CFexpress cards are about to enter a new era of extreme performance

CFexpress cards keep getting faster... except right now, they're not. Since the introduction of the CFexpress 4.0 standard we've seen Type B cards capable of speeds approaching 3800MB/s, but there's very little headroom to go any faster, as the absolute theoretical speed limit of version 4.0 is 4.0GB/s, or 4000MB/s. So with a bunch of Type B cards all hitting the technological speed buffers, how do you stand out from the crowd?

Nextorage may have the answer with its NX-B2 Pro+ series of Type B cards. Though still in the development stage, they're said to be capable of a blazing-fast maximum read speed of 3700MB/s, and an equally impressive 3600MB/s peak write rate.

But what really sets B2 Pro+ cards apart from the competition is their VPG1600 certification. VPG (Video Performance Guarantee) is a tightly-controlled testing procedure and certification that guarantees a memory card can sustain a minimum write speed when recording video. Plenty of SD and CFexpress cards have VPG200 or VPG400 certification, meaning they're guaranteed to maintain a minimum 200MB/s or 400MB/s write speed, but this is the first time we've heard of a Type B card with the latest VPG1600 rating. It certifies that a B2 Pro+ card will be able to sustain an incredible 1600MB/s minimum write speed while recording video.

Nextorage has some history with pushing VPG speed limits. Back in March it revealed its A2 Pro series of CFexpress Type A cards, which were the first-ever Type A cards to receive VPG800 (800MB/s minimum sustained write speed) certification.

Strangely, whether it be the VPG800 Type-A cards, or this latest VPG1600 B2 Pro+ Type B card, both still sport the older VPG400 icon in addition to their new VPG800/1600 certification. This is because these latest VPG speed standards don't actually replace the older VPG200/400 ratings; they instead supplement them. This is due to the VPG800 and 1600 ratings being part of the new Video Performance Guarantee Profile 5.0, released by the CompactFlash Association in February 2025. VPG-5 is not backward compatible with VPG Profile 4.0 (which covers the existing VPG200 and VPG400 ratings). As such, a VPG800 or 1600 card may not work with a camera recording mode that requires VPG200 or VPG400.

This is because to achieve the higher sustained write speeds of VPG800 and 1600, such a card must first be preconditioned (initialized) with low-level formatting. This preconditioning, which has not previously been necessary, essentially resets the card to its original factory condition, permanently deleting any previous data from the card. This in turn means the card is a perfectly clean 'blank slate' which has a large, contiguous storage space, onto which a continuous video data stream can be written at high speed. There's therefore no risk of recording speed being reduced or interrupted by the memory controller needing to allocate part of the recording to a different sector of NAND flash in order to work around any pre-existing data stored on the card.

This sounds perfectly reasonable but there's a catch: simply deleting a video from the card doesn't recover the corresponding storage space for future VPG800 / 1600 recordings - you're limited to whatever remaining storage space is left after the last preconditioning (low-level formatting). To restore the full capacity of the card for more VPG800/1600 recording, you must again perform a preconditioning. Thankfully this procedure doesn't appear to be necessary for general use, or for VPG400 recordings.

For more information on these latest VPG standards, and why preconditioning is necessary, check out the official guidance from the CompactFlash Association.

We don't yet have any pricing or availability information for NX-B2PRO+ Series cards; only that they could be launched in 660GB and 1330GB capacities.

If you need a super-fast CFexpress Type B card sooner, then consider Nextorage's existing B2 Pro (non '+') card, which is available to buy now and boasts the same 3700MB/s read and 3600MB/s write speeds, just without the VPG1600 certification.