Best CFexpress Type-A Memory Cards – 17 Tested

CFexpress Type-A memory cards, or CFxA & CFeA as often abbreviated, are a relatively new type of memory card that Sony has used for many of its new full-frame mirrorless cameras.

CFexpress Type-A cards are smaller but thicker and faster than UHS-II V90 SD memory cards.

Many CFexpress Type-A cards with larger capacities are now on the market, and their prices have decreased significantly. Some are now affordable enough to be considered a better value than V90 UHS-II SD memory cards.

New CF4.0 CFexpress Type-A Memory Cards

The CF4.0 interface is the latest technology in CFexpress Type-A memory cards. This new interface gives you about double the speed when accessing the flash on the card but doesn’t increase the actual flash speed, only the access time. So when it comes to long sustain speeds, our bottleneck here is usually the slower type of flash used on the cards; this means it is mostly only useful for photographers bursting a lot since this mostly uses the fast SLC style cache on these cards.

No camera has taken advantage of this new standard yet. So, you don’t need to worry about buying CF4.0 cards if they are the most expensive. However, this is where everything is going, so if you find a great deal, you’ll have at least a card that is ready or any future camera.

CFexpress Type-A Memory Card Benchmarks

To find the best CFexpress Type-A memory cards, I benchmarked each with the AJA system test on a Windows 11 machine using the Prograde CFx Type-A reader, and I’m also using the Prograde CF4.0 Type-A reader for the new cards.

Remember you’ll need a USB4.0-compatible computer and cable to use CF4.0 cards and readers.

AJA System Test settings: Resolution: 5120×2700 5k Red / Test File Size: 4GB / Codec Type 16bit RGBA. Speeds are shown in Megabytes per second.

Crystal Disk Settings: 3 runs, 2GiB.

Crystal Disk will pull more of the max or peak performance values. In contrast, AJA produces an average based on a transfer request size with the codec type I’ve selected, so AJA is more relevant to camera usage, which is almost always sequential with larger write blocks.

CFxA Memory Cards	Review Links	CrystalDisk	Speed Class	Rated Write	Rated Read	Rated Sustained	Tested Write	Tested Read	Tested Sustain	Hide	Genius	Links
CFExpress Type-A												Hide
Sony M Tough 960/1920GB	Sony M Tough CFExpress Type-A Review	--	CFx-A	700	800	200						Amazon / B&H
Sony G Tough 80/160/320/640GB	Sony G Tough CFExpress Type-A Review		CFx-A	700	800	400	658	847	276			Amazon / B&H
Lexar Gold CF4.0 640/1TB			CFx-A 4.0	1650	1800	1400						B&H
Lexar Gold 80/160GB/320GB			CFx-A	800	900	400	825	886	817			Amazon / B&H
Lexar Silver Series 160/320GB			CFx-A	700	800	200	776	861	687	X		Amazon
Delkin Black CF4.0 960GB			CFx-A 4.0	1740	1830	500						B&H
Delkin Black CF4.0 480GB			CFx-A 4.0	1710	1830	500						B&H
Delkin Black 160GB			CFx-A	790	880	400	701	793	357			Amazon / B&H
Delkin Black 80GB			CFx-A	730	880	400	654	845	134			Amazon / B&H
Delkin Power 160GB			CFx-A	790	880	400	705	843	680			Amazon / B&H
Delkin Power 80GB			CFx-A	730	880	400	641	847	133			Amazon / B&H
ProGrade Iridium CF4.0 480-960GB			CFx-A 4.0	1700	1800	200	1272	1532	687			Amazon / B&H
ProGrade Gold 240-480GB			CFx-A	800	900	400	618	837	445			Amazon / B&H
AngelBird AV Pro CF4.0 256/512GB/1TB			CFx-A 4.0	1650	1800	800						B&H
ProGrade 160GB - Discontinued		--	CFx-A	700	800	400	691	845	148			Amazon
AngelBird AV Pro 1TB		--	CFx-A	730	820							Amazon / B&H
Wise Advanced MkII CF4.0 256GB-1TB			CFx-A 4.0	1750	1865	400	814	1555	735			B&H
Exascend Essential Pro CF4.0 1TB		--	CFx-A 4.0	1650	1800	400						Amazon / B&H
Exascend Essential Pro CF4.0 256/512GB			CFx-A 4.0	1650	1800	400	1237	1560	759			Amazon / B&H
Exascend Essential 1TB		--	CFx-A	850	900	200						Amazon / B&H
Exascend Essential 360GB-1TB			CFx-A	800	900	200	704	821	636			Amazon / B&H
Exascend Essential 120-240GB			CFx-A	700	800	200	681	842	537			Amazon / B&H
OWC Atlas Pro CF4.0 480/960GB			CFx-A 4.0	1700	1850		1275	1535	692			Amazon / B&H
Pergear Prime 1TB		--	CFx-A	700	800	722						Amazon
Pergear Prime 260GB/520GB			CFx-A	900	880	400	588	837	442			Amazon
Pergear Prime 80GB			CFx-A	600	800	600	738	840	644			Amazon
Pergear Standard 512GB		--	CFx-A	780	800	380						Amazon
Pergear Standard 256GB	Pergear Standard 256GB CFxA Review		CFx-A	780	780	380	768	812	253			Amazon

You can see these benchmarked in various Sony Cameras.

Memory Cards For Sony A9 III

Memory Card For Sony A1

Memory Card For Sony A7sIII

Memory Cards For Sony A7rV

Memory Card For Sony A7IV

You can check out this Sony Guide To Memory Cards to see which Sony cards support CFxA cards.

What To Look For With CFexpress Type-A Cards

These CFxA cars work similarly to the SSDs in our computers. They often have a fast SLC (Single-level cell) flash used as an initial quick cache that might be a few gigabytes. Once that cache gets filled, the card starts writing to a much slower memory, like MLC. This affects their sustain speeds.

You can see that working with the Sony Tough cards with the I/O transaction data below.

The faster SLC flash memory gets initiated, and the write speeds are very quick, but once the SLC fast type of flash is filled up, the files and the fast cache write to the slower memory until the fast flash is cleared for another write cycle.

In addition, thermal throttling can occur when the cards get very hot. Although cards sometimes run better once they are a little warmed up. Flash memory likes being hot, but the controller in the flash doesn’t.

To avoid negative reviews, memory card companies are now listing the guaranteed write speeds of these cards. For example, most CFxA cards list the 400 or 200-speed class. Similar to how we had V60 or V90 with our UHS-II SD cards.

If the card has a 400 rating (the little 400 inside the film clapboard), the card is guaranteed to sustain an average of 400MB/s.

How Are CFexpress Type A Cards Different Than CFexpress Type B?

The main difference between CFexpress type A and CFexpress type B cards, besides their size, is that Type B cards have a two-lane bus for speeds up to 1700MB/s, while Type A cards only have a one-lane throughput for a top speed of 800MB/s.

With PCIe 4.0 now on the market, we can expect CFxA cards to get significantly faster. What’s cool is that we are starting to see PCIe 4.0 CFxA cards that are as fast as our current CF2.0 cards CFxB cards, making this CFxA choice a pretty practical play by Sony as the cards are much smaller and lighter. However, they could potentially have more issues with heat when running these blazing-fast PCIe 4.0 speeds on a single lane.