Solved USB 2 vs USB 3

[Britton30]

I have a new USB 3.0 flash drive, Adata UV128/16GB and tested in a USB 2 and USB 3 port. I found not great gains with USB 3. Writes were real close but the reads were a little better with the 3 version.

 

[kbrady1979]

That's not surprising, unfortunately. 50% of USB 3.0 drives are closer to 2.0 speeds than anything else. I read an article a few weeks ago that tested like 20-30 drives and for the life of me I can't find it again. I was thinking it was Anandtech or Tom's Hardware, but I'm not seeing it. Anyway, the SanDisk Extreme USB 3.0 flash drive won out and it put up some REALLY impressive numbers. I think this is it: SanDisk Extreme 16GB USB Flash Drive They might have tested the 32GB but the 16GB should perform just as well.


Edit: Found it....the 64GB SanDisk won, but any of them should be blazing fast.

31 USB 3.0 Thumb Drives, Tested and Reviewed

 

[TVeblen]

How about a real world test Gary?
Find a 6GB or larger file in your system and time the copy operation from Disk to Thumbdrive and back again in each port.
Note what speeds Windows reports on the transfers (Mbytes/sec).
Pay attention to the Hard drive SATA port too (SATA 2 or SATA 3 port, SATA 2 or SATA 3 HDD.
Try it in the rear MB ports, then the case ports. (some case ports are highly suspect methinks!)
See if it all corresponds to what CrystalMark is giving you.

 

[Britton30]

Well I might feel energetic and do some real world tests. I don't have a file bigger than 498MB though.

I did these tests on ports directly connected to the board, the 3 is a pass through and the 2 is connected to a boards header. Neither are case ports but on two add on bay panels.

 

[kbrady1979]

I can upload you a file if you want.....it doesn't have to be 6GB or anywhere near that big. A 1-2GB file would work as it just needs to be bigger than the drives buffer. You could stop any random processes that might hinder disk performance, and transfer the file and time it. Delete it and transfer it again. I'd do it at least 2-3x for each port. Get an avg time and do the math and figure out how many MB/s it transfers. Don't forget to use "1024" instead of "1000" when calculating KB/MB, etc.

 

[derekimo]

You could also use a win 7 ISO to move around, that's a decent size file.

 

[kbrady1979]

You could also use a win 7 ISO to move around, that's a decent size file.

Yeah, thats 3.09GB

 

[Britton30]

You could also use a win 7 ISO to move around, that's a decent size file.

Yeah, I got one of those. It's on an external.
How do I find out the drive's buffer size?

 

[smarteyeball]

What are the 'average' file sizes you are transferring Gary?

Most of my USB 3.0 devices slow down to 'just better than USB 2.0' with tiny files, but on average they fly. Brand also has a lot to do with it as has been pointed out. I love my 64GB Supersonic.

Large files hit full hard drive speeds, even RAIDed drive speeds. (~130MB/s)

 

[Britton30]

Here's some results. I used a kitchen timer with a push button to start/stop the timer, so there is my reaction time to account for too.



Pat, all I had done to this point was run Crystal Disk Mark on it, I think the file was 1GB. Windows says the speed is faster at first and slows way down near the end, sometimes saying time remaining 5 seconds for 10-15 seconds.

I have 6 USB 3.0 flash sticks and none reach that fast though.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there.

Back to basics here -- we need to look at how I/O actually works.

USB 3 flash drives are a bit of a "Sales spiel" gimmick. There's (usually) NO CACHE in these so data transfer can't be "buffered" and you'll only get fast transfer in "Chunks" so no way will you ever get anything like full rated speed for a flash stick. You might find one or two with some sort of cache in it but it's likely to be hideously expensive for what is essentially a portable pocket device where the size of files renders data transfer speed not really significantly important.

Now a USB3 SPINNER HDD (DISK) drive is a different animal -- the HDD will have an internal decent cache so it will "Overlap" physical reading with Data transfer giving what is essentially CONTINUOUS data transfer. That way FAST USB3 data speed transfers can be achieved . The actual maximum speed also will depend on the internal bus in your computer -- on cheaper mobos (including most laptops) the bus speed is about HALF of the maximum rated design speed of the USB 3 protocol.

The USB stick (usually) doesn't have an internal cache so it will transfer data intermittently -- there should be some improvement over USB2 but whether it's worth paying extra for a USB 3 flash drive -- well I don't think so.

USB3 HDD's -- yes definitely worth it - even those small portable Passport 2TB types -- these though have a SMALLER CACHE so won't be as fast as their "Big brothers" - but still fast enough over standard USB2 devices.

An SSD BTW works brilliantly if connected to a USB3 port via a SATA==>USB3 adapter. -- Actually even connecting a USB3 drive to a USB2 port will work better than a standard USB2 drive (although of course the speed will be limited to USB2 data transfers).

When buying ANY sort of HDD -- (spinners not SSD's) look for those having the fastest RPM --5400 RPM drives are TOO slow these days for any sort of sensible performance) and above all choose those with the LARGEST INTERNAL CACHE -- this makes a HUGE difference to the performance of the HDD. Slow HDD's KILL ANY system.

Note also transfer of small files will always be relatively slow since most of the overhead will be in the OS making the request for the I/O and receiving a few bytes of data. wheras in transferring a continuous large chunk of data the OS overhead is tiny compared to the volume of data being transmitted.

(As it's Sunday morning : "Here endeth the First Lesson" !!!).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Pauly]

I have usb 2 & 3 ext HDDs and usb 2 & 3 flashes and i would agree
usb3 hdd`s fly averaging around 90/100mb when moving larger file/s (im using smaller passport types as jimbo mentioned)
my usb 3 flash drives are noticably quicker than the 2`s but only achieve 30/40mb absolute max on larger files

one interesting thing i have noticed though is that now i have upgraded my machines to mobos with onboard usb 3 my old drives and sticks (usb 2) run a lot faster when connected to a 3 port ???

 

[jimbo45]

I have usb 2 & 3 ext HDDs and usb 2 & 3 flashes and i would agree
usb3 hdd`s fly averaging around 90/100mb when moving larger file/s (im using smaller passport types as jimbo mentioned)
my usb 3 flash drives are noticably quicker than the 2`s but only achieve 30/40mb absolute max on larger files

one interesting thing i have noticed though is that now i have upgraded my machines to mobos with onboard usb 3 my old drives and sticks (usb 2) run a lot faster when connected to a 3 port ???

Hi there.

Fairly straightforward explanation for better USB 2 performance when attached to a USB 3 port.

The BUS is probably faster on the USB3 connection and the I/O algorithms better designed - they are more modern anyway so you can actually get better performance from your USB 2 devices on them -- but don't waste USB 3 connections on things like Keyboard, mice or printers. Your USB 2 devices though won't run at USB 3 speed. A good use for a USB 3 Hub is to plug in USB 2 HDD's to them -- will be better than a USB 2 hub - but you need to have sufficient USB 3 ports. You CAN mix USb2 and USB 3 devices on a USB 3 hub BTW -- the USB 2 device is slow compared with the USB 3 ones so you won't get degradation across the whole hub.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[TVeblen]

I built my new rig this past winter because the 4 years was up and I had the time. I was VERY disappointed to learn that none of the Intel chipsets available then had USB3 native to the chipset. All the Intel motherboard manufacturers were adding a separate USB controller to the motherboards. Mine is an Asmedia XHCI Controller.

I was disappointed because I have doubts that a controller running in parallel would run as efficiently as one incorporated into the Southbridge. Add to that - the USB controller does not run on the hardware level, only once the OS loads and runs the driver (that caused some serious head scratching during USB OS install!). With all of this I am not surprised if I do not get anything near the full advertised speed.

Anyone know if the Haswell chipset has USB3 native? (I haven't looked at those at all)

 

[kbrady1979]

I built my new rig this past winter because the 4 years was up and I had the time. I was VERY disappointed to learn that none of the Intel chipsets available then had USB3 native to the chipset. All the Intel motherboard manufacturers were adding a separate USB controller to the motherboards. Mine is an Asmedia XHCI Controller.

I was disappointed because I have doubts that a controller running in parallel would run as efficiently as one incorporated into the Southbridge. Add to that - the USB controller does not run on the hardware level, only once the OS loads and runs the driver (that caused some serious head scratching during USB OS install!). With all of this I am not surprised if I do not get anything near the full advertised speed.

Anyone know if the Haswell chipset has USB3 native? (I haven't looked at those at all)

Ivy Bridge has native USB 3.0 support

 

[madcratebuilder]

I have a new USB 3.0 flash drive, Adata UV128/16GB and tested in a USB 2 and USB 3 port. I found not great gains with USB 3. Writes were real close but the reads were a little better with the 3 version.

View attachment 279588

Inspired me to test my ADATA S103/32GB USB 3.0 stick. I'll do the 2.0 port later, got to feed the cats before they start on me.

 

[Britton30]

I am now running a Haswell system on the test bench. It does have native support for USB 3.0, I used a 3.0 port and flash drive to install w7.

Steven that's good idea. This is an AData S102 Pro 64GB

 

[madcratebuilder]

I'll need to look in the case, not sure if I tested using the mobo 3.0 header or the Sliverstone pcie card.