How long is the SD card supposed to last anyway?

[Omega-TI]

I bought my new car in October of 2018 and had the DR900S-2CH professionally installed a month later, then a month after that bought a 128GB SD card for the camera. So I've been running with the same SD card for over three years now, recording and re-recording on it over and over again. Honestly, I would have expected the card to have gone TU by now, so how long are these SD cards supposed to work before failure? I figure I've got over 2,000 hours on it by now averaging two hours a day for three years. I've been trouble free since day one.

 

[kamkar]

I think they are listed in card wide ( full ) write cycles, so it of course do also depend on how much you drive, and maybe also use parking guard.
In general i expect to get 3 years out of a memory card, and after that a card is relegated to test card in cameras i test in my living room window, and there they eventually die.

 

[Bakertz]

then a month after that bought a 128GB SD card for the camera.

What brand? A Blackvue branded one, or Sandisk, Samsung etc?

 

[Omega-TI]

What brand? A Blackvue branded one, or Sandisk, Samsung etc?

After looking it up to answer your question, I guess I answered my own question!
The << Samsung 128GB Pro Endurance >> that I use, according to the the Amazon link lists it at as...
"Up to 43,800 hours of 4K and Full HD (1080p) recording and playback". I guess I'm not even close to projected end-of-life. Prices are still falling on those cards, now only $24.00.

 

[Dashmellow]

"Up to 43,800 hours of 4K and Full HD (1080p) recording and playback". I guess I'm not even close to projected end-of-life.

After more than eleven years of dash cam ownership my overall experience has been that even standard memory cards can last far longer than estimates made by the manufacturer. I've had a couple of cards last as much as seven years in daily dash cam use. Then again, this was with older, more simple 1080P cameras like the Mobius. It remains to be seen how modern 2K and 4K cameras running at higher bitrates will affect the working lifespan of memory cards but my hunch is they should last a good long while, especially the high endurance type.

 

[kamkar]

Indeed i have cards lasting more then the 3 years i expect to get, all have gone down in fire in my window sill recording for 18 - 20 hours a day / 7 days a week.
At least now you get +4 X more storage space now compared to the same price 5 years ago, and the selection of cards also seem to have grown, though for some cameras that do not matter as they are fuzzy about what you feed them.
Looking forward to seeing my first high endurance card dying, i am currently beating the snot out of a Kingston high endurance card.