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ProGrade Digital has upped the ante when it comes to CFExpress Cards and their latest offerings reach an incredible data transfer speed of over 3500MB/s with 1500MB/s sustained write speeds. This all relies on the newest USB 4.0 standard and they have put together a complete package to include PG20 Pro Hub and CFExpress A/B card Readers which we reviewed here, PG10 USB4 4TB Portable SSD that we reviewed here, and a PG10.5 USB4 Mini 2TB Portable SSD which we reviewed here. On our Test Bench today we have their newest release of the ProGrade Digital Iridium 4.0 1.6TB Memory Card.
The ProGrade Iridium 4.0 is a CFExpress Type-B card and available in 400GB, 800GB and 1.6TB capacities. Specifications list performance at up to 3550MB/s read, 3000MB/s write and speaks to low power consumption for extended battery life when recording continuous video. It comes with a three-year warranty and reaching listed speeds is dependant on the user purchasing the ProGrade Digital PGM12 USB4 CFExpressB Card Reader and pluging its Type-C cable into a USB4 or Theunderbolt 4/5 PC port.
Purchase of the PGD Iridium 4.0 includes a Quick Start Guide that directs one to three software programs, RefreshPro, Recovery Pro and Ingest Pro. This is the refresh Pro UI. Simplicity.
While Ingest Pro helps move data directly from your camera to PC and Recovery Pro helps recover data, we find Refresh Pro to be an excellent software tool as you can sanitize your PGD CFExpress card without having to resort to exiting Windows on your PC.
For our testing today, we plugged the PGD Iridium 4.0 directly into an AIC (PCIe Add-in Card) created for just this purpose. By testing directly in the CPU lanes, we can be assured that the results obtained are absolutely the best one can get from the card being tested. While card readers provide a bit better heat dissipation because of their build, they always seem to result in slightly lower performance which we will get to later in this report.
TSSDR TEST BENCH AND PROTOCOL
SSD testing at TSSDR differs slightly, depending on whether we are looking at consumer or enterprise storage media. Our newest system is comprised of the latest Intel Ultra 9 CPU set into the ASUS Z890 ProArt Creator motherboard with 64GB of Corsair Platinum Dominator DDR5-6400 memory. For Creators, this motherboard contains two Thunderbolt 5 (80Gbps), a Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps) and a USB 3.2 2×2 (20Gbps) Type-C port, something no other has done to date.
For this Test Bench, there are just a few standard performance tweaks and our new ProArt Z890 Test Bench is set at 5.4GHz while the 64GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5-6400 memory settled in at 6600MHz.
The components of this Test Bench are detailed below. All hardware is linked for purchase and product sales may be reached by a simple click on the individual item.
TSSDR INTEL ULTRA 9 ASUS PROART Z890 COMPONENTS
| PC CHASSIS: | Corsair iCUE Link 6500x RGB Mid-Tower Dual Chamber |
| MOTHERBOARD: | ASUS ProArt Z890-Creator WIFI LGA 1851 ATX |
| CPU: | Intel Ultra 9 Desktop Processor 285K |
| CPU COOLER: | Corsair iCUE Link Titan 360 RX RGB Liquid |
| POWER SUPPLY: | Corsair HX1000i Platinum Modular Ultra Low Noise |
| GRAPHICS: | ZOTAC GeForce RTX 3080 Trinity White |
| MEMORY: | Corsair Dominator Platinum 64GB DDR5-6400 |
| FANS: | Corsair iCUE Link RX120 MAX RGB |
| KEYBOARD: | Corsair K100 AIR Wireless RGB Mechanical |
| MOUSE: | Corsair Dark Core RGB Pro Wireless Gaming |
| MONITOR 32″x3 | Samsung 32 Inch Viewfinity UR59 4K |