<p>You have to check the specification of your camera.  30Mb/s could be plenty for 60fps 4k or not enough for 24p SD, entirely depending on what format and data rate is being used.  Your camera should say the data rate of whatever you intend to record in.  Use that to determine the needed card speed.  Make sure that the write speed is actually what you need as well as read and write speeds can sometimes differ significantly on SD cards.</p>

<p>According to <a href="https://gopro.com/support/articles/hero4-silver-recording-time-in-each-video-setting" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this page</a>, the Hero4 Silver only supports 15fps 4k recording.  For that particular camera, the required data rate is 45 Mbps.  Note that memory cards are typically advertised for the READ speed which is faster than the write speed in almost all cases.  Verify that the WRITE speed exceeds 45Mbps as the camera needs to be able to catch up on writing if it falls behind.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-10-13T05:06:21.907Z
2017-01-04T14:23:01.780Z
2017-01-04T14:23:01.780Z
AJ Henderson
<p>It's 60 MBPS or about 8MBps for 4k 30fps, just bought an SD Card for my GoPro Hero 5 and it sucked. Need over 80mbps really if you want to use the 4K VID.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-01-04T14:24:48.080Z
Thanks for posting more concrete details, however it appears your answer actually isn't correct for the particular model being asked about.  The Hero4 Silver only supports 15fps 4k recording and uses a significantly lower bitrate.  This was why my initial answer was so generic since it can vary greatly from one camera to another, but I went ahead and added a Hero4 Silver specific section to my answer to improve it, so thank you for suggesting a more specific answer as well.
AJ Henderson
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-01-04T15:06:03.567Z
Fair enough, but, important to bare in mind when purchasing a 4K  30fps camera which uses a micro sd card. This thread will help anyone who will come across this problem in the near future.
Royston
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-01-04T20:04:26.567Z
Only for a GoPro Hero5 specifically.  The data rates required for the same resolution vary greatly between cameras based on the data rates used and are widely independent of resolution.  My original answer was intended to be as generic as possible, but at the expense of not being as useful to the direct original question.  A camera doing something like RAW 24fps 720p video will use almost double the data rate of the 4K 30fps video on your GoPro, it's all extremely variable.
AJ Henderson
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-01-02T21:56:11.030Z
2017-01-04T14:13:43.607Z
2017-01-04T14:13:43.607Z
Royston
<p>I am planning to buy GoPro 4 silver edition. Since they do not come with a microSD I need to choose one. BH video recommends the below one which has 50Mb/s writing speed and costs75$. </p>

<p><a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/945286-REG/sandisk_sdsdqx_064g_a46a_64gb_extreme_micro_sdxc_uhs_1.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/945286-REG/sandisk_sdsdqx_064g_a46a_64gb_extreme_micro_sdxc_uhs_1.html</a> </p>

<p>the one with 30Mb/s writing speed is 40$.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/886007-REG/SanDisk_sdsdqui_064g_a11_64GB_microSDXC_Memory_Card.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/886007-REG/SanDisk_sdsdqui_064g_a11_64GB_microSDXC_Memory_Card.html</a></p>

<p>is 30Mb/s enough for me? Or should I go with the expensive one? How can I determine the required speed?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

<video><quality>
what should be the minimum write speed of microSD for 30fps 4K, 60 fps 1080p or 100fps 720p etc?
erenerk
# what should be the minimum write speed of microSD for 30fps 4K, 60 fps 1080p or 100fps 720p etc?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-10-12)

I am planning to buy GoPro 4 silver edition. Since they do not come with a microSD I need to choose one. BH video recommends the below one which has 50Mb/s writing speed and costs75$.

<http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/945286-REG/sandisk_sdsdqx_064g_a46a_64gb_extreme_micro_sdxc_uhs_1.html>

the one with 30Mb/s writing speed is 40$.

<http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/886007-REG/SanDisk_sdsdqui_064g_a11_64GB_microSDXC_Memory_Card.html>

is 30Mb/s enough for me? Or should I go with the expensive one? How can I determine the required speed?

Thanks in advance.

**Tags:** video, quality


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2014-10-13. Score: 1

You have to check the specification of your camera. 30Mb/s could be plenty for 60fps 4k or not enough for 24p SD, entirely depending on what format and data rate is being used. Your camera should say the data rate of whatever you intend to record in. Use that to determine the needed card speed. Make sure that the write speed is actually what you need as well as read and write speeds can sometimes differ significantly on SD cards.

According to [this page](https://gopro.com/support/articles/hero4-silver-recording-time-in-each-video-setting), the Hero4 Silver only supports 15fps 4k recording. For that particular camera, the required data rate is 45 Mbps. Note that memory cards are typically advertised for the READ speed which is faster than the write speed in almost all cases. Verify that the WRITE speed exceeds 45Mbps as the camera needs to be able to catch up on writing if it falls behind.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2017-01-02. Score: 1

It's 60 MBPS or about 8MBps for 4k 30fps, just bought an SD Card for my GoPro Hero 5 and it sucked. Need over 80mbps really if you want to use the 4K VID.

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Thanks for posting more concrete details, however it appears your answer actually isn't correct for the particular model being asked about.  The Hero4 Silver only supports 15fps 4k recording and uses a significantly lower bitrate.  This was why my initial answer was so generic since it can vary greatly from one camera to another, but I went ahead and added a Hero4 Silver specific section to my answer to improve it, so thank you for suggesting a more specific answer as well.  
> **username_2**: Fair enough, but, important to bare in mind when purchasing a 4K  30fps camera which uses a micro sd card. This thread will help anyone who will come across this problem in the near future.  
> **username_1**: Only for a GoPro Hero5 specifically.  The data rates required for the same resolution vary greatly between cameras based on the data rates used and are widely independent of resolution.  My original answer was intended to be as generic as possible, but at the expense of not being as useful to the direct original question.  A camera doing something like RAW 24fps 720p video will use almost double the data rate of the 4K 30fps video on your GoPro, it's all extremely variable.  

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