SanDisk Made an Official Expansion Drive for PlayStation 5 — Here's What It Actually Means

SanDisk has released a new storage drive designed specifically for the PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro consoles. The Optimus GX PRO 850P is an M.2 NVMe SSD, a small rectangular drive that slots into an expansion port on the PS5. It comes in three sizes: 1TB, 4TB, and 8TB, with read speeds up to 7,300 MB/s.

The drive plugs into the PS5's expansion slot and comes with a metal cover designed to handle the tight heat constraints inside the console — the PS5's chassis is tightly packed, and excess heat can cause problems. More importantly, SanDisk has obtained official licensing from Sony, meaning the console's maker has tested and approved the drive for compatibility and performance. It's not just a drive that fits the right shape; it's one Sony has certified.

The speed of 7,300 MB/s is essentially as fast as the PS5's storage slot can handle. Sony's own built-in drive runs at about 5,500 MB/s, so the SanDisk is faster. Whether you'll actually notice faster load times in games depends on how each game is programmed to use storage — something the drive itself cannot control.

The real advantage is storage space. The PS5 comes with about 667 GB of usable storage, which fills up quickly. Modern games are large. A single AAA title can exceed 100 GB; eight of them can easily consume a terabyte without much effort. The 4TB and 8TB options are aimed at people with large game collections who are tired of deleting games just to download new ones.

According to information published in June 2026, the heat cover fits both the standard PS5 and the PS5 Pro without modification.

The broader context here is that expansion storage for the PS5 used to be a messy affair. When Sony opened up the expansion slot in 2021, buyers had to navigate unofficial drives with unpredictable performance and no guarantees. An officially licensed product from a well-established manufacturer at these capacities signals that the market has matured. It also reflects how much cheaper flash storage has become — selling an 8TB drive for a game console would have seemed unlikely just a few years ago.

SanDisk has not yet announced pricing or when the drive will be widely available. Pricing will be important to watch, especially for the 8TB version, since you could also add storage using an external USB drive instead — it would be slower and less convenient, but the cost difference might matter to some buyers.