USB 3.0 PCI Express Card Performance / Throughput Metrics

Discontinued Products PCIE-USB3-SP
1

Hello,

I have an available PCIe x1 (v 1.x) slot available and I’m considering occupying it with the following product:

http://plugable.com/products/PCIE-USB…

Can you please share some realistic expectations of the throughput I should expect for this card using all high quality USB cables / hubs? I know there are many variables, but I would at least like to have some idea. I have seen others claiming as much as 100 MB/s with similar cards from other manufacturers, but I haven’t found any metrics on your card.

Thanks,
Brad

2

Hi Brad,

Thanks for contacting us about the realistic throughput of our USB 3.0 PCI Express. Here’s the scoop: what I see when testing cards with our USB 3.0 SATA Hard Drive Docking Station (see link below) is pretty close to what you’re reporting. The larger the data sample being copied, the faster the transfer. With very large data transfers the speed can reach as high as 120Mbps but is usually in the 80-100Mbps range.

It’s fair to expect around 80Mbps average for moving big files around. A backup of many small files introduces more overhead, reducing the actual throughput but the increase is still 3 to 4 times USB 2.0 speeds.

I hope this helps
Jerome

Plugable Technologies

http://plugable.com/products/usb3-sat…

3

Hey Jerome,

Thanks for the quick reply. From my research, I’m guessing the mechanics of the SATA hard drive is almost certainly why the speed is slow at around 80 - 120 Mbps (did you mean MBps here?).

Do you have any metrics you can share where the peripheral isn’t the limiting factor? For example, metrics using a solid state drive and/or Plugable’s upcoming USB 3.0 video card adapter would be awesome.

Thanks again,
Brad

4

Hi Brad,

Here’s some good benchmarks with various drives: http://www.everythingusb.com/speed.html

My understanding is with optimal tests (not limited by media) you might see as high as ~1.5 Gbps (~190MB/sec).

So like with USB 2.0, where theoretical perf is 480Mbps, but practical is about half that for a single endpoint, USB 3.0 will have a difference too between theoretical and practical.

Sorry we don’t have anything more precise - it’s very device dependent.

Hope that helps. Thanks for asking!
Bernie