Getting near maxing out your PS5’s SSD? You might have a number of decisions: both begin deleting a few of these meaty RPGs, pronto, or get used to paying the type of cash SanDisk is charging for its new, formally licensed storage growth drives.
The Optimus GX Pro 850P NVMe SSD is amongst quite a few new SanDisk drives which were rebranded from the earlier WD_Black naming conference. Designed with the PS5 and PS5 Pro in thoughts, it is obtainable in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB and 8TB variants, with the top-end mannequin priced at a very eye-watering $2,960. And in line with SanDisk’s web site, that is really the diminished value, down from its common value of $3,700. To place that into perspective, that is greater than 3x the worth of a PS5 Professional within the US proper now, which already features a 2TB SSD straight out of the field.
Even the $760 2TB mannequin (diminished from $950) is greater than $100 costlier than the usual PS5 with a disc drive. The Optimus GX Professional 850P is a PCle 4.0 drive with Learn/Write speeds of seven,300/6,300MB/s and a heatsink design. These specs make it sound suspiciously comparable (if not fully equivalent) to the WD_Black SN850X NVMe SSD that the 850P is seemingly changing, and it did not take me lengthy to find that the 8TB mannequin of the previous drive was on sale for underneath $600 simply final yr.
As a reminder, the Optimus GX Professional 850P NVMe SSD is launching amid a world reminiscence crisis, and the above costs ought to offer you an concept of simply how uncontrolled the RAMpocalypse is true now. As Digital Foundry notes, a sale value on SanDisk’s new $3,700 SSD that might carry it again all the way down to the $600 ballpark determine its predecessor has gone for within the final 12 months would characterize a hilarious 84 p.c low cost.
Value rises are sadly all the craze in gaming {hardware} proper now, with the risky financial panorama and AI-driven shortage of elements shouldering the blame each time. A number of months in the past Sony hiked up the worth of the PS5, PS5 Professional and the PS Portal, after Microsoft did the same with Xbox consoles twice in 2025.
Nintendo resisted for longer than most, however final month it raised the worth of the Switch 2 by $50 within the US, with the brand new $500 value set to take impact in September. And probably the most dramatic hike we have seen is on Valve’s Steam Deck lineup, with costs jacked up by as a lot as $300 for the 1TB OLED mannequin in Could.
