The best CFexpress cards in 2024: ultra-fast Type B and Type A cards compared

The best CFexpress cards - a selection of CFexpress Type B cards
(Image credit: James Artaius)

CFexpress is now the memory card format of choice for professional cameras, as the best CFexpress cards are significantly faster than even UHS-II SD cards. Evolving from the XQD card format, CFexpress Type B cards share the same outer design as XQD cards, but pack faster memory inside, making them some of the fastest memory cards available today.

Almost all cameras that originally supported XQD cards have now been firmware-updated to also work with CFexpress Type B cards, so cameras like the Nikon Z6 and Z7 are no longer restricted to XQD cards alone.

Ben Andrews
Ben Andrews

Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or checking the performance of a memory card, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys. 

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Lab resultsScoreRating
Read speed858MB/s (USB bottlenecked)★★★
Write speed900MB/s (USB bottlenecked)★★★
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Lab resultsScoreRating
Read speed2595MB/s★★★★★
Write speed1613MB/s★★★★★
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Lab resultsScoreRating
Read speed1647MB/s★★★★★
Write speed1442MB/s★★★★★
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Lab resultsScoreRating
Read speed908MB/s (USB bottlenecked)★★★
Write speed870MB/s (USB bottlenecked)★★★
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Lab resultsScoreRating
Read speed907MB/s (USB bottlenecked)★★★
Write speed789MB/s (USB bottlenecked)★★★
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Lab resultsScoreRating
Read speed915MB/s (USB bottlenecked)★★★
Write speed921MB/s (USB bottlenecked)★★★
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Header Cell - Column 0 Type AType B
Dimensions:20mm x 28mm x 2.8mm38.5mm x 29.8mm x 3.8mm
PCIe interface:Gen3, 1 laneGen3, 2 lanes
Maximum theoretical performance:1000MB/s2000MB/s
TOPICS
Ben Andrews

Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.