Current FireWire readers do not support the CF-ATA PIO modes PIO-5 or PIO-6. This means that they use PIO-4 instead, and therefore stay behind the USB 2.0 readers with support for PIO-6 or fast memory modes when using fast PIO-6 CF cards. The FireWire readers are a little ahead with fast PIO-4 cards or slower PIO-2 cards, but the USB 2.0 readers are a little faster with faster cards supporting only PIO-2.
The UDMA USB 2.0 CF reader is the best solution for fast PIO-6 CF cards and fast UDMA CF cards. When using only cards up to PIO-6, a fast "regular" USB 2.0 card reader can already be good enough to beat current FireWire reader in average. The only advantage of the SanDisk Extreme FireWire reader is the support of UDMA speed beyond the 31MB/s mark.
| CompuApps USB 2.0 UDMA 40 CF | PIXO MSR-PRO | Hama 1000&1 Multi | SanDisk Extreme FireWire | NEXTO CF ND-2500 1394a | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| xSil251-G:2.22 | AU6375-0607 | H-GL819:9323 | OXFW912-0604 | OXFW911 | |||||||||||||
| hjreggel | h2b | hjreggel | h2b | hjreggel | h2b | hjreggel | h2b | hjreggel | h2b | ||||||||
| read | write | acc. | read | write | acc. | read | write | acc. | read | write | acc. | read | write | acc. | |||
| MB/s | MB/s | ms | MB/s | MB/s | ms | MB/s | MB/s | ms | MB/s | MB/s | ms | MB/s | MB/s | ms | |||
| SanDisk CF Extreme IV 4GB | CF-I | PIO-6, UDMA-4 | 30.98 | 22.88 | 0.65 | 17.81 | 16.79 | 0.80 | 17.79 | 17.23 | 0.82 | 40.27 | 26.00 | 0.39 | 14.97 | 12.16 | 0.62 |
| SanDisk CF Extreme III 1GB | CF-I | PIO-6, DMA-2 | 18.48 | 17.50 | 0.80 | 17.77 | 17.16 | 0.81 | 17.26 | 17.58 | 0.93 | 13.90 | 12.48 | 0.49 | 14.88 | 12.40 | 0.69 |
| Transcend CF 120x 8GB | CF-I | PIO-6, DMA-4 | 18.20 | 12.61 | 0.94 | 17.53 | 12.44 | 1.02 | 17.40 | 12.49 | 1.11 | Fail | Fail | Fail | 15.04 | 10.43 | 0.87 |
| SanDisk CF Ultra II 2GB | CF-I | PIO-4, DMA-2 | 11.25 | 8.95 | 10.65 | 11.11 | 8.96 | 10.71 | 10.96 | 8.84 | 10.80 | 12.49 | 8.87 | 10.32 | 12.50 | 8.59 | 10.51 |
| Transcend CF 80x 4GB | CF-I | PIO-6 | 10.41 | 10.58 | 1.75 | 10.38 | 10.71 | 1.84 | 10.17 | 10.45 | 1.87 | 11.11 | 10.39 | 1.45 | 11.23 | 10.06 | 1.72 |
| Transcend CF 45x 4GB | CF-I | PIO-4 | 8.16 | 5.94 | 1.22 | 8.05 | 5.94 | 1.23 | 7.95 | 5.87 | 1.35 | 8.68 | 5.84 | 0.86 | 8.67 | 5.74 | 1.11 |
| RiData CF 52x 2GB | CF-I | PIO-2 | 6.57 | 5.39 | 1.19 | 6.92 | 5.60 | 1.32 | 6.83 | 5.56 | 1.44 | 5.55 | 4.50 | 0.92 | 4.59 | 3.80 | 1.19 |
| Transcend CF 30x 1GB | CF-I | PIO-2 | 5.39 | 4.59 | 1.06 | 5.52 | 4.70 | 1.11 | 5.53 | 4.70 | 1.19 | 4.89 | 4.19 | 0.75 | 4.29 | 3.63 | 1.01 |
| RiData CF 25x 512MB (1) | CF-I | PIO-2 | 4.94 | 2.83 | 1.23 | 4.93 | 2.82 | 1.24 | 4.88 | 2.83 | 1.36 | 5.16 | 2.80 | 0.87 | 4.33 | 2.77 | 1.12 |
| RiData CF 25x 512MB (2) | CF-I | PIO-2 | 4.99 | 2.97 | 1.12 | 4.93 | 2.99 | 1.24 | 4.88 | 2.98 | 1.36 | 5.17 | 2.95 | 0.87 | 4.33 | 2.90 | 1.12 |
| Transcend CF 25x 512MB (1) | CF-I | PIO-2 | 4.94 | 2.91 | 1.12 | 4.93 | 2.91 | 1.24 | 4.88 | 2.90 | 1.36 | 5.16 | 2.90 | 0.87 | 4.32 | 2.83 | 1.12 |
| Transcend CF 25x 512MB (2) | CF-I | PIO-2 | 4.94 | 3.02 | 1.12 | 4.93 | 3.01 | 1.24 | 4.88 | 2.99 | 1.36 | 5.15 | 2.98 | 0.87 | 4.32 | 2.93 | 1.12 |
| Lexar CF 8x 16MB (2) 2177A | CF-I | PIO-0 | 2.60 | 1.30 | 0.75 | 2.69 | 1.30 | 0.76 | 4.36 | 1.30 | 0.75 | 2.75 | 1.30 | 0.40 | 2.75 | 1.29 | 0.65 |
| SanDisk CF 16MB (2002) | CF-I | PIO-4 | 1.96 | 0.87 | 2.00 | 1.95 | 0.87 | 2.13 | 1.95 | 0.87 | 2.14 | 2.06 | 0.86 | 0.76 | 2.05 | 0.85 | 1.93 |
| Toshiba 1.8" HD 5GB | PCMCIA-II HD | PIO-4, UDMA-4 | 7.67 | 7.94 | 21.22 | 7.60 | 7.92 | 21.39 | 7.14 | 7.96 | 21.42 | 8.15 | 7.49 | 21.19 | 8.15 | 7.67 | 21.38 |
| Hitachi MD 4GB (MuVo²) | CF-II 1" MD | PIO-4, UDMA-2 | 5.33 | 2.19 | 20.36 | 5.33 | 2.19 | 20.23 | 5.31 | 2.18 | 20.26 | 5.29 | 2.14 | 21.26 | 5.29 | 2.14 | 21.62 |
| IBM MD 1GB | CF-II 1" MD | PIO-3, DMA-1 | 3.56 | 1.48 | 21.65 | 3.56 | 1.81 | 21.76 | 3.56 | 1.80 | 21.80 | 3.55 | 1.77 | 21.55 | 21.80 | ||