Are usb 3.1 flash drive advertised speeds just bs?

[mcRYSHER]

So, I bought 64GB usb 3.1/type-c flash drive from SiliconPower. Plugged it into 3.2 usb port and tried to copy a single 2.4gb file to it... The writing speed is around 9-14 mbytes/sec. My old usb 2.0 flash drive has speed around 6-8 mbytes/sec.

I googled and it seems like it is normal. Most people have more or less the same writing speed.

My PC is Ryzen 3960x, PCIe Gen4 Corsair m.2 ssd. So, the bottlenecking is excluded.

 

So, basically usb 3.0/3.1 flash drive writing speed is just a joke. As far as I understand there is no sense to buy USB 3.0+ flash drives because there is literally no difference in writing speeds compared to usb 2.0.

[Constantin]

5 minutes ago, mcRYSHER said:

As far as I understand there is no sense to buy USB 3.0+ flash drives because there is literally no difference in writing speeds compared to usb 2.0.

You mean USB 3, not USB 2, cause i personally see a huge difference in files transfer from USB 3 to USB 2 

[mcRYSHER]

Yeah, I mean USB 3.0 flash drive is not worth to buy because the difference with USB 2.0 is barely noticeable in real-world speeds

 

Here is my writing speed. Just LOL.

 

[johnny5c]

I see well over 100MBs with a 64GB Sandisk Extreme Go.  Are you using a front panel port?  Only ask because for some reason my Fractal Define's front port limits the write speed to 20MBs so I just use a extension running from a MB port.

[mcRYSHER]

I've used both frontal and back ports. I have the same result. Johnny, is your speed is writing speed? I mean the speed you have when you copy file from PC to your USB drive? Over 100MBs is pretty damn good for writing speed!

[kokosnh]

Run a as ssd, and crystaldiskmark benchmark on it
 

 

[johnny5c]

8 minutes ago, mcRYSHER said:

I've used both frontal and back ports. I have the same result. Johnny, is your speed is writing speed? I mean the speed you have when you copy file from PC to your USB drive? Over 100MBs is pretty damn good for writing speed!

Yes that's the write speed transferring 4K video from a SATA SSD, read speed is 170-180.  The Extreme Pro is advertised as 250 read and 200 write so not 100% happy but it's faster than my other 3.0 drives.

[mcRYSHER]

45 minutes ago, kokosnh said:

Run a as ssd, and crystaldiskmark benchmark on it
 

 

Thanks for advice, here are the results:

 

 

I am not sure what these numbers show exactly. I guess, read speed is around 180 mbytes which is ok. Write speed sucks.

 

Also, the usb drive was hot as hell during the test. 

[Kilrah]

A lot of USB flash drives are trash. You can't go by the fact that they're USB3 to know if they're fast writing or not, need to look at reviews.

[mcRYSHER]

15 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

A lot of USB flash drives are trash. You can't go by the fact that they're USB3 to know if they're fast writing or not, need to look at reviews.

Kilrah, thanks for the message. Yeah, I've been googling a bit and looks like you're right. Some users say buying USB drives are like a lottery.

Some USB 3.0 drives might be much faster than others. I didn't know much about that.

 

So, can anyone else please confirm that I was just unlucky to buy crappy usb3.0 stick?

 

[Pickles von Brine]

I only by Sandisk or Mushkin flash drives. Those all work fine. It also depends on where the sweetspot is on your SSD. Some perform better with certain tasks. That being said, a contiguous transfer such as a video should go at max speed. 

Are you sure the port you plugged it into is a USB 3.1 port?

[kokosnh]

What is the exact model of that USB pendrive? 

 

I got tired of that crap write speed on pendrives too, and bought USB A/C  -> M.2 NVME 10Gb/s enclosure + 1TB SSD M.2 NVMe, now I got almost 10Gb/s read and write.

[mcRYSHER]

 

1 hour ago, Lord Xeb said:

I only by Sandisk or Mushkin flash drives. Those all work fine. 
Are you sure the port you plugged it into is a USB 3.1 port?

My MoBo is ASUS TRX40 Prime, so it does not have USB 2.0 ports. Every USB it has is 3.2.

I'll probably go and buy SanDisk although there are mixed reviews about it on Amazon. Many complains that it dies within half a year...

51 minutes ago, kokosnh said:

What is the exact model of that USB pendrive? 

64Gb Silicon Power Mobile C31, OTG, USB 3.1/Type-C, Black (80244413)

[Pickles von Brine]

Go the extreme pro ones. That or the ultra series.  Those are pretty damn quick. 

[WereCatf]

38 minutes ago, mcRYSHER said:

64Gb Silicon Power Mobile C31

I don't find any mention of read- or write-speeds on Silicon Power's website, which is a bad sign to begin with. If you want a fast one, you should check that the manufacturer actually lists write-speeds for it. Secondly, that's a tiny stick; in my experience, generally the smaller the stick is, the slower it also is.

[mcRYSHER]

What do you guys think about Corsair Voyager GTX? It has much more positive reviews and tests show impressive results:

 

Compare it to Sandisk Extreme Pro:

[kokosnh]

1 hour ago, mcRYSHER said:

64Gb Silicon Power Mobile C31, OTG, USB 3.1/Type-C, Black (80244413)

i found one comment on amazon, that have 226 MBps read and 88 MBps write speeds on 64GB version of C31 in Disk speed test. 

 

You have USB in uasp right? 

 

Try reformatting it to GPT with large sektors, and NTFS partitions, all data on pendrive will be lost. 

[mcRYSHER]

17 minutes ago, kokosnh said:

i found one comment on amazon, that have 226 MBps read and 88 MBps write speeds on 64GB version of C31 in Disk speed test. 

 

You have USB in uasp right? 

 

Try reformatting it to GPT with large sektors, and NTFS partitions, all data on pendrive will be lost. 

Thanks, man, will give it a try!

 

Found a good video about usb drive technologies:

 

https://youtu.be/0zr-rQ51Vbg

[mcRYSHER]

37 minutes ago, kokosnh said:

You have USB in uasp right? 

 

Try reformatting it to GPT with large sektors, and NTFS partitions, all data on pendrive will be lost. 

Actually, I can't check it, because Crystaldisk info does not see the usb drive. Does anyone know why is that? Googling did not help much.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Stick with fat32 for flash drives under 32GB or exfat for drives larger than 32GB. The drives normally come already formatted to the correct file system.

 

USB speed standards are listed as up to a certain speed. In the case of USB 3.0 (excuse me, USB 3.2 Gen 1  ), any speed faster than USB 2.0 up to 5Gbps is considered to be USB 3.0. 

 

Keep in mind this also applies to USB 3.0 ports. Not all USB 3.0 ports will run at the full 5Bbps. Also, if more than one port shares the same 5.0Gbps bus, if each port has a device in it, all of them will probably run slower, depending on the actual speeds of the bus and each device.

 

Generally, the less you pay for a USB 3.0 flash drive, the slower it will be. When pricing USB flash drives, you also have to consider durability, and reliability. I've found Kingstons tend to have the best speed, durability, and reliability in their price class. I usually get their budget flash drives (I ordered a few yesterday) even though they do not run at full USB 3.0 speeds. They are still very much faster than USB 2.0 drives (I got rid of mine becasue they are so slow and were pretty small capacitywise), I've yet to have one die, and I feel they give me the best bang for my buck. Since so many USB 3.0 ports don't run at full speed and I don't normally use USB flash drives very often, I feel it's a waste of money to buy faster drives.

[mcRYSHER]

Found a good article. They testing my "type-of" usb drives. Every usb drive they tested shows around 15-25mbytes/sec write speed.

Seems like my usb is operating normally for its class of devices.

 

Ordered Corsair Voyager GTX 256GB. 

 

 

[NumLock21]

Most USB 3.0 are for its read not write. Want one with fast write, then look for drives that advertises their write speed.

This is from my 32GB Sandisk

[NewMaxx]

Depends on the quality of the flash in the drive. There's a huge level of variance. There are definitely drives out there that can max out USB3.2 Gen1 (5 Gbps). For example, Transcend's JetFlash 910 with 3000 P/E.