Nextorage Is First Memory Card Maker to Showcase VPG 800 CFe Cards

Mar 13, 2025

Jaron Schneider

Three Nextorage memory cards are displayed in a row. They are labeled A2 Pro, with capacities of 640GB, 320GB, and 160 GB. Each card shows specifications, including model number NX-AP2R0G0, 1950MB/s read, and 1900MB/s write speeds.

Nextorage recently unveiled the “world’s first” VPG 800-compliant CFexpress Type-A cards and expects them to be available in late April 2025. While the speed peaks aren’t anything that hasn’t been seen before, VPG 800 means the cards are certified to sustain far higher speeds in extremely taxing situations.

The new cards are part of Nextorage’s A2 Pro CFexpress memory cards in 160, 320, and 640 GB capacities. They promise a peak read speed of 1,950 MB/s, maximum write performance of 1,900 MB/s, and sustained write speeds of 1,900 MB/s thanks to the CFexpress 4.0 specification.

VPG, or Video Performance Guarantee, is a certification provided by the Compact Flash Association (CFA) that guarantees a memory card’s performance. The first version of VPG certification, called Profile 1, was created in 2011 and guaranteed via independent testing that a card can sustain a write performance of 20 MB/s. Over time, as video quality and demands have increased, the CFA published additional profiles, leading up to the most recent public profile which is VPG 400, which guarantees that a card will sustain at least 400 MB/s write speeds through its entire capacity without dropping a single frame.

While memory card companies typically always publish peak performance numbers (those are the big, flashy transfer speeds usually printed on a memory card’s label), sometimes they will also publish sustained performance. Even then, this isn’t a number that is verified by a third party — Nextorage says its new cards can sustain 1,900 MB/s, but that wasn’t verified by anyone outside the company. That’s what makes VPG so valuable: it not only is verified by a separate group (the CFA), but it also writes a firmware flag onto the card that can tell a camera that the card will maintain that performance.

VPG 800 is brand-new and Profile 5, the specification that includes the compliant specification for it, hasn’t been fully validated yet by CFA members. Still, that process is expected to complete in about a month which lines up with Nextorage’s plans for its VPG800 cards’ release.

“As of February 2025, according to Nextorage’s research, the official version of the VPG Profile 5.0 test script has not been released,” Nextorage stipulates in the fine print. PetaPixel confirmed with the CFA that this is the case. “However, it has been confirmed to pass testing with the final release candidate version. The product is expected to obtain VPG Profile 5.0 certification using the official test script before its release.”

There are not currently any cameras that demand VPG800 performance to unlock any specific features and only a few Sony cameras require VPG200. The same can be said of CFexpress 4.0, a specification that has been out since 2023 but no camera maker is yet to support it and those increased speeds. The CFA appears to be looking ahead of possible demand so that when a camera does come out that needs this high level of performance, cards will exist that support it.

Nextorage’s CFexpress A2 Pro VPG 800-compliant cards will be available in late April starting at 26,990 yen, or around $180, and will be compatible with the Sony a1, a9 III, a7RV, a7S III, a7 IV, FX6, FX3, and FX30 cameras.