The latest CFexpress Type-B memory cards are some of the fastest and most robust types of media you can use for your cameras today. But just how fast are they?
This guide will look at the different performance metrics of the various brands of memory cards.
Best CFexpress Memory Cards
Here is a quick list of the Best CFexpress memory cards available today. Different sizes with some brands have different ratings.
Delkin Black 128GB – B&H
Wise Pro – 160GB – B&H
Delkin Power 128GB – B&H
Prograde Cobalt 325GB –Â B&H
Angel Bird 256GB – B&H
Fastest CFexpress Type-B Memory Cards
To find the best performing CFexpress memory cards I ran an AJA system test using a 2018 Macbook Pro. I tried the Prograde UHS-II + Cfexpress B reader as well as the Lexar reader. The Lexar reader was slightly faster than the Prograde reader on every card except the base model Prograde 128GB card.
Theoretically, the Lexar memory card reader should deliver closer to 1700MB/s speeds since it uses a gen 2 2×2 Type-C connection, but I don’t have access to a USB 3.2 computer today that can take advantage of that.
Some computers like the iMacs or Mac Mini will get nowhere near these speeds even with the best card reader and best cards since they share the bus between various processes. The Macbook Pro or Mac Pro models or even a Windows machine with a good motherboard have more bus bandwidth to go around.
If you’re on an iMac or Mac mini, you’ll likely get closer to half these speeds listed in this benchmark.
Fastest CFexpress Type – B Memory Cards | Benchmarks
Tested using a 2018 MBP with the Lexar CFexpress reader which does not take advantage of USB 3.2 speeds supported by the Lexar reader. The first two columns show what the rated speeds are, and the second two columns show the performance with the Lexar reader.
| Card Name | Rated R | Rated W | Tested Read | Tested Write |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandisk Extreme 128GB | 1700 | 1200 | 986.9 MB/s | 489.2 MB/s |
| Sony Tough 128GB | 1700 | 1480 | 994.6 MB/s | 956.1 MB/s |
| Lexar 128GB | 1750 | 1000 | 985.3 MB/s | 915.1 MB/s |
| Prograde 128GB | 1700 | 1400 | 675.2 MB/s | 669.9 MB/s |
| Prograde Cobalt 325GB | 1700 | 1500 | 987.5 MB/s | 962.0 MB/s |
| Delkin Black 128GB | 1760 | 1710 | 987.6 MB/s | 962.2 MB/s |
| Delkin Power 128GB | 1730 | 1540 | 986.3 MB/s | 963.8 MB/s |
| Delkin Prime 64GB | 1730 | 1240 | 986.0 MB/s | 940.7 MB/s |
| Hoodman Steel 128GB | 1700 | 1400 | 983.4 MB/s | 534.2 MB/s |
| Wise Pro 160GB | 1700 | 1550 | 991.5 MB/s | 946.3 MB/s |
| Wise 128B | 1700 | 1050 | 994.0 MB/s | 484.6 MB/s |
| AngelBird 256GB | 1700 | 1500 | 955.7 MB/s | 947.3 MB/s |
| RitzGear 128GB | 1550 | 550 | 843.0 MB/s | 251.8 MB/s |
| Pergear Lite 128GB | 1000 | 500 | 939.2 MB/s | 309.6 MB/s |
Why some cards were so much slower?
You might look at this chart and see right away that some cards were significantly slower compared to their rated speeds. But actually, these cards still might be fine for you. Here is why.
These slower cards had very aggressive thermal throttling profiles which were more apparent with the large file size tests vs smaller files size tests.
I performed these tests using the AJA System Test using 4GB file sizes. The reason I chose 4GB is that this is about the buffer we see in some of the best cameras like the Sony A1 or A9. The Nikon Z9, also a great camera, only looks to have about a 2GB buffer. This makes sense, it’s using faster CFexpress Type-B cards instead of Type-A cards.
If I chose a larger size than 4GB in these benchmarks, it could cause the card to engage the thermal throttling more aggressively, and it wouldn’t show the potential capabilities of a camera like the Sony A1 which would be limited to a 4GB buffer. However, cameras with a smaller buffer like a Nikon Z9, could show better performance with some of those slower cards because they would not be used as often under the throttled conditions. While these slower cards do show tested results significantly slower than their rated performance, their peak bursts were actually showing closer to those rated numbers.
In other words, if you have a Nikon Z6 or Z7 with only a 2GB buffer, you may not notice the difference between a super-fast card or a slower card, especially since those early CFexpress cameras were still only using one PCIe 3.0 lane anyway. The new cameras like the Z9 are looking like they are taking advantage of the dual lanes of the CFExpress Type B cards.
CFexpress Type A cards that Sony uses can only use the single-lane of PCIe 3.0 bus.
Best CFexpress Type-B Memory Card Reader
Although I can’t see the full speeds of USB 3.2 gen 2 2×2 with a 2018 Macbook Pro, the Lexar CFexpress Type-B reader is clearly performing better than the other brands. I have two other Prograde readers and a Pergear reader as well. If you’re on a USB 3.1 or M1 Mac, it won’t matter which reader you use since the speeds will be throttled by the bus throughput.
Lexar CFexpress Type B USB 3.2 – Amazon / B&H
If you can’t take full advantage of USB 3.2 setup or need UHS-II, the Prograde UHS-II + Cfexpress reader is only slightly slower, most would never notice the difference.
Prograde UHS-II + CFexpress – Amazon / B&H
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