OWC’s New CFexpress Cards are Very Fast and Its Old Ones Can Be, Too
By Jennifer P
In a recent PetaPixel blog post by Jaron Schneider, OWC unveiled a new line of CFexpress cards that adhere to the CFexpress 4.0 specification. The company’s Atlas Pro and Atlas Ultra cards stand out by doubling the speed of their predecessors, reaching up to 3,650 MB/s read and 3,000 MB/s write speeds, a remarkable 97% improvement over the prior generation. This advancement empowers photographers and videographers to capture high-quality content, including 4K, 6K, and 8K+ videos, while also facilitating faster content access and offloading for editing and distribution.
What sets OWC apart further is the remarkable efficiency of its cards, consuming only one-third of the power allowed by the specification, distinguishing them from competitors. Currently, OWC joins ProGrade Digital as the only manufacturer producing CFexpress 4.0 cards, although Nextorage plans to enter the market in the near future.
A notable breakthrough is OWC’s compatibility with its Innergize software, allowing users to upgrade the firmware of specific previous-generation PCIe Gen3 Atlas Ultra 1TB and 2TB cards to CFexpress 4.0 firmware. This is a first in the memory card industry, enabling existing card owners to elevate their card’s performance without having to purchase new ones.
The blog post also highlights a prototype OWC CFexpress 4.0 card reader, demonstrating the significant speed boost when using OWC’s USB 4.0 card reader. This firmware update is available for free to enhance older cards’ performance.
It’s important to note that both CFexpress 2.0 and CFexpress 4.0 cards are backward compatible with cameras that accept CFexpress cards, though the full benefits of CFexpress 4.0 will require new hardware in cameras.
For pricing and availability, OWC’s Atlas Pro CFexpress cards come in 256GB and 512GB capacities, priced at $169.99 and $199.99, respectively, while the Atlas Ultra cards are available in 1TB and 2TB capacities for $579.99 and $999.99, respectively. The upgrade for compatible Atlas Ultra CFexpress cards is free and can be completed via OWC Innergize software. The USB 4.0 card reader used in testing is expected to hit the market in early 2024.
Read the full article by Jaron Schneider for PetaPixel HERE
Learn more about OWC Atlas Pro CFexpress HERE
Learn more about OWC Atlas Ultra CFexpress HERE
Learn more about OWC HERE