TESTED: OWC Atlas Pro, OWC Atlas Ultra SDXC Card Speed, with/without Encryption

2023-06-03 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: APFS, backup, camera cards, CFExpress camera storage card, encryption, Other World Computing, OWC Atlas camera storage cards, OWC Atlas Card Readers, SDXC camera storage card, security

re: Camera Cards for Wallet Backups
re: How to Create an Encrypted Volume on an SSD or Camera Card

OWC Atlas camera cards and card readers are designed for still photography and video capture. No one encrypts a camera card for such purposes (nor would the camera be able to use the card!), but if the goal is wallet backup, then encryption comes into play.

Performance with APFS encrypted file system eg wallet backups was my interest here.

It does not work out well for SDXC; see how wonderful the results are with CFExpress Type B.

OWC Atlas camera cards

OWC Atlas Dual Card Reader

SDXC Speed with OWC Atlas Dual Card Reader

SDXC trails far behind CFExpress, but if you camera uses only SDXC, then that’s what you use.

As for wallet backups, SDXC sucks beyond measure—it’s snail mail vs email, with writes 13X slower when encrypted.

We should all hope that SDXC disappears as soon as possible in camera design, replaced by some version of CFExpress Type A, starting in 2024.

Recommended camera cards and readers: SDXC and CFExpress
Good choices: OWC Atlas FXR, OWC Atlas Dual CFexpress + SD Card Card Reader, OWC Atlas Pro, OWC Atlas Ultra

Graph in MiB/sec. Multiply by 1.048 for MB/sec.

OWC Atlas SDXC Camera Cards: speed encrypted and unencrypted