SDCard Shootout: Stock v Class 4 v Class 6

[jmxp69]

Hardware/Software

• Sprint HTC Hero
• Rooted/Fresh 1.1/Gumbo 1.5/SetCPU msm7k 528/245
• Heroc 1.5.2
• 17" Macbook Pro C2D USB2.0
• All commands issued from CLI (vs. Finder [explorer])
• 8g Transcend Class 6 from Newegg.
• 8g Kingston Class 4 from Microcenter
• 2g Stock (Class 2?)

Caveats

Unfortunately I didn't have the same make SDCards for the test. Memory speed from manufacturer to manufacturer can vary so keep this in mind as you read. I will say that the read results were sufficiently close across all three cards to make me believe phone hardware was a limiting factor more than the memory itself.

All recorded large file transfers were conducted in the full OS. The small file transfers were conducted in recovery mode. I wanted to see if there were any OS optimizations/drivers that would impact test results and there weren't. I ran two large file tests in recovery mode and got the same results as in the full OS, so I stopped testing/recording and just stayed in recovery mode.

The phone was rebooted for card swaps. The card was unmounted/remounted between each test.


Test Results

Full OS Boot - Large File Transfer: 691MB mp4 video

Transcend 8g Class 6
READ: Copy from phone to MBP 0m56s
WRITE: Copy from MBP to phone 2m17s

Kingston 8g Class 4
READ: Copy from phone to MBP 0m57s
WRITE: Copy from MBP to phone 2m48s

Stock 2g
READ: Copy from phone to MBP 0m59s
WRITE: Copy from MBP to phone 3m45s

Observations:

- Read from SDCard to Computer - No practical benefit from stock card to class 6 card.
- Write from Computer to SDCard - Class 6 was fastest by 31 seconds. Beat stock by 1m28s.

Operational Benefit: Applications on SDCard won't launch faster. Applications writing to SDCard will see improvement (i.e. Cache2SD Apps, Camera, etc.)


Recovery Mode - Small File Transfer Test: 89 files, 67MB


Transcend 8g Class 6
READ: Copy from phone to MBP 0m5s
WRITE: Copy from MBP to phone 0m13s
READ AND WRITE: Copy SDCard to SDCard 0m12s

Kingston 8g Class 4
READ: Copy from phone to MBP 0m6s
WRITE: Copy from MBP to phone 0m13s
READ AND WRITE: Copy SDCard to SDCard 0m14s

Stock 2g
READ: Copy from phone to MBP 0m5s (WTH?)
WRITE: Copy from MBP to phone 0m29s
READ AND WRITE: Copy SDCard to SDCard 0m24s

Observations:

- Read Speed: Same as above, no discernible difference when reading from the card <sigh>.
- Write Speed: Class 4 and Class 6 on par with each other. Nearly twice as fast as stock.
- Read/Write Speed: Class 4 and Class 6 about equal again and nearly twice as fast as stock.

Operational Benefit: Simultaneous read/writes with a Class 6 card see significant improvement over stock, negligible over Class 4. ie If you're a multitasker, this will matter.


Bottom Line

The Class 6 is 23% faster than the Class 4 in large file write operations (think camera). My camera absolutely feels faster with the Class 6 compared to Stock, and I *think* it's faster than the Class 4, but I wouldn't put money on it.

The difference between read/write on the Class 6 and Class 4 cards looks small, but look again, it's actually also ~ 20% faster on the Class 6. I take this to mean anytime the phone is reading and writing to the SDCard simultaneously, you would see ~ 20% performance improvement over the Class 4. I'm not a programmer, so I can't say how often this occurs, but I've been using Linux long enough to know that multitasking OSs can keep filesystems plenty busy with read/write activity.

The Class 6 won or tied in every test. I paid $22 for the 8g Class 6 (Newegg), and $20 for the 8g Class 4. The test results only show ~ 20% improvements during Write and simultaneous Read/Write operations. Even with this limited scope and disappointing read results, I believe the the Class 6 shows enough of a speed improvement to warrant a few extra dollars.

There is no question you will see performance gains moving from stock to either class 4 or 6 in write or simultaneous read/write operations. I was disappointed that read operations--which has everything to do with overall performance--appears to be a dead heat between all three cards.

Hope this helps. Fire way...

 

[jmxp69]

Sorry...first post Perhaps a mod can move this to the Sprint HTC Hero sub pleaaase. Won't happen again, scouts honor.

 

[spiderweb]

I don't think there will be a significant difference from the Sprint HTC Hero and the regular one. Nice thread

 

[andy d]

Good info well put together.
Cheers.

 

[jmxp69]

Glad you guys like it. I have a Muegen 1800, Andida 2000 on the way, and of course the stock battery. I think I'll run a similar test after 5 days with each new battery.

J

 

[lekky]

Would a test moving files around the phone have any relevance? Thats what we'd be more interested in knowing probably?

 

[jmxp69]

Perhaps. Read and write from the laptop should have saturated the channel between the memory and the hard drive, so I expect the results would simply be a factor of what you see on this test; however, it might be worth the effort just to make sure.

 

[jmxp69]

Ok, update for the simultaneous Read/Write:

Same hardware/software environment as above. Booted into recovery mode. Commands issued from CLI.

All files read from the card and written to a subdirectory on the card.

Test Files: 80 jpg images/55MB.

Transcend Class 6: 0m8s.
Kingston Class 4: 0m12s.
Stock 2g: 0m14s.

So it looks like a fairly significant advantage with Class 6 cards during simultaneous RW operations. Good call to check this. No question a 50% boost here will matter in daily use.

J

 

[mgillespie]

Can i ask how you benchmarked from recovery mode? I have recovery rom 1.6.2 and there is no option there.

I want to ensure my 16GB Class6 is actually a class6 and not a knock-off

 

[Sixxx]

The Class 6 won or tied in every test. I paid $22 for the 8g Class 6 (Newegg), and $20 for the 8g Class 4. The test results only show ~ 20% improvements during Write and simultaneous Read/Write operations. Even with this limited scope and disappointing read results, I believe the the Class 6 shows enough of a speed improvement to warrant a few extra dollars.
There is no question you will see performance gains moving from stock to either class 4 or 6 in write or simultaneous read/write operations. I was disappointed that read operations--which has everything to do with overall performance--appears to be a dead heat between all three cards.

Hope this helps. Fire way...

Wanna sell me the class 4?

 

[LBPHeretic]

I hope you understand that the "Class X" (where X is the writing speed in megabytes) is only in reference to the minimum writing speed. It has nothing to do with reading speed on the microSD card.

That is why the reading speed in your tests did not seem all that improved even with the Class 6 microSD card being used. Take a look at this Wikipedia article: Secure Digital - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . That being said, I do appreciate your test and the results were very interesting.

 

[jmxp69]

Can i ask how you benchmarked from recovery mode? I have recovery rom 1.6.2 and there is no option there.

I want to ensure my 16GB Class6 is actually a class6 and not a knock-off

I booted into the RA Recovery, and mounted the sdcard as a usb drive. After that, I just used unix commands:

time cp blah /sdcard/blah

Simple.

 

[jmxp69]

I hope you understand that the "Class X" (where X is the writing speed in megabytes) is only in reference to the minimum writing speed. It has nothing to do with reading speed on the microSD card.

That is why the reading speed in your tests did not seem all that improved even with the Class 6 microSD card being used. Take a look at this Wikipedia article: Secure Digital - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . That being said, I do appreciate your test and the results were very interesting.

I did not know that. Thanks for pointing it out. Learn something new every day.

J

 

[xbrokdikdogx]

I hope you understand that the "Class X" (where X is the writing speed in megabytes) is only in reference to the minimum writing speed. It has nothing to do with reading speed on the microSD card.

That is why the reading speed in your tests did not seem all that improved even with the Class 6 microSD card being used. Take a look at this Wikipedia article: Secure Digital - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . That being said, I do appreciate your test and the results were very interesting.

In addition to the class rating not being about the read speed, it also doesn't mean that a class 6 card is necessarily better than a class 2 or 4 card. Some cards are labelled class 2 though they perform much better. I have a class 2 8GB Sandisk that outperforms my old class 4 4GB Sandisk. The class 4 would write just about 4MS/s and the class 2 8GB would write at just over 5MB/s. I have read of some Sandisk class 2's outperforming class 6 cards even. it just takes luck of buying from the right batch.