OWC has been aggressively pushing into the memory card space over the past few years—a move that only seems natural for a company already known for creating excellent storage solutions. With a history of reliable and fast memory options, it should come as no surprise that their card offerings feature top-of-the-line specs or push the media further than it has in the past. That is certainly the case with the Atlas Pro CFexpress Type A Memory Cardthat I was able to take for a spin.
Understanding CFexpress
A relatively new format in the world of memory cards, CFexpress was able to dramatically increase speeds using a faster PCIe bus. This was essential for modern mirrorless and cinema cameras that boast higher resolutions, faster continuous shooting speeds, and raw video. The format was even developed with multiple form factor options which made it very practical for different types of devices.
Looking at cameras (as we so often do here at B&H), we see two main types in use: Type A and Type B. The different sizes do affect overall speeds as the larger Type B cards offer double the lanes as the compact Type A cards. This means Type B has seen more broad use since the higher speeds enable the highest-quality formats and features in camera systems. This has been a limiting factor for Type A, which initially had a maximum theoretical speed of 1 GB/s.
Now, OWC is among the first to move CFexpress Type A to Version 4.0, backed by PCIe 4.0 bus speeds, to double that maximum speed to 2 GB/s. The Atlas Pro cards we have here are showing off those speeds with maximum reads of 1,850 MB/s and writes of 1,700 MB/s. That is far beyond the needs of any cameras today, leaving open the door for future cameras as well as allowing for much faster offload speeds when used with a compatible card reader.
Atlas Pro
This review is going to focus on the new Atlas Pro CFexpress 4.0 Type A cards from OWC. These cards are optimized for use with Sony’s latest Alpha and FX series cameras, such as the a9 III and FX6—Sony is the only one seriously using Type A cards, so this makes a lot of sense. You’ll also notice that these cards come in relatively high capacities of 480GBand 960GB.It makes them great picks for serious shooters in need of storage for tons of raw photos or lengthy 10-bit video recordings.
Looking at OWC’s documentation, you will see that the Atlas Pro cards are tested to offer 400 MB/s sustained write speeds. That is more than enough for all the cameras that currently support Type A cards.
There is one note with speed. Technically, the Atlas Pro cards are only rated to VPG200. This is more than enough for even the top high frame rate options of the FX3 and FX6 even though they might not be rated at the top speeds of competing cards. The CFexpress 4.0 technology more than makes up for this with real-world performance. Per OWC, these cards are designed for sequential writes since that is how cameras operate.
Testing it myself through my go-to tool Blackmagic Disk Speed Test and using a USB4 reader on an M3 MacBook Pro, I was able to get consistent results of >1500 MB/s for both write and read speeds. Using the same test for a last-gen CFx Type A card I was only getting half that. You will potentially halve the amount of time it takes to get your media off your cards and onto your drive.
Considering the size of video files and if you shoot all day to fill up a 960GB card, the time to offload all that footage is somewhere you can see a real time savings.
The Extra Info
A nice addition to OWC’s Type A offerings is a Type B adapter. I assume in theory that this could be used in a camera, but the main purpose is to work in the latest (and fastest) card readers. You’ll need Thunderbolt or USB4 to see the benefit of Version 4.0 CFexpress Type A cards today, like the Atlas USB4 CFexpress Reader. With this you’ll be able to achieve read speeds of up to 1,674 MB/s.
If you don’t pick up a card reader that supports these new speeds and have a computer with a matching interface, then you won’t benefit from these cards right now. Highly recommend investing here if you can.
OWC’s Atlas Pro CFexpress Type A cards are going to give you noticeable boosts to offload speeds. And if you are someone who can potentially fill up 480GB and 960GB cards on a regular basis that will make a difference in your workflow. Highly recommend.
If you want all the details on OWC’s Atlas Pro CFexpress Type A cards, please stop by the product page. Or feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to our knowledgeable sales staff via chat, email, phone, or visiting the B&H SuperStore.
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