The MicroSD card on a Raspberry Pi serves as memory storage for the micro computer.
Deciding which SD card to buy is not easy. They all look the same and are in a similar price range. But you’re reading this, so you’re smarter than that :-). I’m going to give you some tips to help you choose your next SD card for your Raspberry Pi.
All Raspberry Pi models can be used for teaching students programming, light personal computing, automation or carrying out programmed tasks, and more. A Raspberry Pi can be used for lots of tasks and projects. You can easily expand your Raspberry Pi 5 storage by using the MicroSD card slot on the bottom of the board.
Now that you have your Raspberry Pi 5, you need a MicroSD Card. The Raspberry Pi 5 is UHS-I compatible and can take MicroSD cards 1TB and beyond. There are 2 major models with the only difference being RAM. There is a 4GB and 8GB version of the Raspberry Pi 5. Both models have the same processor, gigabit ethernet port, dual Micro-HDMI ports for two displays, and MicroSD Card slot for the main storage drive.
Just get a decent quality well known SD card.
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Here's what you should consider when selecting a microSD card for your Raspberry Pi:
Key Considerations for MicroSD Cards
When choosing a microSD card for your Raspberry Pi, there are several factors to consider. These include size, speed class, brand, and overall performance.
Size
SD card size is probably the first filter you use when shopping online. As a general rule, I’d avoid buying anything under 16GB. With 32GB, you can try any project on Raspberry Pi. If you want to store more files (e.g. If you need a lot of storage, you may need to think twice about whether it’s better to get a large SD card or add an external drive (USB or even a network share).
8 GB is the minimum capacity required for a micro-SD card to install most operating systems on a Raspberry Pi. I recommend reading my other article to learn more about this: Do I Need an SD Card for Raspberry Pi?
Speed Class
The only thing I would use to filter the results is the speed class. You’ll find this on any SD card. Each class level gives you a general idea of the SD card performance. Etc. You can also find the ‘UHS speed class’ (U1 in the SanDisk Ultra example) and ‘Video Speed Class’ (V30 for example).
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There is a thread abut A2 support in the Pi 5 and it appears to work for new Sandisk A2 cards. I will definitely choose Sandisk Extreme or (when on sale) Extreme Pro A2 cards in the future as their extra speed makes a difference even on an old Pi 4.
The Application Performance Class 2 (A2) is defined by SD Physical 6.0 specification. It makes SD memory card much higher performance than A1 performance by using functions of Command Queuing and Cache. Efficient flash memory management can be supported by Maintenance functions.
The Raspberry Pi 5 has a “high-speed SDR104 mode”. At first, you might be confused what this means. High-speed SDR104 mode means “Single Data Rate 104MB/s” and as stated has a bus speed of 104MB/s. The UHS 1/SDR104 section of Wikipedia page on SD Cards pegs max speed at 104 MB/s.
Did you know that the Raspberry Pi foundation released an official SD card back in October 2024? These cards are Class 10, U3, and V30 like the others, but what’s different is that the official Raspberry Pi SD cards are class A2. In the past, application performance class A2 didn’t necessarily mean better performance on the Raspberry Pi. But you might be surprised to find that this has changed.
Brands
You can probably filter again by keeping only the “serious brands” like SanDisk and Samsung.
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The best MicroSD Cards to pair with your Raspberry Pi 5 are the SanDisk Extreme and Extreme Pro. The Samsung Evo is also a great option to use with your Raspberry Pi 5. Both brands and models come in a variety of storage sizes that will fit your needs.
I have used Sandisk in the past, moved on to Kingston (SDHC & SDXC) but eventually suffered my first (and only) uSD card failure of one of those. Currently I've found Kioxia, Lexar and, unexpectedly, the relatively low-cost, Kootion brand to be "good value" for, albeit short term, Pi5 testing, along with P4B's also running Bookworm.
Performance
For the best performance my PERSONAL benchmarking has showed that SanDisk Extreme PLUS 32GB, A1, U3,V30 has both best read and write performance. A2 cards does not give all the performance on the Pi5 as they (card manufacturers) claim, even if the cards in theory should be better. Has there ever been any suggestion that RPi have responded accordingly to make RPi hardware capable of exploiting this feature?
In product descriptions, you’ll see the “write speed” and “read speed” listed for each model. Should that be your main criteria?Not really. It’s all commercial language. Need some inspiration for your next Raspberry Pi project? The only useful information you can get from this is maybe to know the best model of the same brand, by comparing the value given for each model.
IMHO it's a case of "value for money" vs. performance needed. So, for me, currently, that equates to using USB-adapter connected SSD's of 120GB - 256GB size for the "pi's" in regular use by me and other family members (currently a P400, 2 P4B's and a P3B+) and moderately priced uSDXC cards of mainly, 64GB or 128GB.
At the point where the premium of "SD card with more letters and numbers all over it" becomes too great, just bite the bullet and go USB-SSD or NVMe.
The most popular SD cards were tested using objective benchmarks for transfer speed and latency. How do you decide which SD card to get? I’ll give you recommendations based on real data and not just my experience.
If you’re looking for inspiration for your next Raspberry Pi project, I’ve put together a list of 75+ ideas with full descriptions, difficulty ratings, and links to tutorials. Whether you’re a beginner or more advanced, there’s something here for you.
I’ve used this SD Card for a long time. Need some inspiration for your next Raspberry Pi project? Ok, let’s move now to the serious competitors in this benchmark.The first one is the SanDisk Extreme. A golden card, it must go fast right?
The SanDisk Ultra is really close from the SanDisk Extreme model, and is even a little better at reading. The Lexar SD card is far from all the other ones. The first two SanDisk models, and the Official Raspberry Pi SD Card, seem to get a fantastic result compared to the others. How is this possible?
At the moment, the Official Raspberry Pi SD Card is definitely the one you need. The Official Raspbery PI Sd Card is the fastest and most reliable SD card for a Raspberry Pi.
Explore Raspberry Pi storage solutions: microSD cards and NVMe SSDs. High-speed, reliable storage compatible with Pi 5, Pi 4, Compute Module 4 & 5. Optimise data transfer speeds on your Raspberry Pi computer with an official Raspberry Pi SD Card.
A Raspberry Pi SSD unlocks outstanding performance for I/O intensive applications on Raspberry Pi 5 and other devices, including super-fast startup when booting from SSD.
That said, you will probably get better access speeds with a USB 3 to Sata III enclosure with an SSD in it. The Pi 5 intro says it sports a High-speed microSD card interface with SDR104 mode support. USB 3 to SATA III disks usually give better than 120 MB/a, and my testing has given me 380 MB/a for large writes.
Additionally, there is a PCI express port that you can use for an M.2 SSD.
Running Bookworm on a Pi5, a P500 and two P4B's but still using Bullseye or Buster on other (older) Pi's and the P400 I often post from.
My new pi5 just arrived, and I neglected to order a micro SD for it. I've ordered the NVME hat and it should arrive next week.
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It took me way too long to figure out which micro SD card was actually best for my Raspberry Pi. The names all sound fancy, like Pro this or Extreme that, but what really matters is how they perform. So I tested them all and found a clear winner.
Here is a comparison table of some popular microSD cards and their specifications:
| SD Card | Capacity | Speed Class | Application Performance Class | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SanDisk Extreme | 32GB - 1TB | U3, V30 | A1/A2 | High performance, suitable for various projects |
| SanDisk Extreme Pro | 32GB - 1TB | U3, V30 | A1/A2 | Enhanced performance, ideal for demanding applications |
| Samsung EVO Select | 32GB - 512GB | U3, V30 | A1 | Reliable performance, good for general use |
| Official Raspberry Pi SD Card | 16GB - 64GB | U3, V30 | A2 | Optimized for Raspberry Pi, excellent performance |
There is no way to estimate how long the micro-SD card will last, they can break at anytime. Creating backups of your SD card is your best option if you don’t want to lose your data.
SBCs: It's time to ditch microSD
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tags: #raspberry #pi #compatible #sd #cards