Memory Stick Speed Tests

[Ostinato]

You'll often see the age old question about Pro Duo Memory Sticks....Is it a fake? Well despite general consensus the 'Magic Gate' test is not the be all and end all of the verification process. It's all down to transfer rates and access speeds, and whilst some clones have duplicated the MG seal shoddy speeds are a given in cheap hardware.

Additionally some plugins need a good speed to run properly (in the past Lexar sticks occasionally had this problem) and as the size increases the speed often decreases....sticks also vary on and individual basis, and what you expect to find isn't necessarily the case. Wondered why your ISO is chugging? Maybe you have a duff stick!

So how do we tell how good our Memory is? Well by the cunning use of Speed Tests where clusters of data are written and read from the stick sequentially of course! There are two options for this, blackSPEED

http://www.xquaker.com/bs/bsv2.rar

which is a simple graphical display and produces a number as a guide to your speed, or the more informative PSXReality which actually creates read/write speed tables for data of different sizes. And it's in the latter that generally fake sticks/poor performing sticks can be seen....large fluctuations in speed and a generally sluggish response are tell tale signs.

Read the readme's for each...they're simple to use (used under PSP>Game if my memory doesn't fail me!) and provide useful info. whenever you get a new stick.

My results....well here's what i have...sad but true just a solitary Sandisk 4Gb but it'll give you an idea.

PSXReality



blackSPEED




(This isn't a great stick...my previous 4GbSandisk stick for which i have only a blackSPEED for game me this

)



And for reference a CLEAN Sony 8Gb stick looks a bit like this one..(sample pic) Look at the slower speeds due to both the size and brand.




Also all the above sticks are genuine!