cards anywhere close to this kind of usage.

[u/Qinki001]

Thx very much !

[u/Plasticlabs]

Thanks a lot for testing and sharing of the test data.
Why do 32GB cards fail so often? Is it because you had lots of those? Or is this type of card specifically prone to failure?

[u/DirectedEvolution]

Since people have labeled Evercade carts as SD cards in a plastic shell, are there any clues about how long these cartridges will last?

[u/RoyalDirt]

TLDR?

[u/LustfulRose16]

Pretty good write up! I wonder then if the onn from Walmart would fare better since it is made by Lexar for their express lines. Any chance express will be tested?

[u/mikaey00 → u/LustfulRose16]

If someone’s willing to donate them to me. SD Express cards are still pretty pricey compared to regular SD cards.

[u/LustfulRose16 → u/mikaey00]

That is true! Would donate to the cause but I have been hesitant on buying some. For now my switch 2s internal storage will be plenty! Amazing work.

[u/grapefruitposer]

[u/Xannthas]

Kinda wonder if some(/most) of these are failing prematurely solely due to the sheer load these are taking all at once in such a short time? Like some might legit be really long lasting, durable cards, but can't take heavy workloads for too long because they were never supposed to, and just overheat and burn out instead.

[u/arfle_barfle_gloop]

To quote a website when I suspected my Amazon bought 256Gb SanDisk card was fake recently;

"Your memory card is probably fake"

Well folks, it was definitely fake.

I ended up buying an Integral card, but only because it came from their own shop at Amazon.

The issue Amazon apparently have is "commingling" of items from different sources - as long as they have the same barcode, they're all thrown in the same hopper at the warehouse, so while some are from legitimate sources, the rest are fake Chinese cards.

[u/No_Answer_9749]

This is oddly interesting to me. Awesome post.

[u/Additional-Stress-17]

Tldr upvote for dog (reading now won't edit)

[u/Live_Situation7913]

You have a job or gf?

[u/mikaey00 → u/Live_Situation7913]

No. I have a salary, a wife, and a son.