Card reader speeds

Hello there!

Just noticed something about the card reader, it seems so very very slow in data transfer rate. Around 900 KB / sec write speed.

I tried an small MicroSD USB adapter and it was 2 to 3 times faster than the internal card reader. I really thought the card reader should be faster.
Cause I was so happy to not be forced to carry the USB adapter with me all the time. Also I'm out of USB ports so I have to unplug a HDD every time.

So the questions are...
- How fast is your write speeds with the internal card reader?
- Is there any new drivers/software for this hardware?

 

Wait a couple of days and I can do some comparisons between readers in 3 different notebooks including my 6024W. I suspect the SD card reader in the Sony G11 will come last.

John

 

Nice. Looking forward to it.

 

I will test it for you also!
Have done it before but can't find the benches anymore!
(it will be tomorrow, and I'm going to config P1 and P2 ;-)

 

My speeds are quite normal I think...

2GB SanDisk Ultra II:


256MB SanDisk:


And two old benches of the Hitachi 7K200 HardDisk for comparison:


EDIT: Now I'm gonna look at those P1 and P2 button-shizzle!

 

I've now done some tests using 2 different (Kingston and Sandisk) 2GB modules, a Danelec 4GB SDHC and a 6GB Sandisk micro SDHC (with SD card adaptor).

Until a few hours ago my 6024W wouldn't recognise SDHC, but I then found this thread which includes a link for a driver for the TI chip which supports SDHC.

My measurements confirm the HD Tune transfer speed of just under 7MB/s. This about twice as fast as the SD card reader in my Sony G11 (did Sony, reluctant to include SD support, deliberately cripple the performance?). However, the Ricoh SD card reader in the Samsung X60 plus is around 10% faster than the TI hardware in the 6024W.

I also ran SiSoftware Sandra's removable storage benchmark. This tests performance for different data block sizes.

Sandra produces various graphs and an overall performance index (expressed as operations per minute). The performance indices are summarised below for 2GB / 4GB / 6GB:

Zepto 6024W : 1576 / 2584 / 2780
Samsung X60 plus : 1613 / 3211 / 3035
Sony G11 : 1180 / 1664 / 1649

For comparison, the index for the 4GB SDHC in a Sandisk SDHC-USB adaptor is also 2996, and 6GB SDHC was 3114.

So, going back to the OP's original question, a speed of around 1MB/s is very slow. Make sure that you have set the device properties to "Optimize for Best performance". Otherwise if you are transferring small files, they will be sent one at a time after confirmation that the previous file has been written to the media. Otherwise, you could try reformatting the media.

John

 

I've said it before but SDHC cards working in our Zepto's is really nice!!!

 

Our FTP has been updated with the latest TI driver 2.0.0.7A for our current 6x24W and 6x25WD models card reader.

Also the XP hotfix for up to 8GB memory cards has been uploaded also:
ftp://ftp.zepto.dk/Windows_Hot_Fix/All_models_after_2006/XP/Cardreader_SDHC_Memorycard_support/

 

Could I read a 16GB SDHC Card with the latest TI driver?

 

That's quick service!

Supplementary question: Do the preceding models (eg the 6214W) also have the same card reader hardware, in which case the same updates should apply?

John

 

John, yes it should work as it uses the same driver, but this is not tested so there is not guarantee that it will work.

 

So now we can use SDHC in our Zeptos? Niice!

btw... I do get a speed of 900KB/s. Not even 1MB/s. SLOW. Might be vista thats just doing this?

 

1. I see there is also a Vista hotfix (KB936825) for some SD card issues.

2. There were some slow file transfer speed issues with Vista but I thought they were patched long ago. Are your measurements for your own set of files or using a benchmark program?

John

 

I'm using Windows Vista Home Premium as you can see in my sig

 

I copied a 400MB file to the SD card in Total Commander. The speed was measured to 900KB/s. And it took a LONG time.

 

OK. I've tried the large file copy in Total Commander. I used my 6GB SDHC (since it had spare space).

1. Copy file to SD card on Zepto 6024W under Vista: Speed ~980kb/s

2. Copy file from SD card to Zepto 6024W. Speed ~7200kb.s

3. Copy file to SD card in Sandisk SD - USB adaptor on Zepto 6024W under Vista. Speed ~13500kb/s

4. Copy file from SD card in Sandisk SD - USB adaptor on Zepto 6024W. Speed ~16500kb/s

5. Copy file from SD card to Samsung X60plus under XP: Speed ~9900kb/s

6. Copy file to SD on Samsung X60plus under XP: Speed ~ 1700kb/s

7. Copy file from SD card to Sony G11 under Vista: Speed ~2900kb/s

8. Copy file to SD card from Sony G11 under Vista: Speed ~2900kb/s

9. Copy file to SD card on Zepto 6024W under XP: Speed ~3200kb/s

10. Copy file to SD card on Zepto 6024W under Vista: Speed started at 3200kb/s then slowed down to ~980kb/s

So there's something peculiar, and unsatisfactory, about the file writing to the SD card on Zepto under Vista. The Sony G11 is also running Vista and shows consistent read and write performance.

The speed using the Sandisk USB SD adaptor is quite impressive and shows the card itself is much faster than the card readers in all three computers I tested.

John

PS: I switched back to XP again to verify the previous (faster) reading. This time XP decided to fall in line with Vista and give the ~980kb/s speed. So there's something about the driver (same for XP and Vista) and/or hardware which is causing the low write speeds, with occasional spurts of something acceptable.

The benchmarking programs don't reveal this real-life problem with the card reader. I've also run HD Tune with the SD card in the Sandisk USB adapter. It gives a very acceptable 15.3MB/s transfer rate and 2ms access time. Why couldn't the hardware in that adapter be mounted internally?

 

@ John: Just to be shure: The new driver is from this link:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...=ob-47670-1&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&dlc=en&lang=en

isn't it?

 

The driver @hp works, but Zepto have now added TI driver 2.0.0.7A to their FTP site, so that would be the best.

John

 

Yes, the USB SD Adaptor I have is MUCH faster as well. I was almost sertain that an internal reader should be faster.

Okey, so it's not Vista then. Thats good to know. Then it really is driver or the hardware it self.

Really nice tests by the way, thanks a lot mate.

 

I just tried out the new drivers, well, because I thought my card reader was faster. (I have a 6324w)

All test are performed with drag n drop in Vista SP1. The speeds are megabyte per second, read / write.

With my old SanDisk Ultra II 512mb USB, I got the following speed
Built-in card reader 4,88 / 5,15
USB 9,0 / 6,81
Surprisingly, the write speed is higher than the read speed with the card reader.

With a regular Transcend 4GB card that vista won't accept as a readyboost drive
card reader 6,3 / 2,42

With a high speed 150 pg1 1GB card
card reader 6,3 / 4,6-5,6 (small files, 3-5mb vs one big file 597mb)

I'm not sure what to conclude here, other than you can have write speeds above 980kb/s using Zeptos card reader.

@John Ratsey - since the usb adapter speed are acceptable, can I take it that the card you're using is a class 6?

Should I decide to buy a SD HC card, I will also post my speeds here.

 

The 6GB SDHC is a micro SDHC. It has a little 4 on it so maybe it is class 4. It's the cheapest I could find in December 2007.

John

 

Downloaded and installed them...

Nice dudes:


Very nice that it can read SDHC cards, so I can fill my SDHC card for in my Asus Eee PC!!!

 

http://www.hdbench.net/ja/fdbench/index.html

this software should be able to test the card's speed... gives us a more consistent comparison too.

noticied any changes with newer drivers apart from SDHC? performance wise I mean..

 

That's an old program.

However, since I don't have access to my Zepto, here's a result for the 6GB micro-SDHC in the Ricoh card reader on my Samsung X60 plus running XP.

John

 

Hi All,

I've done some testing, the environment is Windows Vista Ultimate 64bits.

I'm using two Transcend SD Cards, one's got no speed rating label while the other says it's 150x. See the attached SDCards.jpg

I have actually tested 2006/2007 versions, they showed almost identical performances. So in the summary file, the top row being the built in TI flash media controller using driver 2007A, while the bottom row's Transcend's external card reader.

As you can see, the external card reader let's the 150x rear it's head.

 

A re-run, Sandisk class 4 micro SDHC in (upper half) Samsung X60 plus slot (Ricoh hardware) and (bottom half) Sandisk MicroMate USB reader.

X-bit labs has looked at 27 card readers but, unfortunately they didn't include any that are built-in to notebooks. One thing is clear: The performance of the reader in the 6x24W is nothing to be proud of. It is OK for copying a few photos, but not much else.

John