PERGEAR offers an excellent CFexpress Type A memory card at a very fair price. The PERGEAR CFE-B Prime CFexpress Type-B “Version 2023” also takes a similar approach.
This is available with 512 GB for around €200, which is a very attractive price for a memory card that should achieve 1780 MB/s reading and 1000 MB/s writing.
Let’s take a look at the PERGEAR CFE-B Prime CFexpress Type-B in the test!
At this point, many thanks to PERGEAR for providing the CFE-B Prime CFexpress Type-B.
PERGEAR CFE-B Prime CFexpress Typ-B im Test
The PERGEAR CFE-B Prime memory card is currently available in 512GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities. In this test we “only” have the 512 GB version, but the larger versions should perform identically or even better.
When it comes to the housing, we have a mix of plastic and metal. As usual, the frame is made of plastic. The front and back, however, are made of metal, which makes sense for better heat dissipation.
The sticker is of high quality and the workmanship quality is impeccable.
What is special about CFexpress memory cards?
CFexpress memory cards are technically very different from normal SD cards.
CFexpress memory cards are essentially “normal” NVME SSDs, like the ones you can find in your PC/notebook.
With suitable adapters, it is possible to install such a memory card “internally”. An SD card, on the other hand, is more like a USB stick.
This has two major advantages.
Thanks to the PCIe connection and the NVME system behind the memory card, we have less overhead and higher speeds compared to SD cards. The reliability of SSDs / CFexpress memory cards is higher than that of SD cards due to extended data protection features and better wear leveling. You can also read the status.
The latter in particular is an exciting point. All flash memory is wear material. At some point the memory cells break.
With SD cards you have no idea when this will happen. With CFexpress memory cards, however, you can read the status of the memory cells!
You can even see how much the memory card has already been written to.
Type A and Type B
CFexpress memory cards come in two versions (actually 3, but Type C is not widely used).
Type A – used by Sony – very small and compact – maximum 1000 MB/s Type B – used by Canon, Nikon, Fuji, etc. – slightly larger – maximum 2000 MB/s
So make sure you buy the right CFexpress type for your camera! For example, if you have a Sony, then this is not the right memory card!
Maximum data rate
PERGEAR advertises a data rate of 1780 MB/s reading and 1000 MB/s writing.
You generally won’t see these data rates on a PC. Most USB card readers simply can’t do more than +- 900 MB/s. Exceptions are models with Thunderbolt.
For this first test, I use the memory card internally in a PC with a special adapter that allows full speed.
And these first numbers with CrystalDiskMark look good! We reach a maximum of 1867.6 MB/s when reading and 1628.3 MB/s when writing.
This means that the memory card exceeds the manufacturer’s specifications!
However, it’s not that easy to write. Because the PERGEAR CFE-B Prime uses an SLC cache. This means that only a small part of the memory card can be written to at 1628 MB/s.
If we increase the file size a little further, we see that the writing data rate drops to 1192 MB/s.
This then corresponds more closely to the manufacturer’s information.
Data rate in card reader
Let’s look at the data rates in a normal USB 3.2 Gen 2 10 Gbit card reader, in this case the model from PERGEAR.
Here we get around 980 MB/s both reading and writing. The card reader or USB connection is the limiting factor here.
In practice with the FUJIFILM X-H2S
But what does it look like in practice? To do this, I test the memory card in the FUJIFILM X-H2S with the following settings:
20 fps Electronic shutter Uncompressed RAW
Each image has +- 50 MB, with 20 images we are talking about +- 1000 MB/s. Way too much for a normal SD card.
Let’s first start by measuring how long it takes until the buffer in the camera is filled. So how long it takes for the camera to slow down.
This looks promising! The PERGEAR CFE-B Prime can maintain full speed in the camera for 16.66 seconds. Even the fastest SD cards manage a maximum of +- 6 seconds.
The Angelbird AV PRO CFexpress SE Type B 512 GB managed 12.17 seconds and the INDMEM CFexpress Type B Card 11.88 seconds.
But how long does it take until the buffer is emptied again?
Here too, first place for the PERGEAR CFE-B Prime, just ahead of the Angelbird AV PRO CFexpress SE.
We can therefore say that in practice the PERGEAR is the fastest memory card tested so far in combination with the FUJIFILM X-H2S.
Conclusion
The PERGEAR CFE-B Prime is a fantastic CFexpress Type B memory card! Above all, this offers great price/performance!
You get the 512 GB version for +- €200, which is a very fair offer! Especially when we consider the writing performance of 1000+ MB/s!
The memory card was also absolutely convincing in the practical test! In the FUJIFILM X-H2S, it narrowly outperformed the Angelbird AV PRO CFexpress SE, which is impressive.
In short, I think the PERGEAR CFE-B Prime is a perfectly reasonable choice, which offers more than enough performance for filming (even at very high bit rates and resolution), as well as continuous shooting modes.