Test USB 2 Speed?

[p_l]

Is there a quick way - or free utility- to check your USB 2 speed? I just upgraded a card to USB 2 (actually, it's a Firewire/USB 2 combo card), and I want to check the speed I'm getting.

It should be 480 Mb/sec, right? And Firewire is 400? I know these are theoretical numbers and in the real world Firewire usually outperforms USB2, but I want to be sure I'm not still getting USB 1 speeds - what is that, 12Mb/sec?

[ROF]

PassMark USB2Test

[p_l]

Doesn't that only work in conjuntion with their PassMark USB 2.0 loop back plug, a little hardware device which you have to purchase?

[ROF]

yes. Loop back plugins are the best way to truely check this. You could try USB info for free but your results will be limited and in most cases of a rounded inaccuracy.

[p_l]

Looks like a good little utility...




but the free trial version won't let you do a performance test.

[ROF]

You can't do a performance test without a loopback device. Both these software packages will provide you with such devices, but hardware isn't included for free.

[p_l]

A question I have about USB 2 vs. USB 1 is if there is any useful performance gain for printers, scanners and webcams. I mainly upgraded to USB 2 for a USB external hard drive I got, and I'm sure the difference is significant to speed up file transfers, but what about any difference for the devices I've mentioned?

[ROF]

A question I have about USB 2 vs. USB 1 is if there is any useful performance gain for printers, scanners and webcams. I mainly upgraded to USB 2 for a USB external hard drive I got, and I'm sure the difference is significant to speed up file transfers, but what about any difference for the devices I've mentioned?

if they are USB2, the benefit is significant. However if they are just labeled as USB there is no significant benefit. The device stream won't be bottlenecked at 12Mbps anymore, but the device itself may not be capable of working at that speed anyways.

[p_l]

Yes, my printers are USB 2, and I think my scanner is, too. Is there a noticible performance gain in using them as USB 2 rather than USB 1? They always seemed to print as fast as they could, limited only by their own ppm (pages per minute) specs.

[stiltman]

Is there a quick way - or free utility- to check your USB 2 speed? I just upgraded a card to USB 2 (actually, it's a Firewire/USB 2 combo card), and I want to check the speed I'm getting.

It should be 480 Mb/sec, right? And Firewire is 400? I know these are theoretical numbers and in the real world Firewire usually outperforms USB2, but I want to be sure I'm not still getting USB 1 speeds - what is that, 12Mb/sec?

Do a search in this forum. I did a real world test transfering about a 1gb

Firewire own. Neither came close to their advertised speeds

[redwudz]

You might try SiSandra. It is mainly a benchmarking utility. Tells you a lot about the performance of your system. Here's a freeware version that works well for me. http://www.overclockersclub.com/downloadcenter/download.php?action=file&id=56

[ronnylov]

If you have access to an external USB2 harddrive you will defenitely notice the difference when copying a big file. With USB2 the real transfer spped is around 20 MB/s but with USB1 it is only something like 1 MB/s.

My girlfriend also noticed a big difference when working with her Canon USB2 scanner. Transfering pictures from a flaxh memory reader was also faster, maybe twice the speed compared to USB1.