SD vs XQD

gilbouk

gilbouk

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Gil
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I have the D500, and finding more and more that transfer speed onto my computer is slowing me down. When I have a 32GB Class 10 SD card 95MB/s I’m finding that it can take sometime to transfer a full card over to my SSD on my Dell laptop (Last years i7 with 8GB RAM). With the built in SD card reader I’m seeing 20MB/s and with an external SD card reader attached to my USB 3.1 I’m seeing around 40MB/s.

I’m considering moving over to XQD which I understand can be faster. What speed do you guys typically see transferring from XQD to your computer? What’s the fastest way to get the data off your camera? What XQD card and card reader do you guys recommend?

https://www.nikonimgsupport.com/ni/NI_article?articleNo=000004769&configured=1&lang=en_US
 
the time difference is only a couple of minutes with the fastest card reader and thunderbolt
just put kettle on and chill for a couple of minutes job done
 
Kodiak Qc said:
•


In the D850, there are two slots: XQD and SDXC and I use them both
at 128 GB capacity.

The transfer speed to your computer depends on the connection — my
new iMac has Thunderbolt three and I have for both cards the same in-
terface…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-MRW-E90-Card-Reader-Gen1/dp/B01IRRI5CC
Click to expand...
Just looked at the link, £157 for a 64Gb XQD card if bought at the same time! It is a £12 saving than buying separately, but no thanks.

XQD needs more devices making used of it, and more manufacturers making them.But there is a potential new format to replace XQD, CFexpress. :-/ Let's hope Nikon can, and will, be able to make their XQD cameras use it.
 
Apparently, it will just require a firmware update, from Nikon. The big question is, will Nikon provide that update, as they're not renowned for giving users additional functionality with their firmware upgrades :mad:
 
johnnypanic said:
Apparently, it will just require a firmware update, from Nikon. The big question is, will Nikon provide that update, as they're not renowned for giving users additional functionality with their firmware upgrades :mad:
Click to expand...
It 'may' only require a firmware update. ;-) Time will tell. It wouldn't surprise me if they kept it as a feature for new cameras because there is little they can do to improve the cameras they have atm imho. Big tech leaps in various areas seem to have plateaued. As their emphasis moves towards mirrorless, dual XQD/CFexpress may pop up there first if they bring out a high mirrorless as they enter the market.

Hope Gil Bev doesn't mind the diversion. :-/

Back on topic. I have been tempted by the external card readers, and may still get one, but my downloaded images are never needed in a hurry. If it is a USB 3 card reader then a limiting factor may be how well the USB is set up on their computer. I very rarely get maximum speed on the computers I have with the devices I have. You would hope it would be faster than the camera though. Only a current user could confirm. Maybe ask in the D500 thread.
 
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Certainly on my setup, my Sony XQD reader, reads quicker than direct from D500 to PC. Haven't measured it, but it's significant enough, to be noticeable.
 
I guess I should be more patient - but I'm always looking out for ways to speed things up :).
 
I’m not completely computer savy but are those transfer speeds the maximum you could get from the SD card you have? I’m asking, is there a hardware bottleneck on your computer that’s slowing transfer speeds down? Putting a faster card as the input device may not help as much as you like if the computer is what’s slowing the transfer rate. I’m sure someone more knowledgeable then me can answer that.

holty said:
Gil
does a couple of minutes of your time matter that much ?
Click to expand...
For me it takes longer building the previews than uploading the image files to LR.
 
rob-nikon said:
I’m not completely computer savy but are those transfer speeds the maximum you could get from the SD card you have? I’m asking, is there a hardware bottleneck on your computer that’s slowing transfer speeds down? Putting a faster card as the input device may not help as much as you like if the computer is what’s slowing the transfer rate. I’m sure someone more knowledgeable then me can answer that.


For me it takes longer building the previews than uploading the image files to LR.
Click to expand...


I'm guessing that the transfer rate shown on the SD card is the maximum read speed of the card - in which case I should be able to get the same speed if my SSD has as fast a write speed rate. You may be right - the bottle neck may not be my SD card - but my SSD on my laptop, which may be a cheap one. I'll run some tests copying files from my internal HD to my internal SSD and see if I can top the 40MB/s rate I get with transferring files from my SD card to my SSD.

Yes, I find I have to wait some time for all my pictures to transfer across, then once complete - load up Capture One which takes a while to load previews of each picture. Doing transferring and having Capture One generate previews at the same time makes my PC pretty useless until the task is complete - so I try to do the tasks one after the other.
 
It may not be a card issue if there's a bottleneck with either the card reader or software, eg direct into Lightroom can be a bit ponderous.

Edit: crossed post with Rob :)
 
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It’s a copy using windows explorer :-). What kind of transfer rates do you guys get? I think on Mac you don’t get the actual transfer rate shown in MB/s
 
Gil Bev said:
What kind of transfer rates do you guys get?
Click to expand...


I ran some tests for you and this are is hardware used:
  1. iMac late 2017, OS 10.13.4, i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD.
  2. Sony XQD / SDXC Thunderbolt III card reader / writer
    and a Sony 128GB XQD card.
There are 108 .NEF files on the XQD for a total of 5.54 GB.
Using a Mac app chronometer, I timed the transfer to a folder
on the desktop of the said 108 .NEF files six times and got an
average of 12,2 s.

HTH. :cool:
 
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Kodiak Qc said:
I ran some tests for you and this are is hardware used:
  1. iMac late 2017, OS 10.13.4, i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD.
  2. Sony XQD / SDXC Thunderbolt III card reader / writer
    and a Sony 128GB XQD card.
There are 108 .NEF files on the XQD for a total of 5.54 GB.
Using a Mac app chronometer, I timed the transfer to a folder
on the desktop of the said 108 .NEF files six times and got an
average of 12,2 s.

HTH. :cool:
Click to expand...
12.2s for 5.54GB? That’s fast!!
 
Gil Bev said:
12.2s for 5.54GB? That’s fast!!
Click to expand...


I had to upgrade the hardware with the acquisition
of the D850 and the huge files it produces.
 
Gil Bev said:
12.2s for 5.54GB? That’s fast!!
Click to expand...

It is the result of a conséquent chain of features and decisions:

i7 + SSD + Thunderbolt III + XQD. Any compromise in the
chain will affect the end result, of course.
 
rob-nikon said:
He has told you how much that Mac setup cost yet ;)
Click to expand...

Well, spread over the few years I expect the setup
to work and the amortisation, I think it is worth it! :cool:
 
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My xqd card (440mb/s R, 150mb/s W) transfers so much faster to my Mac than my Sandisk Pro Extreme 95mb/s, but then you would expect so as one has over 4 times the read speed of the other. How much difference there'd be if I had a 440mb/s SD card I've no idea.
 
snerkler said:
How much difference there'd be if I had a 440mb/s SD card
Click to expand...


If the chain is i7 + SSD + Thunderbolt III + SDXC?

I'll see to test that in the next days. :cool:
 
Kodiak Qc said:
If the chain is i7 + SSD + Thunderbolt III + SDXC?

I'll see to test that in the next days. :cool:
Click to expand...
USB-C drives on the Touch Bar MacBook Pro, i7 with SSD (y)
 
snerkler said:
USB-C drives on the Touch Bar MacBook Pro, i7 with SSD
Click to expand...


Nope Toby… the best I can do is…

iMac i7 + SSD + Thunderbolt III + Sony SDXC/XQD reader.
 
rob-nikon said:
He has told you how much that Mac setup cost yet ;)
Click to expand...

Yes, I think I read of his latest setup - top of the range mac with 5k display I think. I'm not quite ready to spend that kind of money, but if I had that much money to spend, I'd definitely be tempted.

Instead I have a Dell Inspiron gaming laptop which I moved to from a Macbook 13" from 2015. The Dell is much faster and is equipped with a i7-7700HQ @ 2.8GHz - and although it's only got 8GB RAM I plan to upgrade to 16GB soon. Its got a Geforce GTX, 128GB SSD and 1TB HDD.

Transferring data between internal drives - HDD to SSD I can transfer rates fluctuate between 60MB/s and 70MB/s
 
rob-nikon said:
I fully understand, if it’s a work machine it makes sense for fast transfer and processing power.
Click to expand...


Yes, Rob, that is all it is…
good tools that I hope will last until I retire. :cool:
 
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I've just transferred data via the internal SD slot on my laptop. A Kingston 16GB (90Mb/s Read, 45MB/s Write) and data went through at a pretty solid 70MB/s. Also used a Lexar 32GB (300Mb/s Read, 260MB/s Write) and that maxxed out at about 70MB/s too. Though that did fluctuate a bit as it was images, and the first card was large video files. The internal card reader and/or driver software is the bottleneck for me on my laptop at least.

I'm tempted to get the XQD/SD card reader to see if it would be better for both using USB 3. That is if the USB's are set to work to their maximum. ;-) lol

I think most bottlenecks will be the card reader/slot and/or the interface, USB or whatever else. Though I think with any set up data would not come off the Kingston card faster than 90MB/s. ;-)

If you use software other than the Operating System to import images, that could slow things down too, especially if making alterations on the way in. Generating previews, adding meta data etc. I always import using the OS and then if the images go into LR, not all do, I'll import later generating Smart Previews.
 
redhed17 said:
I've just transferred data via the internal SD slot on my laptop. A Kingston 16GB (90Mb/s Read, 45MB/s Write) and data went through at a pretty solid 70MB/s. Also used a Lexar 32GB (300Mb/s Read, 260MB/s Write) and that maxxed out at about 70MB/s too. Though that did fluctuate a bit as it was images, and the first card was large video files. The internal card reader and/or driver software is the bottleneck for me on my laptop at least.

I'm tempted to get the XQD/SD card reader to see if it would be better for both using USB 3. That is if the USB's are set to work to their maximum. ;-) lol

I think most bottlenecks will be the card reader/slot and/or the interface, USB or whatever else. Though I think with any set up data would not come off the Kingston card faster than 90MB/s. ;-)

If you use software other than the Operating System to import images, that could slow things down too, especially if making alterations on the way in. Generating previews, adding meta data etc. I always import using the OS and then if the images go into LR, not all do, I'll import later generating Smart Previews.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info - it appears something is slowing my transfer down. Need to do some investigation as to why I'm only achieving 40MB/s with a similar card on my system
 
Gil Bev said:
What kind of transfer rates do you guys get?
Click to expand...


I ran the same tests for you — with the SDXC this time, used:
  1. iMac late 2017, OS 10.13.4, i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD.
  2. Sony XQD / SDXC Thunderbolt III card reader / writer
    and a Sandisk Extreme Pro 128 GB SDXC card.
There are 108 .NEF files on Sandisk Extreme Pro 128 GB card
for a total of 5.54 GB. Using a Mac app chronometer, I timed the
transfer to a folder on the desktop of the said 108 .NEF files six
times and got an average of 18,9 s.

HTH. :cool:
 
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Kodiak Qc said:
I ran the same tests for you — with the SDXC this time, used:
  1. iMac late 2017, OS 10.13.4, i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD.
  2. Sony XQD / SDXC Thunderbolt III card reader / writer
    and a Sandisk Extreme Pro 128 GB SDXC card.
There are 108 .NEF files on Sandisk Extreme Pro 128 GB card
for a total of 5.54 GB. Using a Mac app chronometer, I timed the
transfer to a folder on the desktop of the said 108 .NEF files six
times and got an average of 18,9 s.

HTH. :cool:
Click to expand...

Have you got a link to that particular card please? Depending on which card it is, my theory of card 'read speed' should be a limitation may be wrong. :thinking:
 
Kodiak Qc said:
I ran the same tests for you — with the SDXC this time, used:
  1. iMac late 2017, OS 10.13.4, i7, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD.
  2. Sony XQD / SDXC Thunderbolt III card reader / writer
    and a Sandisk Extreme Pro 128 GB SDXC card.
There are 108 .NEF files on Sandisk Extreme Pro 128 GB card
for a total of 5.54 GB. Using a Mac app chronometer, I timed the
transfer to a folder on the desktop of the said 108 .NEF files six
times and got an average of 18,9 s.

HTH. :cool:
Click to expand...
Doesn’t that mean you are getting 293MB/s - faster than the card rating if 95MB/s
 
redhed17 said:
my theory of card 'read speed' should be a limitation may be wrong.
Click to expand...


Nope, you're not wrong.

The Sandisk Extreme Pro 128 GB SDXC card is rated at 300MB/s
as the Sony 128GB XQD card is rated at 400 MB/s
 
Gil Bev said:
Doesn’t that mean you are getting 293MB/s - faster than the card rating if 95MB/s
Click to expand...


I insisted to put in bold the designation XC in SDXC.

You are still referring to the SDHC card, Gil! :cool:
 
Kodiak Qc said:
Nope, you're not wrong.

The Sandisk Extreme Pro 128 GB SDXC card is rated at 300MB/s
as the Sony 128GB XQD card is rated at 400 MB/s
Click to expand...
Ah, OK, it is an SDXC card that is also UHS-II. So you are getting close to the maximum with your set up. :)

Sandisk have called various cards "Extreme Pro" over the years, to I think designate that as their fastest at that time. They still have 95MB/s cards on their site that is also called "Extreme Pro", and that are also SDXC, but UHS-I.
 
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