Fastest card readers?

1DSmII · Mar 16, 2023

Has anyone come across any better solutions than USB3 readers?

I found the Lexar LRW470U-RNHNG which uses USB-C for SD/m-SD cards and gives me better speeds than my older Lexar USB3 reader, but I could also use fast CF and CFast readers. Has anyone come across any Thunderbolt readers, or even readers using a SATA bus perhaps?

TomV1 · Mar 16, 2023

1DSmII said:
Has anyone come across any better solutions than USB3 readers?

I found the Lexar LRW470U-RNHNG which uses USB-C for SD/m-SD cards and gives me better speeds than my older Lexar USB3 reader, but I could also use fast CF and CFast readers. Has anyone come across any Thunderbolt readers, or even readers using a SATA bus perhaps?

Your SD cards will be the limiting factor, not the USB3 reader.

BobKnDP · Mar 16, 2023

thunderbolt card reader | B&H Photo Video (bhphotovideo.com)

I don't have a Thunderbolt device. My Prograde reader (CF Express Type B and SD UHS II) reader does USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps) with a USB-C connector. I've tested it at around 8Gbps with a fairly fast CF Express Type B card.

USB 3.2 Gen2X2 is rated at 20Gbps.

Do you really need a fast interface with old format like the original CF, or non-UHS SD cards?

A Owens · Mar 16, 2023

1DSmII said:
Has anyone come across any better solutions than USB3 readers?

I found the Lexar LRW470U-RNHNG which uses USB-C for SD/m-SD cards and gives me better speeds than my older Lexar USB3 reader, but I could also use fast CF and CFast readers. Has anyone come across any Thunderbolt readers, or even readers using a SATA bus perhaps?

You are limited by the slowest of your card read speed, your card reader and the disk you are transferring the data from the card to. Using the latest USB naming conventions 3.2 Gen 1 gives you a theoretical 5Gbs, Gen 2 10Gbs, Gen 3 20Gbs and thunderbolt 3 & 4 40Gbs. Card readers are available which support all these protocols with the exception of Thunderbolt 4 (but 3 and 4 have the same speed anyway).

The fastest SD cards have a theoretical top transfer speed of 2.4Gbs. So there is no point in going beyond a 3.2 Gen 1 reader (formerly known as 3.0) if you are using SD cards. Depending on what disk you are currently transferring to, this may be a better way to reduce transfer times. A fast SATA 3 SSD as a minimum or even better an M.2 NVME SSD.

And don't forget these are all just theoretical speeds. Your actual transfer speeds will be slower. I use a 3.2 Gen 3 reader and only get around 7Gbs from a CF Express B card.

1DSmII · Mar 16, 2023

Well this was the old reader (Lexar LRW400U) on USB:

This was the same card (different time) with the new reader/USB-C (ran the benchmarks again just now to confirm):

I guess the reader is the bottleneck there.

I'm not too bothered about CF but it would be nice to have a fast CFast reader.

--
Leo S.

NickZ2016 · Mar 16, 2023

I don't know about CFast but if you want to spend the money CFE thunderbolt readers are faster. But unless you're offloading hours of video it doesn't really matter.

Good CFe cards are faster than USB3.2.2 but I'm not sure CFast ever got that fast.

1DSmII · Mar 16, 2023

NickZ2016 said:
I don't know about CFast but if you want to spend the money CFE thunderbolt readers are faster. But unless you're offloading hours of video it doesn't really matter.

Offloading hours of video is something I do fairly frequently, so any extra I can get is always welcome.

I do usually dump to slow storage (5200 RPM spinners), but also have NVMe as well as SATA SSDs to dump data to when in a hurry.

NickZ2016 said:
Good CFe cards are faster than USB3.2.2 but I'm not sure CFast ever got that fast.

The Delkin 256GB Cinema CFast 2.0 Card I'm currently using is I believe supposed to be able to do 650MB/Sec max read - that is what it says on the card anyway!

NickZ2016 · Mar 16, 2023

I don't think that's should cause a problem for USB 3.2.2 (WHatever the thing is called). I get 50% faster than that with my midrange CFe cards. Almost fully saturating things at close to four digits.

TB will just cost you money.

1DSmII · Mar 16, 2023

I guess you are right. The later USB generations should suffice. Finding the right reader, which can also end up being the bottle neck seems like the more important part of the equation in that case.

CBR1100XX · Mar 16, 2023

1DSmII said:
Well this was the old reader (Lexar LRW400U) on USB:

This was the same card (different time) with the new reader/USB-C (ran the benchmarks again just now to confirm):

I guess the reader is the bottleneck there.

I'm not too bothered about CF but it would be nice to have a fast CFast reader.

What brand SD cards are you using?

There's UHS I & II which will make a big difference.

And then SanDisk has their non standard UHS I cards which get close to 200 MB/s but pretty cheap. The catch is for those speeds you need to use their reader. A regular one will just get closer to 95 MB/s

BobKnDP · Mar 16, 2023

I've seen it as USB 3.2 Gen2X2, 20Gbps (2.5GBps).

There are some CF Express Type B cards whose specs would require a reader that could deliver more than USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps, 1.25GBps).

NickZ2016 · Mar 16, 2023

These days most of the better CFe cards are faster than USB. Really only the older cards aren't. Still I don't think most people will benefit jumping to TB. A cheap TB reader is double a good USB reader.

BobKnDP · Mar 16, 2023

NickZ2016 said:
These days most of the better CFe cards are faster than USB. Really only the older cards aren't. Still I don't think most people will benefit jumping to TB. A cheap TB reader is double a good USB reader.

USB 3.2 Gen2X2 supports a nominal 20Gbps (2.5GBps). That may be fast enough to keep up with any CF Express card. I believe they top out below 2GBps for reads, less for writes.

What a reader with a 3.2 Gen2X2 interface delivers may be a different story.

A relatively inexpensive Lexar model claims 1900/700MBps read/write, with 1600MBps minimum write speed. It's CFExpress Type B only.

My Prograde CFE/SD UHS II drive is USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps, 1.25GBps). I've tested it (Crystal Disk Mark) at about 1GBps both read and write with a 128GB Delkin Power CFE Type B card.

NickZ2016 · Mar 16, 2023

Which means you've maxed out the reader usually. Smaller cards can be a bit slower than the 512 and bigger cards but even than the numbers you've achieved is about it.

A Owens · Mar 17, 2023

BobKnDP said:
NickZ2016 said:

These days most of the better CFe cards are faster than USB. Really only the older cards aren't. Still I don't think most people will benefit jumping to TB. A cheap TB reader is double a good USB reader.

Click to expand...

USB 3.2 Gen2X2 supports a nominal 20Gbps (2.5GBps). That may be fast enough to keep up with any CF Express card. I believe they top out below 2GBps for reads, less for writes.

What a reader with a 3.2 Gen2X2 interface delivers may be a different story.

A relatively inexpensive Lexar model claims 1900/700MBps read/write, with 1600MBps minimum write speed. It's CFExpress Type B only.

My Prograde CFE/SD UHS II drive is USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps, 1.25GBps). I've tested it (Crystal Disk Mark) at about 1GBps both read and write with a 128GB Delkin Power CFE Type B card.

That is actually pretty good. On a 3.2 Gen3 Angelbird reader and card, I only get 700Mb/s read and 1250Mb/s write. The card is rated at 1785Mb/s read and write.

TomV1 · Mar 17, 2023

1DSmII said:
Well this was the old reader (Lexar LRW400U) on USB:

This was the same card (different time) with the new reader/USB-C (ran the benchmarks again just now to confirm):

I guess the reader is the bottleneck there.

I'm not too bothered about CF but it would be nice to have a fast CFast reader.

The reader is the bottleneck here because the old reader is from 2015.

The newer 2021 reader shows a speed not that much faster but demonstrates the card max speed.

A Owens · Mar 17, 2023

1DSmII said:
Well this was the old reader (Lexar LRW400U) on USB:

This was the same card (different time) with the new reader/USB-C (ran the benchmarks again just now to confirm):

I guess the reader is the bottleneck there.

I'm not too bothered about CF but it would be nice to have a fast CFast reader.

The Lexar LRW400U looks to be a very old UDMA card. It is rated at a very low transfer speed which possibly implies the bandwidth is split between the two cards it reads simultaneously.

--
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1DSmII · Mar 17, 2023

Thanks for mentioning that. I was unaware that it might be able to read two cards simultaneously. I could have saved myself quite a bit of time. I'll have to try off loading two cards with the new Lexar.

1DSmII · Mar 17, 2023

A Owens said:
BobKnDP said:

NickZ2016 said:

These days most of the better CFe cards are faster than USB. Really only the older cards aren't. Still I don't think most people will benefit jumping to TB. A cheap TB reader is double a good USB reader.

Click to expand...

USB 3.2 Gen2X2 supports a nominal 20Gbps (2.5GBps). That may be fast enough to keep up with any CF Express card. I believe they top out below 2GBps for reads, less for writes.

What a reader with a 3.2 Gen2X2 interface delivers may be a different story.

A relatively inexpensive Lexar model claims 1900/700MBps read/write, with 1600MBps minimum write speed. It's CFExpress Type B only.

My Prograde CFE/SD UHS II drive is USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps, 1.25GBps). I've tested it (Crystal Disk Mark) at about 1GBps both read and write with a 128GB Delkin Power CFE Type B card.

Click to expand...

That is actually pretty good. On a 3.2 Gen3 Angelbird reader and card, I only get 700Mb/s read and 1250Mb/s write. The card is rated at 1785Mb/s read and write.

Very impressive. A shame it is CFE type B only.

It does seem strange that there are perhaps one or two super fast readers like this, and a wide gulf between them and all the rest. It begs the question, what are they doing differently?

I was reading memory stick reviews the other day and came across one mentioning the need for certain things to speed them up, like SMART and cashe. It got me thinking that perhaps you could put the cashe on the reader and that could solve some problems perhaps?

Which Angelbird card do you have? I have an Atom X SSD mini (2 TB), but have not bench marked it yet! Not keen on the format (makes it very restrictive what I can use to read it), but it's supposed to be quite fast.

1DSmII · Mar 17, 2023

This was the Angelbird over USB (using USB3 dock ATOMDCK003):

Here it is over SATA:

I'm mostly interested in the read performance, and there is quite a difference!

--
Leo S.

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