Noticeable speed difference from SD card class?

[cmags]

On purchase day I picked up a microcenter-branded 8gb class 2 card for expandability and to avoid the unmount issue. I think I tossed a spare kingston 2gb card in my wife's for unmount avoidance as well. No problems with either.

Now my wife wants an 8gb card. Good time to upgrade class on mine, but is it actually necessary for the optimus? Are there any speed tests that show a difference? I notice that quadrant runs slowest through the i/o test but thats the nature of i/o. Has anyone seen comparitively higher quadrant scores due to faster sd card alone? Is a class 6 worth it over a class 4? Thanks for any insight.

Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk

 

[moosc]

Not really its more transfer speed that you will see when mounted to a pc. But u want speed you want the Mack daddy a 32gb class 10 card for 150$ on amazon.

Sent from DroidX running DarkSlide4.2

 

[cmags]

Hah, nope I'm a new father, therefore the $13.50 8GB class 4 or $14.50 class 6 card is more my speed. Based on your suggestion, I think I'll just grab the class 4 - plus it's a namebrand (SanDisk) where the other is no-name.

 

[hamagc]

i'm running 8gb class 4. there is an app out there to test the speed on the card but for the most part i don't think you'll really notice. of course the faster the better but with my class 4, i haven't notice any performance issues running most apps off the sdcard.

 

[sonicbluemustang]

I've been watching those 8 g san cards fly off the shelf the past month or so when the prices broke. I'd expect to see the 16s in a few months.

 

[Smitty_82]

You should be OK with the lower class. I don't think you will notice that much difference.

 

[mtnhiker57]

As I'm new to this, are these sd or sdhc cards? Is there a difference?

 

[ccrs8]

As I'm new to this, are these sd or sdhc cards? Is there a difference?

The "hc" part just stands for "high capacity." I'm not sure what the storage threshold is that bumps a card from regular to high capacity, but that's what the difference is. This phone can handle both.

 

[cmags]

So I got my class 4 card and installed my class 2 to my wife's phone. Found an SD benchmark program called Disk Benchmark 2.0 that just gives you a read/write speed. Noticeable difference.

Microcenter brand 8GB class 2 card:
Write: 0.87 MB/s
Read: 3.07 MB/s

SanDisk 8GB class 4 card:
Write: 2.21 MB/s
Read: 4.06 MB/s

Not bad.

Here's an appbrain link to the benchmark utility if anyone wants to check it out. Would be interesting to see if the cards hold true to their claims:

J Disk Benchmark 2.0 - Android app on AppBrain

Post back here with your speeds!

 

[cordell]

I have a 8 gig class 6 sd card, my speeds are pretty much the same as yours. The app tells me it couldn't access something about cache so it could possibly be faster without the a2sd set up. I think those speeds are max the the phone can do though. If that is wrong someone please correct

 

[O.a.T.]

I have a 8 gig class 6 sd card, my speeds are pretty much the same as yours. The app tells me it couldn't access something about cache so it could possibly be faster without the a2sd set up. I think those speeds are max the the phone can do though. If that is wrong someone please correct

The class rating is supposed to be the minimum sustained write speed, measured in MBps. So, for example, a class 2 is supposed to write at or above 2MBps sustained, while a class 6 is supposed to write at or above 6MBps sustained. But no one really regulates how these are measured by the vendors, so expect variances. It's a lot like the EPA fuel mileages of a few years ago. The automakers tested their cars in extremes that really did not represent every day usage, hence few people achieved those mileages. EPA mileage estimates are now much improved with imposed standardized measurement techniques on the automakers. Maybe will get something like this for SD class ratings?

 

[cmags]

I got the same error about the cache but just ignored it. So those were the same results.

 

[cordell]

I got the same error about the cache but just ignored it. So those were the same results.

Yes they varied a bit from test to test but over all they were the same. Now my sd card is not a name brand but I am still gonna say that is the phones max speed, reading/writing. I guess even ap2sd would be at max with a class 4 as well, anyone?

 

[Chisleu]

not crazy necro, but still.

I just got a Patriot LX Series Class 10 8gb card

It tested 9.9MB/sec write, 25.6MB/sec reading with the free "SD Tools" benchmark tool from android market (on my Nook Color running Gingerbread)

Good times!