Hardware Dual mSDHC cards in PSP... which class is sufficient?

[synce]

I see some good deals on 2*16GB Class 4 cards, but those have read speed of 4MB/s compared to the highest Class 10 (10MB/s). Will it be enough for lag free gaming, and is there any point in getting the fastest cards or is the loading speed limited by the PSP itself?

 

[trumpet-205]

There is no point in getting faster card if you plan to use microSD to MS Duo adapter. The adapter itself will slow down read/write speed.

 

[synce]

k, I see some Pro Duos that claim 30MB/s constant read, but can the PSP really take advantage of that? I assume when playing a game most reads are random, not constant. Can't seem to find any loading benchmarks taken directly from the PSP

 

[VashTS]

i got 2 16gb cards in an adapter, no issues here, maybe little slow to read initially. dj max plays smooth.

 

[trumpet-205]

k, I see some Pro Duos that claim 30MB/s constant read, but can the PSP really take advantage of that? I assume when playing a game most reads are random, not constant. Can't seem to find any loading benchmarks taken directly from the PSP

PSP can take advantage of that if and only if it is the real MSPD card. When you use the adapter, it has to translate MSPD signal into SD signal back and forward. Given that Photofast no longer produces the real CR-5400 every CR-5400 you buy now is counterfeit (fake). These fakes have their quality all over the places. Some works fine, some works slow, some doesn't work. In my case one burnt my microSD card while the other one had slot 2 non-working.

The reason I say it will slow down is because of the signal conversion (slows down speed and adds latency).

 

[Nathan Drake]

When I had an adapter, I used two 4GB class 4 cards, and I never had an issue.

 

[GBA rocks]

I had one of those adapters (probably a fake) and it was crap. Issues. Slow. Wasted money. As said by trumpet-205, the adapter itself is a bottleneck, no point in spending money on faster micro SDs.

Just buy an original MSHX8, MSHX16 or MSHX32 from a reliable shop while they're still around.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I see some good deals on 2*16GB Class 4 cards, but those have read speed of 4MB/s compared to the highest Class 10 (10MB/s). Will it be enough for lag free gaming, and is there any point in getting the fastest cards or is the loading speed limited by the PSP itself?

I read something a while back about the PSP artificially slowing down the read speed. I don't know if this still holds true but if so then it wouldn't matter.
Also, class 4 cards can have a much faster read speed than 4MB/s (and typically do) as that's only a minimum. Kingston cards for example had a 14MB/s (or so) read speed when I benchmarked them, and 7MB/s write, meaning they could technically be rated as a class 6.

 

[SoraK05]

I have seen that things load faster in general with a MicroSD Adaptor and even a Class 4 MicroSDHC inside - faster than the official Memory Stick.

I have an official 256MB stick and an adaptor with an 8GB in one of the 2 slots on it. I might record a video if you wanted, with a small game on the stick..

I gave an adaptor to a friend who was playing monster hunter, who said it is much faster and cheaper considering.

 

[xist]

I have seen that things load faster in general with a MicroSD Adaptor and even a Class 4 MicroSDHC inside - faster than the official Memory Stick.

No. I can state first hand that that isn't the case.

 

[SoraK05]

My friend maybe 3 years back was playing Monster Hunter on his PSP. I gave him an adaptor and he said it was much faster.
I have also seen better speeds from the MicroSD Adaptor too when playing games, for loading and the general speed of the game.

It is the PhotoFast CR-5400 MS Pro Duo Dual Slot Adaptor.

 

[Rydian]

If the stick he was using before was crap, then sure even an adapter can outpace it, but they still fall short of what a good official stick can do.

 

[SoraK05]

I made a video.

 

[Rydian]

A 256 memory stick Pro Duo? XD That's like telling me your thumb drive is faster than a harddrive, then pulling out a harddrive from 1990. To put it in perspective, the 256MB Memory Stick Pro Duo was the first model to break the 128MB limit.

 

[SoraK05]

My friend had like a 4GB Pro Duo 3 years ago playing monster hunter, and when I gave him the CR-5400 he said it was quite faster.

 

[Rydian]

My friend had like a 4GB Pro Duo 3 years ago playing monster hunter, and when I gave him the CR-5400 he said it was quite faster.

It was probably a fake or low-quality stick in the first place. We see them all the time, in fact memory stick speed is so important for the PSP that it itself contains a built-in check for fake sticks (press triangle highlighting the stick, go to properties, see what Magic Gate says, "unknown" means it's not a real stick or is damaged), and even with real sticks there's such high speed differences between low-quality and high quality there there were at least two PSP homebrews made to test the speed (PSXreality is the only one I can remember the name of right now).

Yes, an adapter can be faster than a crappy stick, but still not as fast as a good stick, and adapters are known to cause all sorts of issues with hacking and homebrew (like they can't have the pre-IPL inserted for pandora, etc.)

 

[SoraK05]

He likes official stuff. I'm sure it was official.

 

[Rydian]

Official sticks can also be older and slower, which is why the benchmark programs were made. I had two official sticks where one was twice as fast as the other before. You'll also note that the official sticks even come in different models with different speed ratings.

Normal...
http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-8GB-Memory-Stick-Pro/dp/B000UZH7P6/

Mark 2...
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Memory-Stick-ProDuo-MSMT4G/dp/B0013AX2JM/

HX...
http://www.amazon.com/Sony-PRO-HG-Memory-Stick-MSHX8B/dp/B003F8UWUM/

etc.

 

[SoraK05]

I've asked him what card he was using at the time.. when he responds, I'll let you know.

 

[remlei]

different case for me, I had dual slot adapter with 64GBx2 SDXC UHS Class 6 and tested it in both from card reader on my VAIO laptop and PSP took 17mbps read speed and 6.8mbps write speed, I also tested a 8gb class 10 SDHC card and do the test, and I can confirm that the adapter can do as fast as the card capable read/write speed in my case 25mbps read and 10.2mbps write.