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SD Card slot on the $2500 MBP vs the $39 dongle USB-C to SD Card Reader...
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Again, the SD card and HDMI ports are not for performance. It's for convenience.
When given the option, the best SD card slot is the one you have on you.
When given the option, the best SD card slot is the one you have on you.
Except for the fact that the one in the MBP is so slow that it doesn't recognize 1/3rd of the cards I have. The $39 dongle recognizes all of them no problem.
Again, what's the point of a 'Pro' computer with a SD slot that can't do 'Pro' things?
The SD card reader is nice to have. I just tried it out and yeah, performance isn't great. The bigger complaint that I have, though, is how much the thing sticks out. I can put my 2014 MacBook Pro in my bag with the SD card in the slot and not worry about it but I wouldn't do that with the 2021. I would like one of the makers of flush SD cards for Macs to make one for this. It would have to be a custom job or a sleeve for one of those really tiny cards. I strictly speaking don't need an SD slot as I got 1 TB of storage (I normally get 500 GB) and I use the net for moving files around the NAS.
Nobody is upgrading SD card controllers at this point in the worlds history. The USB-C can certainly do anything with an external - even powered SD card adaptor with a better I/O integration. As others said, it’s just pure convenience, but if I were doing a lot of external 4K video or RAW files, I’d used the dongle for Sure.
I'm getting good speeds from the internal reader myself - this is with a V60 Lexar card:
The read speeds are actually 10-20 MB/s faster than the SanDisk USB-C reader I previously used. If it's an issue with certain cards hopefully it can be fixed, as the reader is clearly capable of good speeds in the right circumstances.
The read speeds are actually 10-20 MB/s faster than the SanDisk USB-C reader I previously used. If it's an issue with certain cards hopefully it can be fixed, as the reader is clearly capable of good speeds in the right circumstances.
Oh, that's right. I think that my card is rated at 90/read. It's pretty old. That's actually very impressive for an SD card. I don't see those available in 512 GB or 1 TB.
The thing is, after the first 512Gb everything that anyone is storing, is just media - photos, videos, etc.
Last time MacBook Pros had SD-slots, everyone got those awesome little 'flush' sd-cards that fitted right inside the slot. There were some really good looking ones, with aluminium exteriors that matched the case. (See pics.)
I remember everyone at work getting *smaller* SSD machines, and just getting a big (flush) SD-Card to fit in the side. Why pay more?
Now though - it's *crazy* how far the SD-cards stick out of these things - and there's no good reason why - other than: Apple make a *fortune* on charging too much for internal storage. This is the reason the new SD-slot is slow, and shallow. It sucks - they could have made this better, but they feared the loss of profit.
Tell me I'm wrong....
Seeing the same speeds for both on my end. I've attached two files, one named Adapter.png and the other Native.png and as you can see both are essentially the same in terms of performance. I know it's probably a POS but I'm using SanDisk's Extreme Pro 128GB UHS-I card (advertised 170MB/S)
Attachments
Interesting. I wonder why my native SD reader is so slow. Mine won't even work on a card bigger than 64GB.
Is it possible they have different specs?
I'm assuming that mine would either work or not work, not sort of work slowly...
Any ideas?
Not sure. I have the cheapest new MBP so it can't be that. I'd def talk to Apple about that though because it's strange that the adapter recognises them but the port itself doesn't
I took an old one and put it in and it came up immediately. I have a much older 1 GB card that I could try. The 512 GB card I put in was slow. I had a video on it and started it up and it had pauses at the beginning as reads were too slow to play the video smoothly. I think that the read speed was in the 60-90 mb/S range. If folks are getting 200 mb/s, that's a big upgrade. SD cards would be easier to use than flash drives as I don't have any with USB-C plugs; mine are all USB-A.
Could be because it takes up less room inside where it would be hard to fit it in.
My results with a 256GB Samsung Evo UHS-I card in the 16in MBP are nearly identical to yours and seem quite acceptable to me.
Here's a comparison of my Delkin UHSII (300/250 MB/s read/write) reading from the Sony a7rIV via usb-c (8.2/134 MB/s or 45% of rated read) vs. in the MacBook card slot (36.0/86.0 MB/s or 29% of rated read). That's unfortunate.
Attachments
15.1.1 (24B91)
Internal 85.2 write 89.2 read
Reader 87.9 write 85.9 read
Card is a SanDisk Extreme PLUS rated for 190
Internal 85.2 write 89.2 read
Reader 87.9 write 85.9 read
Card is a SanDisk Extreme PLUS rated for 190
Just adding my annecdata.
Tried two cards: Both branded UHS-I, A2, V30, U3.
Cheap USB-C dongle: Read 105 MB/s, Write 155 MB/s
MacBook Pro M4: Read 80 MB/s, Write 90 MB/s
This is clearly very poor for an expensive "pro" machine.
Tried two cards: Both branded UHS-I, A2, V30, U3.
Cheap USB-C dongle: Read 105 MB/s, Write 155 MB/s
MacBook Pro M4: Read 80 MB/s, Write 90 MB/s
This is clearly very poor for an expensive "pro" machine.