Source
r/vita•
aurix

Vita Memory Card Benchmarks

So, I've seen a lot of people reference this blog post lately: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/df-hardware-how-fast-are-vita-memory-cards

I didn't believe that their test was an accurate way of determining the performance of a vita memory card because they had a lot of uncontrolled variables. So, I decided to write my own PSM application to check their numbers for myself.

The first test (Texture load) is calling a system function to load a 4 MB .bmp and then turn it into a texture.

The second test (Texture load 2) is the same texture but scaled down to 256 KB.

The third test (Large Write) is writing a 10 MB file to the /Temp folder (the file is just 1,2,3,4,5,...,255,1,2,3,...,etc)

The fourth test (Large Read) is reading back the files created in the third test

Here are the results for my 16 GB card: https://imgur.com/Ac3vhWI

I suspect the reason the texture loading "speeds" were lower than the large file read speeds is because of the time spent converting the .bmps into textures (and sending them to the gpu?). This is supported by the fact that the smaller texture had a lower effective "speed". Overall, the read speeds were a very consistent 8 MB/s. This is a tad bit faster than what the blog claimed. The write speeds tended to jump around a bit but averaged 5 MB/s or so. This is inline with the blog claimed.

I'm not an expert on microSD card speeds, but looking around for numbers on other microSD cards these numbers still seem fairly disappointing. Perhaps I'll write an application does the same tests on my android phone later ...

Source code: www.mediafire.com/download/8j4oj5575h050i8/SpeedTest.rar

Posted Oct 4, 2013, 1:59 AM UTC · edited

4924
yifanlu•

The numbers sony cites to developers (although they do not guarantee that it is always achievable) are as follows (they state that tests are performed using native read/write functions; the speeds are an indication of the card + filesystem rather than just the card)

Read (read-only FS):

StyleChunk SizeSpeed
sequential256KB6.4 MB/s
random64KB4.1 MB/s
random16KB1.8 MB/s
random4KB0.6 MB/s

Read (RW filesystem):

StyleChunk SizeSpeed
sequential256KB6.0 MB/s
random64KB3.9 MB/s
random16KB1.6 MB/s
random4KB0.5 MB/s

Write:

StyleChunk SizeSpeed
sequential256KB1.0 MB/s
random64KB0.7 MB/s
random16KB0.3 MB/s
random4KB0.06 MB/s
17
iluvmyswitcherotakun8•

Overall, the read speeds were a very consistent 8 MB/s. This is a tad bit faster than what the blog claimed. The write speeds tended to jump around a bit but averaged 5 MB/s or so. This is inline with the blog claimed.

Individual tests are going to yield varying results. Ideally, we will have more comments from others who performed tests of their own. This is some pretty important stuff we're dealing with. Your work is appreciated, OP.

4
aurixOPpurplepanzer•

Yeah, I figured one or two people with PSM dev licenses would be curious enough to try it themselves.

3
nexustwentyfiven25•

So what is read from the cards depends more on the hardware of the vita performing operations rather than the actual speed the cards are capable of sustain ?

2
RedVee•

Yup! If you read about solid state theory you'll learn that modern memory architectures have been around for ages. Controller architecture and implementation have been driving I/O advances for years now (i.e. USB1.0, USB2.0, USB3.0, IDE, ATA, PATA, SCSI, SATA1,2,3...etc).

1
nexustwentyfiven25•

Nice read. Illustrating my point that the actual read/write speed on the cards is not that important if the hardware barely reachs it.

1
psychoacer•

I would say this shows the performance of the vita when it comes to reading the sd card more then anything. The reader on the vita might not be getting 3.6v of power which most microsd cards use to achieve full speeds. It all depends on it they limited it for battery savings or heat issues but most portable devices do it. Now of days most cards run pretty fast at 3.4v but to the rated speed for any card is only possible at full voltage. So until you can find out what voltage the card reader runs at and also what is the max voltage for these cards it's impossible to know the real answer to this question

2
cjthompebu0•

I mentally tripped when I hit

Now of days

5
psychoacer•

It's "now a days"?

2
LeeorVLeeorV•

Yup. It is even sometimes written as a single word

Nowadays

3
megamirror•

Mirror of listed file if it were to become unavailable.

SpeedTest.rar (1.1 MB)

https://mega.co.nz/#!cIQhTR7R!Uf8TPECRXeiZGfgJhTtQG2uti-8yxYRenhZ2jri5VuE

2
easterredditeasterkeke•

I'm dumb and don't understand any of this. tl;dr: Vita cards are not very good then?

1
SnackeyG1•

For what Sony charges they should be faster. They're fast enough for their use though.

3
Dodey12Dodey12•

I thought the point of them being proprietary was security and DRM like features.? Did they ever claim "we charge more because they are faster" etc?

2
Fiercegore•

If their purpose is just DRM stuff, then why do they cost three to four times more than a regular SD card? It would be fair if they were faster, but I'm sure that was just an excuse for how ridiculously expensive they are.

2
SnackeyG1•

Nope. They just did it to profit. That DRM thing is BS.

1
Dodey12Dodey12•

Well how much does it cost them to make a vita? Memory is usually where the costs are made up.

For example: a 16gb iPad costs a little over $300 to make in parts alone. Add on R&D and marketing and there probably isn't too much margin. However the 32gb and 64gb are $100 and $200 more respectively while almost the same cost (parts) to produce. That's where they make their profits.

0
bomli•

I would like to know how this compares to the vita game cards that physical games are sold on. Do the memory cards have comparable speeds, or is it advantageous to buy physical releases of games? I assume one way to test this would be to measure loading times of the same game, once as a physical copy and once as a PSN download version.

Have there been done any benchmarks like this before? Or does Sony state somewhere what speed developers can rely on from both types of cards?

1
yifanlu•

According to Sony, game cards speed is the same as memory card with the exception that read only portions of the game card can read faster in theory (since encryption will slow it down a little). Read my post above for Sony's numbers for developers.

2
ultrasonic2010•

OK now in plain English - Internal Memory vs Memory card - I dont see any comparison, so how does this help?

1
aurixOPpurplepanzer•

First gen vitas don't have internal memory. Are you talking about the game cartridges? I'm just a PSM dev so I can't test that.

1
ultrasonic2010•

Thats what I meant, game carts vs. like a 16GB card (I just call the cards internal memory). Also - does anyone know the maximum size a developer can make a game cart? I assume its the same maximum capacity as any of the cards that could be purchased, but I dont know.

1
aurixOPpurplepanzer•

I remember reading the max cart size is 4GB. I think it had to do with some audio being cut from MLB because it was way too big?

2