Hardware/Software
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...
- 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...