Performance:
The test system used in this review is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 3700x CPU, MSI B550 GAMING PLUS motherboard, 16GB (8GB x 2) of Crucial Ballistix 3200 MHz DDR4 memory, Crucial P5 1TB SSD, GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1060 WINDFORCE OC 6G graphics card and a Lexar Multi-Card 2-in-1 USB 3.1 card reader. For the operating system, I used the latest version of Windows 10 Pro.
To test the performance of Silicon Power's Superior A2 1TB microSDXC card, I ran a series of benchmarks using CrystalDiskMark, ATTO Disk Benchmark and PCMark 10. To get a feel for the "real world" performance, I also copied and pasted 1GB of random files and directories as well as a single 4GB ISO file in Windows Explorer.
CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4:
First, I ran a few quick tests using CrystalDiskMark. This benchmark measures the performance of a storage device by testing its sequential and random read and write speeds.
According to Silicon Power, the Superior A2 microSDXC card is capable of reading at 100 MB/s and writing at 80 MB/s. As you can see, the card exceeded these speeds by a considerable margin in CrystalDiskMark's sequential read and write tests. Unfortunately, the card didn't come close to reaching the A2 rating of 4,000 random read or 2,000 random write IOPS.
ATTO Disk Benchmark 4.01:
I also used ATTO Disk Benchmark to test the Superior A2 microSDXC card's sequential read and write speeds. The tests are run using blocks ranging in size from 512B to 64 MB and the total length set to 256MB.
When tested with ATTO, the Superior A2 microSDXC card's read speeds topped out at about 159 MB/s and its write speeds at 145 MB/s.
PCMark 10 - Data Drive Benchmark:
PCMark 10's Data Drive Benchmark is designed to test drives that are used for storing files rather than applications. You can also use this test with NAS drives, USB sticks, memory cards, and other external storage devices. This benchmark produces an overall score as a measure of drive performance. Comparing devices is as simple as comparing scores. The tests also measure and report the bandwidth and average access time for the drive.
"Real World" Benchmark:
To test the "real world" performance of Silicon Power's Superior A2 microSDXC memory card, I copied and pasted 1GB worth of randomly generated files and directories. All of the files are between 1KB and 95MB in size and no more than five directories deep. To see how well the cards handled large files, I also copied and pasted a 4GB ISO file.
| Silicon Power Superior A2 1TB microSDXC | Silicon Power Superior Pro 256GB microSDXC | |
| 1GB Files - Write: | 16 seconds | 19 seconds |
| 1GB Files - Read: | 11 seconds | 17 seconds |
| 4GB ISO File - Write: | 32 seconds | 49 seconds |
| 4GB ISO File - Read: | 28 seconds | 46 seconds |
Silicon Power's A2-rated card performed very well here, taking 16 seconds to write 1GB worth of test data and a mere 11 seconds to read it back.
Final Thoughts:
Silicon Power's Superior A2 microSDXC card is an excellent choice for the consumer looking for fast, yet affordable, storage for their smartphone, tablet, drone, or portable gaming console. The card is waterproof, dustproof, temperature-proof and X-ray-proof and, with capacity options ranging from 64GB to 1TB, you can store up to 157,600 songs, 300,800 photos, or 48 hours of 4K Ultra HD video. The Superior A2 microSDXC card is also UHS Speed Class 1 (U3) and Video Speed Class 30 (V30) rated and is capable of delivering some impressive performance numbers. In our tests, the 1TB version of the card was able to read at speeds as high as 167 MB/s and write at more than 149 MB/s. Compared to other, standard microSD cards, the Superior A2 also performed fairly well when doing random reads and writes. However, its IOPs didn't come close to what an A2-rated card should be capable of.
Silicon Power's Superior A2 microSDXC card is available now in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities. Prices on Amazon.com currently range from $8 up to $88 for the 1TB version reviewed here.
