Are you getting close to maxing out your PS5’s SSD? You have a few options: either start deleting some of those important RPGs, or get used to paying the kind of money that SanDisk is charging for its new, officially licensed storage expansion drives.
The Optimus GX Pro 850P NVMe SSD is one of several new SanDisk drives that have been rebranded from the previous WD_Black naming convention. Designed with the PS5 and PS5 Pro in mind, it’s available in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB variants, with the top-end model costing literally $2,960. And according to SanDisk’s website, that’s exactly what Reduced Price, down from its regular price of $3,700. To put this in perspective, that’s more than 3 times the price of a PS5 Pro in the US right now, which already includes a 2TB SSD straight out of the box.
Even the $760 2TB model (down from $950) is more than $100 more expensive than the standard PS5 with a disc drive. The Optimus GX Pro 850P is a PCle 4.0 drive with read/write speeds of 7,300/6,300MB/s and a heatsink design. These specifications make it suspiciously similar (if not completely identical) to the WD_Black SN850X NVMe SSD that the 850P is replacing, and it didn’t take me long to find out that an 8TB model of the former drive was on sale for less than $600 just last year.
As a reminder, the Optimus GX Pro 850P NVMe SSD is launching in the midst of a global memory crisis, and the prices above should give you an idea that the RAMpocalypse is out of control right now. As digital foundry Of note, the sale price on SanDisk’s new $3,700 SSD, which would bring it back to its predecessor’s $600 ballpark figure over the last 12 months, represents a hilarious 84 percent discount.
Unfortunately, gaming hardware is currently dominated by price increases, which are often attributed to the unstable economic landscape and AI-driven shortages of components. Sony raised the price of the PS5, PS5 Pro, and PS Portal a few months ago after Microsoft did the same twice with its Xbox consoles due in 2025.
Nintendo resisted for longer than most, but last month it raised the price of the Switch 2 in the US by $50, with the new $500 price set to take effect in September. And the most dramatic increase we’ve seen is on Valve’s Steam Deck lineup, with prices rising by $300 for the 1TB OLED model in May.
<a href