UDMA CompactFlash Cards
Important Note:
Do not use CompactFlash cards as system disk, unless
you really know what you are doing!
Do not contact me with questions or complaints!
Maximum average read/write rates, sorted by write rate.
All cards from regular retail chains, but no guarantee that
all cards from the same series show the same performance.
Cards marked "#" require write
alignment !
For regular test results, see the
UDMA CompactFlash Cross-Comparison
or
UDMA CompactFlash Test Results .
The CF interface
is derived from the ATA Interface. The CF 2.0 specification
allowed PIO-4
mode that has a theoretical limit of about
15.9MB/s.
CF 3.0 introduced two additional PIO modes
that are not part of the original ATA specification:
PIO-5 and PIO-6,
where PIO-6 has a theoretical limit of about
23.8MB/s. Most CF cards with speed ratings from 80x to 166x
use PIO-6 to achieve this speed.
However, there is currently no FireWire reader with support
for PIO-5 or PIO-6.
This means that
PIO-6 cards run in the slower
PIO-4 mode, and therefore
run slower than with current USB 2.0 readers. Support for MDMA
modes is most likely not that popular, but you can't really tell the
difference between
PIO-4 and MDMA-2
when a card reader is
used, because PIO only occupies the card reader controller,
not the host CPU. CF 3.0 also introduced two additional MDMA
modes, MDMA-3 and MDMA-4
using the same timing as
PIO-5 and PIO-6.
With CF 3.0, the UDMA modes
UDMA-0 to UDMA-4
were introduced with a theoretical limit of about
63MB/s for UDMA-4.
With CF 4.0, the remaining UDMA modes
UDMA-5 and UDMA-6
were added, allowing up to about 127MB/s.
In case you have plans on using CF cards as regular ATA device:
For all timings of 100ns or faster, the CompactFlash specification
only allows one device per bus with a maximum cable length
of 0.15m (6in) from the card connector to the host controller!
In addition to that, 80-wire cables must be
used for all UDMA modes.
Current UDMA CF Cards
and UDMA CF readers support at least
UDMA-4,
with real-world transfer
rates of more than 50MB/s. This is already well beyond the
real-world throughput of USB 2.0 in storage mode. Current
USB 2.0 UDMA CF readers are maxed out at about 32MB/s.
This is a list of currently available or announced UDMA CF cards.
This list does not claim to be complete or correct.
All speed ratings and read/write rates are based on advertized figures.
For actual data rates, see the
test results
above.
| Last update: 2008-11-19 |
Sizes |
| Brand |
Series |
Claimed Speed |
1GB |
2GB |
4GB |
8GB |
12GB |
16GB |
24GB |
32GB |
50GB
48GB |
64GB |
100GB
96GB |
128GB |
| A-Data |
Turbo 350x CompactFlash |
52MB/s R, 47MB/s W |
|
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# |
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# |
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| A-Data |
Turbo 266x CompactFlash |
266x |
|
# |
# |
# |
|
# |
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| Apacer |
Photo Steno IV CF 300X |
300x: 47MB/s R, 36MB/s W |
|
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# |
# |
|
[#] |
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| ATP |
Pro Max II UDMA Ready 300X Speed CF |
300x |
|
# |
# |
# |
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| Biwin |
150x/300x CF |
45MB/s R, 22.5MB/s W |
# |
# |
# |
# |
|
# |
|
# |
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| Buffalo |
RCF-U x300 |
45MB/s R, 35MB/s W |
|
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# |
# |
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| Calumet |
ProSpec Series UDMA 305x |
305x: 45MB/s |
# |
# |
# |
# |
|
# |
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| Dane-Elec |
UDMA 300Xs CF |
300x: 45MB/s |
|
# |
# |
# |
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| Delkin |
CompactFlash PRO UDMA 305x |
305x: 45MB/s |
# |
# |
# |
# |
|
# |
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| FujiFilm |
310x CompactFlash |
310x: 46.5MB/s W |
|
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# |
# |
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# |
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| Hoodman |
Professional RAW 280x CompactFlash |
280x: 42MB/s |
|
# |
# |
# |
|
? |
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| Hoodman |
Professional RAW UDMA 300x CompactFlash |
300x: 45MB/s |
|
# |
# |
# |
|
# |
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| Integral |
Ultima PRO 300x CF |
300x: 45MB/s R, 45MB/s W |
|
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# |
# |
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# |
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| Brand |
Series |
Claimed Speed |
1GB |
2GB |
4GB |
8GB |
12GB |
16GB |
24GB |
32GB |
50GB
48GB |
64GB |
100GB
96GB |
128GB |
| Kingmax |
200x/266x/300x CF |
200x/266x/300x |
? |
? |
? |
? |
|
? |
|
? |
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| Kingston |
CompactFlash Ultimate 266x |
266x: 45MB/s R, 40MB/s W |
|
# |
# |
# |
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# |
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| Lexar |
Professional UDMA 300x CompactFlash |
300x |
|
# |
# |
# |
|
# |
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| Lexar |
Professional 233x CompactFlash |
233x |
|
[#] |
[#] |
[#] |
|
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| Microdia |
XTRA Elite 300x UDMA CompactFlash |
300x: 45MB/s R/W |
|
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# |
# |
|
[#] |
|
[#] |
|
[#] |
|
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| PhotoFast |
CF 300X Speed (SLC) |
300x: 44MB/s R, 31MB/s W |
|
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# |
# |
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# |
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| PhotoFast |
366X Professional |
366x: 55MB/s R, 25MB/s W |
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# |
# |
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# |
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# |
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| PhotoFast |
Extreme Pro CF |
333x: 43MB/s R, 10.5MB/s W |
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# |
# |
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# |
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# |
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| PNY |
Optima Pro UDMA CF Ultra High Speed 266x |
266x |
|
# |
# |
# |
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| PQI |
Hi-Speed 300 CompactFlash |
300x: 45MB/s R, 22.5MB/s W |
# |
# |
# |
# |
|
[#] |
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| Pretec |
333x CF |
333x: 50MB/s R, 40MB/s W |
|
? |
? |
? |
|
# |
# |
# |
[#] |
|
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| Pretec |
233x CF |
233x: 35MB/s R, 25MB/s W |
? |
? |
? |
? |
|
? |
? |
? |
# |
# |
[#] |
|
| RAM Components |
High Speed 320x CF |
320x max. |
|
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# |
# |
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# |
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| RiDATA |
266X CompactFlash Supreme |
266x: 40MB/s R, 35MB/s W |
# |
# |
# |
# |
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| RiDATA |
Lightning Series 233X CompactFlash |
233x: 35MB/s R |
# |
# |
# |
# |
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# |
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| Brand |
Series |
Claimed Speed |
1GB |
2GB |
4GB |
8GB |
12GB |
16GB |
24GB |
32GB |
50GB
48GB |
64GB |
100GB
96GB |
128GB |
| SanDisk |
Extreme III CF 30MB/s |
30MB/s |
|
# |
# |
# |
|
# |
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# |
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| SanDisk |
Extreme IV CF 40MB/s |
266x: 40MB/s |
|
# |
# |
# |
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| SanDisk |
Extreme IV CF 45MB/s |
45MB/s R/W |
|
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# |
# |
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# |
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| SanDisk |
Extreme Ducati Edition CF |
45MB/s |
|
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# |
# |
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| Silicon Power |
200x CF |
200x |
# |
# |
# |
# |
|
# |
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# |
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| Silicon Power |
300x CF |
300x |
|
# |
# |
# |
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# |
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# |
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| SONY |
CompactFlash UDMA 300x |
300x: 45MB/s W |
|
# |
# |
# |
|
# |
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| STEC |
MACH4 CF |
90MB/s R, 55MB/s W |
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# |
# |
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# |
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| STEC |
MACH2 CF |
30MB/s R, 20MB/s W |
# |
# |
# |
# |
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# |
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| Transcend |
ULTRA Industrial CF |
100x: 25-40MB/s max. |
# |
# |
# |
# |
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| Transcend |
Extreme Speed UDMA 300x CF |
300x |
|
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# |
# |
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# |
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| Transcend |
266x High-Speed CF |
266x: 40MB/s max. |
|
# |
# |
# |
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| Transcend |
133x Ultra Speed CF |
133x: 45MB/s R, 21.5MB/s W |
# |
# |
# |
# |
|
# |
|
# |
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| TwinMOS |
300x Ultra-X CF |
300x |
# |
# |
# |
# |
|
[#] |
|
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| Verbatim |
PRO SERIES CF 300X |
300x: 45MB/s R/W |
|
# |
# |
# |
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| 1GB |
2GB |
4GB |
8GB |
12GB |
16GB |
24GB |
32GB |
48GB
50GB |
64GB |
96GB
100GB |
128GB |