INTRODUCTION

   Memory cards based on the latest Compact Flash standard (CFexpress) may have all but saturated the USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type A 10Gbps) and USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (Type B 20Gbps) connectivity in regards to performance but the same doesn't apply for capacity something which manufacturers seem to be expanding faster than most of us can keep up. As a matter of fact, last month alone i received not one but three CFexpress memory card samples with expanded capacities and even though i don't actually have compatible equipment (cameras/camcorders) i imagine such news are great for professionals who do. So today with me i have the 512GB variant of the DIAMOND Series CFexpress Type B card by Lexar.

   For more than 25 years, Lexar has been a trusted leading global brand of memory solutions. Our award-winning lineup includes memory cards, USB flash drives, card readers, solid-state drives and DRAM. With so many options, it’s easy to find the right Lexar solution to fit your needs. All Lexar product designs undergo extensive testing in the Lexar Quality Labs with more than 1,100 digital devices, to ensure performance, quality, compatibility, and reliability. Lexar products are available worldwide at major retail and e-tail stores. For more information or support, visit www.lexar.com.

   Once again for all of you who may be new at this all three CFexpress card standards (A/B/C) are based around the PCIe 3.0 NVMe v1.3 specification (Gen3x1 for Type A, Gen3x2 for Type B and Gen3x4 for Type C) thus allowing for speeds of up to 1000MB/s, 2000MB/s and 4000MB/s respectively (theoretical anyways). This of course leaves room for upcoming CFexpress standards based on either PCIe 4.0 or PCIe 5.0 (which in turn should allow for speeds up to 8000MB/s and 13000MB/s respectively) but until and if that comes to be the upcoming Type C models are clearly the fastest planned. The Professional DIAMOND CFexpress 512GB model is also available in 128/256GB capacities (256GB review here), Lexar covers it with a limited lifetime warranty and always according to its published specifications it can reach speeds of up to 1900MB/s in reads and 1700MB/s in writes thus allowing even for smooth 8k RAW video recording. So, today we're not only going to be looking at just how fast the latest capacity variant of Lexar's flagship DIAMOND series CFexpress Type B cards is but we'll also be comparing it to its smaller capacity brother.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE PROFESSIONAL DIAMOND 512GB TYPE B

Lexar typically uses a small black box to ship the card in the front of which is taken by a product picture, their logo, capacity, advertised performance and the supported usages.

A product description is printed at the rear in 10 languages and is placed just over contact information for Lexar.

Just the card is placed inside the box (card size is 38.5x29.6x3.8mm).

Turning the card around we find several quality certifications and the made in Taiwan statement.

To achieve its rather impressive USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 performance of 1900MB/s in reads and 1700MB/s in writes the CFexpress DIAMOND 512GB Type B model uses three gold plated contacts.

As with past reviews for this CFexpress Type B card I’ll be using the latest USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 card reader also by Lexar.

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   Memory cards are pretty much identical to flash drives so to make things easier for everyone I'll be using roughly the same testing methodology to successfully record achieved read and write data transfer numbers. The benchmark suites used for memory card tests are HD Tune Pro (Read - Write average and max speeds), AIDA 64 Engineer Edition (Average Linear Read / Random Read - Write performance), Crystal Disk Mark x64 (4GB Read / Write speeds) and ATTO (Average Read / Write speeds). Every test is repeated a total of 6 times after which the average performance numbers are recorded into the charts (0 = test was unable to complete).

   Tests are performed on the X79 test rig running Microsoft Windows 10 Pro installation on a HyperX Predator 480GB PCIe SSD with all updates installed up to the day of this review (for ATTO and Crystal Disk Mark cards are formatted using the NTFS file system – however partitions need to be removed for the write tests of both AIDA64 and HD Tune Pro).

* As of April 2020, I’ll be using the X299 test rig for SDXC & microSDXC UHS-II (and above) memory card reviews.
** As of March 2022 the Z590 test rig will be used for CFexpress memory cards.

TEST RESULTS

…………….

CONCLUSION

   Well, the results are in and as you can easily tell from today’s charts the 512GB variant of the DIAMOND series CFexpress Type B cards by Lexar is just a tad slower compared to its 256GB brother. Now to be honest I was expecting the exact opposite scenario but that wasn’t the case (and I honestly don’t know why). One thing’s for certain however, double the capacity for a “penalty” of roughly 2% in read & write performance across the board is clearly worth it so i seriously doubt potential buyers will have an issue with this.

   Capacity and performance are the 2 “pillars” for professional photographers and those don’t come cheap, especially in regards to CFexpress Type B cards. The same of course applies in the case of the Professional DIAMOND CFexpress Type B 512GB model by Lexar since currently you can find it at around USD530 inside the USA and 899Euros inside the EU (yes, once again things are not great on this side of the Atlantic). Still on one hand cost is not something that usually deters professionals and on the other we’re talking about one of the fastest and highest capacity CFexpress Type B cards around and for that our Platinum Award is in order.

PROS

- Impressive Performance (Up To 1900MB/s)
- Available Capacities (128/256/512GB)
- Limited Lifetime Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)