
Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/13339/pny-elite-microsdxc-uhsi-512gb-memory-card-capsule-review
PNY Elite microSDXC UHS-I 512GB Memory Card Capsule Review
by Ganesh T S on September 18, 2018 5:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
- flash
- Memory Cards
- PNY
- microSDXC
Digital cameras and camcorders employ memory cards (flash-based removable media) for storage of captured content. There are different varieties of memory cards catering to various performance levels. CompactFlash (CF) became popular in the late 90s, but, has now been overtaken by Secure Digital (SD) cards. Many computing systems (PCs as well as smartphones) also support SD / microSD cards for augmenting local storage capabilities. We recently started in-depth evaluation of the performance of various memory cards. This piece evaluates one of the highest capacity microSDXC card currently available in the market - the PNY Elite microSDXC UHS-I 512GB version.
Introduction
SD (Secure Digital) cards were introduced in 1999, as an update to the existing MultiMediaCards (MMCs). It gained traction even in areas where CompactFlash had been preferred, thanks to its small size. Its popularity is evident by the fact that it has spawned two follow-ups in the same form factor - starting with the SDSC in 1999 for capacities between 1MB and 2GB, we got SD High Capacity (SDHC) in 2006 (up to 32GB) and SD eXtended Capacity (SDXC) in 2009 (up to 2TB). The cards also come in various sizes - standard, mini, and micro. Currently, the standard and micro sizes are more popular in the market. SD's popularity and affordability has meant that almost all consumer cameras come with a SD card slot.
Recently, we have seen a number of high-capacity microSDXC cards getting introduced. Starting with the 400GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card ($153 at $0.3825/GB) introduced in August 2017, we now have the Integral 512GB and the PNY Elite 512GB in the market as well. At Computex 2018, we also saw plans from ADATA and Team Group to sell 512GB microSDXC cards. With the industry migrating to 3D NAND, the capacity per die has seen significant increase, allowing for microSDXC cards to reach these capacities. The PNY Elite microSDXC 512GB is a UHS-I card with a Class 10 (Speed Class) / U1 (UHS Speed Class) / V10 (Video Speed Class) rating.
PNY supplied us with a retail sample of their Elite 512GB card to put through our comprehensive memory card evaluation routine. Prior to taking a look at the performance numbers, we take a look at the testbed setup and evaluation methodology.
Testbed Setup and Performance Benchmarks
Evaluation of memory cards is done on Windows with the testbed outlined in the table below. The USB 3.1 Type-C port in the testbed is enabled by the Intel Alpine Ridge controller. It connects to the Z170 PCH via a PCIe 3.0 x4 link. uSD cards utilize the Lexar Professional Workflow SR2 SDHC / SDXC UHS-II USB 3.0 Reader along with a microSD to SD adapter. For this particular review, we used the adapter supplied along with the PNY Elite card in its retail package. The reader was placed in the Lexar Professional Workflow HR2 hub and uplinked through its USB 3.0 port with the help of a USB 3.0 Type-A female to Type-C male cable.
AnandTech DAS Testbed Configuration | |
Motherboard | GIGABYTE Z170X-UD5 TH ATX |
CPU | Intel Core i5-6600K |
Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws 4 F4-2133C15-8GRR 32 GB ( 4x 8GB) DDR4-2133 @ 15-15-15-35 |
OS Drive | Samsung SM951 MZVPV256 NVMe 256 GB |
SATA Devices | Corsair Neutron XT SSD 480 GB Intel SSD 730 Series 480 GB |
Add-on Card | None |
Chassis | Cooler Master HAF XB EVO |
PSU | Cooler Master V750 750 W |
OS | Windows 10 Pro x64 |
Thanks to Cooler Master, GIGABYTE, G.Skill and Intel for the build components |
The full details of the reasoning behind choosing the above build components can be found here.
The performance numbers here reflect the speed class rating of the card. As mentioned in the sequential writes section for the typical photo / video recording workload, the PNY Elite is not a speed play. Rather, it is a capacity play, which is not reflected well in this evaluation segment.
Performance Restoration
The traditional memory card use-case is to delete the files on it after the import process is completed. Some prefer to format the card either using the PC, or, through the options available in the camera menu. The first option is not a great one, given that flash-based storage devices run into bandwidth issues if garbage collection (processes such as TRIM) is not run regularly. Different memory cards have different ways to bring them to a fresh state.Based on our experience, uSD cards have to be formatted using the SD Formatter tool from the SD Association (after all the partitions are removed using the 'clean' command in diskpart).
In order to test out the effectiveness of the performance restoration process, we run the default sequential workloads in CrystalDiskMark before and after the formatting. Note that this is at the end of all our benchmark runs, and the card is in a used state at the beginning of the process. The corresponding screenshots for similar cards that we have evaluated before is available via the drop-down selection.
We do see a drop in the write rate after performance restoration, but, it is similar to the numbers we see in the sustained write workload. The performance is still better than the requirements of the claimed speed rating.
Concluding Remarks
The PNY Elite microSDXC UHS-I 512GB card successfully completed our intensive benchmarking routines. It showed great performance consistency, but, emerged as an average / low-end performer with respect to the raw benchmark numbers.
In addition to raw performance and consistency, pricing is also an important aspect. This is particularly important in the casual user and semi-professional markets, where the value for money metric often trumps benchmark numbers. The table below presents the relevant data for the PNY Elite microSDXC UHS I 512GB uSD card and other similar ones that we have evaluated before. The cards are ordered by the $/GB metric.
uSD Cards - Pricing | ||||
Card | Model Number | Capacity (GB) | Street Price (USD) | Price per GB (USD/GB) |
SanDisk Extreme microSDXC UHS I 128GB | SDSQXAF-128G-GN6MA | 128 | 49 | 0.3828125 |
PNY Elite microSDXC UHS I 512GB | P-SDU512U190EL-GE | 512 | 350 | 0.68359375 |
ADATA XPG microSDXC UHS I 64GB | AUSDX64GXUI3-RA1 | 64 | 50 | 0.78125 |
ADATA Premier ONE microSDXC UHS II 256GB | AUSDX256GUII3CL10-C | 256 | 286 | 1.1171875 |
Lexar 1800x 128GB | LSDMI128CRBNA1800R | 128 | 167 | 1.3046875 |
SanDisk Extreme PRO microSDXC UHS II 128GB | SDSQXPJ-128G-GN6M3 | 128 | 208 | 1.625 |
The PNY Elite card is not meant to be a benchmarks winner - rather, PNY wants to focus on the market segment which requires high capacity. This is an attractive card for content creators in the field who want to record a lot of content between imports to a bigger PC or network-connected mass storage device. It also targets users who can't afford the downtime / recording break that is inevitable during card swaps (when using smaller capacity cards). The SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I card ($153 at $0.3825/GB) also targets the same market segment with a similar speed rating, and it has a significantly lower per-GB cost. However, the PNY Elite does edge it out with a slightly higher capacity (512GB vs. 400GB). As indicated by its speed rating, the PNY Elite doesn't sport enough performance to consistently record videos with very high bitrates. But, it should be more than enough for content in the 80 Mbps range.