A comparison between all the most popular UHS-II and UHS-I SD memory cards in the Nikon D500.
Use this guide to find the best memory cards for your style of shooting.
Camera Specs
Sensor: APS-C 20.9MP / Processor: EXPEED 5
Memory Card Type: XQD / SD UHS-I / UHS-II
Video: 3840 x 2160p / 30 fps
Est. Size Of Buffer: 1.25 GB
Continues Shooting Speed: 10fps
Shots To Fill Buffer: 43 RAW Lexar 2000x
Time To Clear Buffer: 7.5 seconds – Lexar 2000x
Best Memory Cards For The Nikon D500
Some Nikon cameras are like Sony cameras in that they’ll have an annoying memory card bottleneck. Not the Nikon D500. It’s blazing fast.
My only regret when testing this camera is I wasn’t able to get any XQD memory cards in time for my test. But maybe that’s not a huge deal, there are only like four or five different ones on the market anyway, plus, the Nikon D500 takes UHS-II cards which already perform extremely well.
So my plan to test XQD cards for this camera is to wait a bit. Hopefully, a few more come out and I can test everything all at once. But I will be ordering some to test with the Nikon D5 so maybe I’ll test them sooner. We’ll see.
One thing I can assure you is that XQD cards should run close to twice as fast as UHS-II cards; as long as you get the cream of the crop.
USB 3.0 read and write speeds are determined using Crystal Disk on Windows 10.
Memory Cards | USB 3.0 Read | USB 3.0 Write | Nikon D500 | See Price |
XQD | ||||
Lexar 2933x 64GB XQD 2.0 | 440 MB/s | 400 MB/s | — | Amazon |
Lexar 1400x 64GB XQD | 210 MB/s | 185 MB/s | — | Amazon |
Sony G 64GB XQD 2.0 | 440 MB/s | 400 MB/s | — | Amazon |
Sony G 64GB XQD 2.0 | 400 MB/s | 350 MB/s | — | Amazon |
Sony M 64GB XQD | 440 MB/s | 150 MB/s | — | Amazon |
UHS-II | ||||
Lexar 2000x U3 64GB | 280.9 MB/s | 181.4 MB/s | 157.96 MB/s | Amazon |
Toshiba U3 64GB | 238.5 MB/s | 199.7 MB/s | 140.39 MB/s | Amazon |
Transcend U3 64GB | 268.9 MB/s | 174.3 MB/s | 135.03 MB/s | Amazon |
Delkin UHS-II U3 32GB | 245.1 MB/s | 164.6 MB/s | 134.88 MB/s | Amazon |
Sandisk Extreme Pro U3 64GB | 257.3 MB/s | 109.9 MB/s | 131.72 MB/s | Amazon |
Sony UHS-II U3 64GB | 253.2 MB/s | 91.62 MB/s | 84.22 MB/s | Amazon |
Lexar 1000x U3 64GB | 145.0 MB/s | 60.7 MB/s | 70.21 MB/s | Amazon |
UHS-I | ||||
Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB U3 | 98.6 MB/s | 90.8 MB/s | 82.45 MB/s | Amazon |
Kingston 64GB U3 | 98.1 MB/s | 90.4 MB/s | 78.26 MB/s | Amazon |
Samsung Pro 64GB U1 | 96.3 MB/s | 82.2 MB/s | 73.25 MB/s | Amazon |
Sony 64GB U3 (Old Model) | 96.5 MB/s | 84.5 MB/s | 69.39 MB/s | Amazon |
Transcend 64GB U3 | 96.7 MB/s | 68.4 MB/s | 58.79 MB/s | Amazon |
Samsung Pro+ 64GB U3 | 97.5 MB/s | 87.3 MB/s | 58.21 MB/s | Amazon |
Lexar 633x 64GB U3 | 93.3 MB/s | 67.3 MB/s | 58.00 MB/s | Amazon |
Sandisk Extreme Plus 64GB U3 | 99.0 MB/s | 64.4 MB/s | 57.98 MB/s | Amazon |
PNY 64GB U1 | 96.5 MB/s | 66.5 MB/s | 57.61 MB/s | Amazon |
PNY 64GB U3 | 96.5 MB/s | 66.1 MB/s | 57.52 MB/s | Amazon |
Lexar 600x 64GB U1 | 95.4 MB/s | 64.8 MB/s | 54.63 MB/s | Amazon |
Sony 64GB U3 (New Model) | 96.7 MB/s | 56.2 MB/s | 54.37 MB/s | Amazon |
Samsung Pro 64GB U3 | 97.7 MB/s | 78.6 MB/s | 53.56 MB/s | Amazon |
Sandisk Extreme 64GB U3 | 72.43 MB/s | 54.1 MB/s | 49.49 MB/s | Amazon |
Samsung 64GB SDXC EVO U1 | 47.7 MB/s | 27.3 MB/s | 21.97 MB/s | Amazon |
If you’re not going with XQD or you need the fastest memory card for a backup slot, then it seems UHS-II cards are the way to go. The Lexar 2000x hands down destroys the competition. Although there is a Sandisk UHS-II 300MB/s card I just ordered. It was impossible to find for a while. So when I retest XQD cards I’ll also test that bad boy.
Fastest Memory Cards For the Nikon D500 | The Results
Best UHS-II Memory Card
Since the Nikon D500 uses the UHS-II memory card interface it makes sense to buy the best UHS-II cards you can get. Right now the best-performing cards that I tested were the Lexar 2000x and the Toshiba. Third and fourth are Transcend and Delkin. While Toshiba makes a great card, it’s often difficult to find it at a reasonable price, so I would gravitate toward a Transcend or Delkin if you don’t want Lexar. There is also the Sandisk Extreme 300MB/s card that will likely perform on par with the 2000x. But it’s still untested.
Best UHS-I Memory Cards
If you already have a great XQD card and want some backup card for JPEGs or something, then UHS-I cards will be fine. But keep in mind, that putting in a slow card into slot two when running dual backup, will create a speed bottleneck. So only use slower cards if you’re using RAW+JPEG where the JPEG files are going to the second card slot.
- Sandisk Extreme Pro 64GB U3 – Amazon / Adorama
- Kingston 64GB U3 – Amazon / Adorama
- Samsung Pro 64GB U1 – Amazon / Adorama
Where To Buy Memory Cards
If you don’t buy a memory card from one of the links above, you’ll need to be careful you don’t get counterfeit cards. They are very common on Ebay, even sometimes on Amazon. Always make sure you buy your cards from a trusted source on Amazon, or a trusted camera store like Adorama, or B&HPhoto.
I would avoid buying any memory cards on eBay.
Best Memory Card For Video In The Nikon D500
While the Nikon D500 shoots 4k video, its bandwidth isn’t all that overwhelming and you’ll likely not need anything special in terms of memory cards. However, just to be safe, I would stick with at least U3 memory cards if you’re not going to buy XQD or UHS-II cards.
Frequently Ask Questions
I’ve been doing these memory card speed tests for several years now and I get a lot of the same questions asked, so I’ll do my best to answer those here.
What’s the difference between U1 and U3 SD Memory cards? – The main difference has to do with minimum write speeds. U1 cards are guaranteed to write at a minimum speed of 10MB/s, and U3 SD memory cards can write at a minimum speed of 30MB/s. Now of course there are many things that go on inside the camera that might not guarantee this, but it’s usually not the card’s fault. You’ll also start seeing V30, V60, and V90 written on cards. This has to do with the minimum write speeds of V30 – 30MB/s, V60 – 60MB/s, and V90 – 90MB/s.
What’s the difference between SDHC and SDXC with SD memory cards? – This has to do with the formatting of the card. SDHC cards are Fat32, and SDXC cards are exFat. Now pretty much SDHC means any card 32GB and smaller, and SDXC means 64GB and larger.
My memory card is creating corrupt shots what do I do? – Unfortunately in this situation, you likely have a bad card. There isn’t a lot you can do about this other than to replace your card.
My memory card doesn’t work what do I do? – It’s likely you could have a bad memory card, but also make sure you always format your card in camera. This tends to reduce issues with cards not working or not performing correctly.
My buffer keeps getting filled when recording video. – This usually means you’re memory card is not fast enough and you’ll need get a faster card. If you already have a card on the list above, you should try a different brand. Not all cameras work the same with each card, different production cycles between cameras and cards can produce various results and there is no guarantee the cards I rated will work perfectly with your camera. Lexar, Toshiba, Samsung and Sandisk are usually pretty safe bets.
Can I use Micro SD memory cards? – Yes you can, but there are a lot of crappy out there. I have just about every one made so just leave me a comment if you want to know if they work or not.
Best Memory Card For The Nikon D500 | Conclusions
It seems the Nikon D500 is a true performance beast and you have so many options for memory storage. XQD cards are known to perform with crazy speeds, but if you’re looking to save a buck, UHS-II memory cards also perform very well and will suit most people just fine.
Keep in mind if you do run a dual memory card setup that your second card will be your bottleneck, so make sure you still get a fast UHS-II card for the second slot. If you’re just casually shooting then honestly, there is no reason to get XQD cards unless they go on sale or something.
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