Search

[sneef]

CF is currently less prone to slowdowns yes.

I've heard this several times, and I've also heard that SD is less prone to slowdowns several times.  Does anyone have any kind of source to back this up, or is it all just kinda speculation?

One "source" I have is my own experience.  I own both supercards, and have CF and SD media of the same speed ratings (both 100+ and 40x, in CF and SD)...

I believe SD is more prone to slowdown because of the mode in which supercard SD accesses the SD card.  There are different modes of operation, and the mode supercard uses is limited.  

I've also heard that SD data is streamed in a single bitstream, whereas CF is multiple bits wide.. but I can't confirm this.  

either way, koji is right.  but these days, the difference is pretty minimal.  Romman has the SD version working very well now.

[Miggs]

Sorry if this is stupid but I am wondering, why is it we use FAT16 on hardware that uses two 32bit word processors? I guess this means the SC hardware is on 16bit tech only?

[cheapmod]

You can use HDTune to test the speed of your cards. www.hdtune.com This is a freeware application.

Ideally you should test your cards with a USB2 reader, USB1 readers will give false results as they are natually slower.

You should have a steady transfer rate, and as fast an access time as possible.

Transfer rates around 4MB/Sec and access times below 2ms will result in no slowdowns on even the most memory intensive games. 10ms access cards will glitch occasionally with intensive memory reads.

Standard speed cards seem to have an access time of around 10ms, High speed cards < 2ms.

Maybe people could post their results in this thread, so we can build up an idea of the best makes of cards to go for....

Glen.

[comapro]

^
Please post your card reader too, as it makes a diff.

[cory1492]

Sneef is correct, the CF standard is fairly open and hardware access isnt limited to a single serial stream where the SD is a proprietary protocol, so anyone not with a SD liscence and approval for logo branding can only use the SD card as if it was an MMC card (SIO - serial IO = 1 tx pin and 1 rx pin)

Cheapmod: while your method is OK, does it test the SD card as if it was an SD card or as if it was an MMC card (this usually depends on the card reader...) Also, the SD interface in the various carts dont really bear any resemblance to an SD reader interface - though seek time is important the best way to really test it is to test it in the GBA/DS itself; especially if you remember in some of these specific brands of cards dont even work while they work fine on the PC reader...

[Frank.45]

Hi,
Ive done some research in the forum, and i couldnt decide what to buy:
Supercard SD or SuperCard Mini-SD .

I m thinking in buying the Supercard SD, because i found an A-Data 150x with an excellent price and ive seen ppl in this forum saying that it worked perfect and saying that speed DOES matter. (or they are wrong?)
But SC Mini-Sd is a newer product and may have some improvements that SC SD doesnt have.

What do u think ?

And about SD speed, ive seen ppl with regular sandisk sd saying that never had slowdowns, but others said that with Sandisk regular they had horrible slowdowns. Any real info on this?

Thank you very much !


PS - Sorry for english grammar errors, its not my primary language. :oops:

[bitblt]

I recommend the SC miniSD.  It seems miniSD media is about the same price as regular SD media.  Speeds greater than 60X might not help with SC load time, but the extra speed is nice for PC to SD file transfers.  Also, it seems newer high speed SD media may have fewer compatibility issues with SC.