The Best, Fastest Memory Cards - 6 Top Models Tested and Rated

WayneF

Senior Member
I guess maybe don't believe everything we see on the internet. :)
There are other tests with different results. Write speed can be limited by how fast the camera can write. It is also having to work the shutter, compress the files, and buffer the files.
This test (unknown method) claims write speed of the Lexar 1000x card is only 24.8MB/second. Lexar says 95 MB/sec, and they ought to know. But this does not mean your camera can write that fast.

However another test (eminently respectable) used a D800 camera to write it, and they report the Lexar 1000x is the fastest one, able to write at 69 MB/second (possibly still camera limited? I don't know)
Rob Galbraith DPI: Nikon D800/D800E


The Lexar 600x card (tested in both cameras) tests more than twice as fast in a D800 than in a D7000 (same link), so the point is that a lot of it is about how fast the camera can write.

So you may not need the 1000x speed. Run off 5 or 10 of your largest files, and time how long the green card LED is on. Knowing file size, you can compute write speed. I have, and Five D800 40MB Raw files is 200MB, in thee seconds, is actually very near 69 MB/second, actual, on the Lexar 1000x. Same five takes 19 seconds on a Class 10 card (not limited by D800 then).

Video for example, any old Class 10 card is fast enough for video (see Nikon manual recommendations).

The X rating (like 600x or 1000x) is the Read speed (if the reader is fast enough. USB 3.0 might be, USB 2.0 is Not.) This means 600 or 1000 times greater than the old 1x CD read speed of 150 KB/second.

Write speed is less than Read. Class 10 means the the slowest of Read or Write is at least 10 MB/second (for a Class 10 card). Slowest will be Write. Above case, 200 MB in 19 seconds is 10.5 MB/second write, so it is a Class 10 card. 10 MB/sec is a lot for one 5 MB JPG file now and then.

Again, that is the card capability. It does not mean the reading or writing device can go that fast.
 
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