mistux Site Admin
Joined: 25 Jun 2004 Posts: 1042 Location: South Bend, Indiana USA
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Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 11:24 am Post subject: FireWire vs USB: Which is faster? |
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From our speed tests, it's safe to say that Apple made the right choice switching to FireWire 800 from FireWire 400 on many Mac models. Although FireWire 400 is faster at most tasks than USB 2.0 (even though FireWire 400's theoretical bandwidth is lower than USB 2.0's) it isn’t always, or by much. If you’re looking for speed, FireWire 800 crushes USB on both systems in all four tests we ran. FireWire 400 is a pretty good choice too in most cases, but it's modest speed advantage might not be enough to warrant paying extra for.
Looking forward, much of this is bound to change. The release of USB 3.0 products in early 2010 promises speeds greater than FireWire 800 and even eSATA, with a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 4.8 Gbps. Of course, it may be some time before Apple begins supporting USB 3.0 and including such ports on the Mac.
Source:
http://www.macworld.com/article/145224/2009/12/firewire_usb.html?lsrc=nl_mwweek_h_cbstories |
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