Quick Look
- SanDisk has released new officially licensed storage expansion drives for PS5 and PS5 Pro, the Optimus GX Pro 850P NVMe SSD.
- Available in 1TB to 8TB, the 8TB model is priced at $2,960 (down from $3,700), significantly higher than console prices, amid a global memory crisis and component scarcity.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
SanDisk has released new, officially licensed SSDs for the PS5 and PS5 Pro, with pricing that has drawn significant criticism. This launch occurs amidst a global memory crisis and rising costs for gaming hardware.
Getting close to maxing out your PS5's SSD? You have a few choices: either start deleting some of those meaty RPGs, pronto, or get used to paying the kind of money SanDisk is charging for its new, officially licensed storage expansion drives.
The Optimus GX Pro 850P NVMe SSD is among a number of 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 priced at a truly eye-watering $2,960. And according to SanDisk's website, that's actually the reduced price, down from its regular price of $3,700. To put that into perspective, that's more than 3x 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 (reduced 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 specs make it sound suspiciously similar (if not completely identical) to the WD_Black SN850X NVMe SSD that the 850P is seemingly replacing, and it didn't take me long to discover that the 8TB model of the former drive was on sale for under $600 just last year.
As a reminder, the Optimus GX Pro 850P NVMe SSD is launching amid a global memory crisis, and the above prices should give you an idea of just how out of control the RAMpocalypse is right now. As Digital Foundry notes, a sale price on SanDisk's new $3,700 SSD that would bring it back down to the $600 ballpark figure its predecessor has gone for in the last 12 months would represent a hilarious 84 percent discount.
Price rises are unfortunately all the rage in gaming hardware right now, with the volatile economic landscape and AI-driven scarcity of components shouldering the blame every time. A few months ago Sony hiked up the price of the PS5, PS5 Pro and the PS Portal, after Microsoft did the same with Xbox consoles twice in 2025.
What to Watch
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
SanDisk may offer significant discounts on the Optimus GX Pro 850P SSDs in the future.
Possible · Within months
Open Questions
- Will prices decrease as component availability improves?
- How will consumers react to these high prices long-term?
- Are there viable cheaper alternatives for PS5 storage expansion?
