Lexar produces a variety of SD playing cards, and this could simply get complicated. The Silver card we’ve got right here represents a lower-mid-range providing. It sits simply above the corporate’s entry-level Blue-series SD playing cards, and instantly under Lexar’s Silver Plus and Silver Professional playing cards. On the prime of the Lexar SD card hierarchy is the Gold collection.
Whereas the Blue, Silver and Gold ranges are distinctly completely different, the identical cannot be mentioned when evaluating Silver to Silver Plus. Each are UHS-I playing cards, and each have an marketed 205MB/s learn velocity. The one efficiency distinction is Silver Plus boasts a claimed 150MB/s max write velocity, whereas Silver playing cards are barely slower at 140MB/s – that is it.
Lexar Skilled Silver playing cards can be found in 1TB, 512GB, 256GB, 128GB and 64GB capacities. All however the 64GB variant have the claimed 205MB/s learn and 140MB/s write velocity, nonetheless the 64GB card has a considerably decrease max write velocity of 90MB/s. All capacities are rated to the V30 velocity customary, which means they’re in a position to maintain a minimal 30MB/s write velocity when taking pictures video. That is pretty typical for a UHS-I SD card, and Lexar claims it is quick sufficient for taking pictures 4K video at 60fps.
Based on Lexar, Silver-series playing cards are “constructed for sturdiness” and are put on proof (outline that?), temperature-proof (they’re rated to function between -25℃ and 85℃), x-ray-proof, vibration-resistant, magnetic-proof and shock-proof.
Lexar Skilled Silver: Efficiency
(Picture credit score: Future)
To find out the perfect efficiency the Silver card is able to, we turned to the industry-standard reminiscence and storage benchmarking software program, Crystal Disk Mark. The cardboard was plugged right into a USB4 port on a quick laptop computer, through a top quality UHS-II SD card reader from ProGrade Digital, to make sure no testing bottlenecks.
The utmost 167.09MB/s learn and 156.52MB/s write speeds we recorded are nearly similar to the efficiency of Lexar’s Silver Plus SD card. That write price is especially spectacular right here although, because the Silver card is ‘solely’ marketed at 140MB/s. It is a pity we could not get nearer to the claimed 205MB/s learn velocity, nonetheless.
(Picture credit score: Future)
For a real-world file switch check, we took a single giant video file, and a folder filled with small pictures, and moved them to and from the reminiscence card to see what kind of learn and write speeds you possibly can anticipate throughout typical use.
Transferring a number of small recordsdata will at all times take a bit of longer than a single file of the identical whole dimension, however the Silver card managed remarkably constant speeds accross these exams. Apparently, regardless of its Crystal Disk Mark scores being nearly the identical as these from the Silver Plus SDXC card, most of our real-world switch speeds from the Silver card had been noticeably slower. Its 142MB/s learn velocity of a number of picture recordsdata is a match for the Silver Plus, however within the different three exams the Silver card was 7-11MB/s slower. These learn velocity outcomes are additionally effectively down on the cardboard’s claimed 205MB/s most.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Actual-world switch velocity check
Header Cell – Column 0
Learn
Write
Massive single file
145MB/s
128MB/s
A number of small recordsdata
142MB/s
121MB/s
To see how the cardboard performs when it is utilized in a digital camera, we took our Sony a7R III and shot a steady burst of 31 uncompressed RAW stills within the digital camera’s Hello+ burst mode (the utmost variety of stills earlier than hitting the inner buffer restrict). This creates a burst of pictures totalling 2.47GB, which took roughly 30 seconds to maneuver from the digital camera’s inner buffer over to the reminiscence card. Doing the sums then reveals the pictures had been written to the cardboard at 84.31MB/s – precisely the identical velocity because the Silver Plus card achieved, however considerably slower than the claimed 140MB/s max write price. That is the digital camera we at all times use for in-camera SD card testing, and it is produced quicker write speeds with different UHS-I SD playing cards, so it is unlikely the digital camera is accountable for this disappointing end result.
Even so, after we shot a 4K video clip on the digital camera’s most 100Mbps bitrate, there have been no perceivable glitches or dropped frames.
(Picture credit score: Future)
Lexar Skilled Silver: Verdict
We got here away principally impressed by the Lexar Skilled Silver-series SDXC card. Whereas the in-camera write speeds we achieved could have been considerably disappointing, and we could not get close to to the marketed 205MB/s learn velocity, the cardboard was nonetheless in a position to report high-bit-rate 4K video with no points. Its learn/write switch speeds when shifting information to and from a pc had been additionally loads quick sufficient to make sure we had been by no means left ready impatiently.
The one actual subject right here is the why this explicit SD card exists within the first place. Its efficiency is just marginally slower than the following card up in Lexar’s SD card hierarchy – Silver Plus – and each Silver and Silver Plus ranges are priced very carefully for equal capacities. It subsequently makes little sense to go for a Silver card when a Silver Plus mannequin will possible solely price a couple of bucks extra and is barely quicker.
