Kingston UHS-I Speed Class 3 memory cards are advertised with 90 MB/s read and 80MB/s write speeds. The UHS Speed Class 3 rating (U3) guarantees at least 30MB/s continuous write performance for recording 4K video. The 80MB/s write speed makes it ideal for continuous shooting photography for digital cameras. The Kingston UHS-I U3 card is available in 32, 64, 128 and 256 GB capacities and is backed by a lifetime warranty. The 256GB SDXC card SDA3/256GB with UPC 740617242133 is tested in this review. The card is assembed in Taiwan.
In benchmark testing the Kingston U3 256GB card exceeded the 90MB/s read speed rating. Its maximum sequential read benchmark was 98.5 MB/s sequential read speed. In card reader tests the highest sequential write speed was 87.7 MB/s. The card exhibited highest sequential write speeds when files were present on the card. Benchmarking an empty card resulted in slightly lower sequential write speed (approximately 10-12MB/s slower).
Card: Kingston U3 90/80 MB/s 256GB
Benchmark: CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64
Program settings: 1000 MB, 5 passes, random test data
Operating system: Windows 10 Pro
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H
Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.40GHz
RAM: 32GB DDR3 1600
Kingston U3 90/80 MB/s 256GB Card Reader Benchmarks | Seq. Read 1000MB MB/s | Seq. Write 1000MB MB/s | Rand. Read 512KB MB/s | Rand. Write 512KB MB/s | Rand. Read 4KB MB/s QD1 | Rand. Read 4KB IOPS QD1 | Rand. Write 4KB MB/s QD1 | Rand. Write 4KB IOPS QD1 | Rand. Read 4KB MB/s QD32 | Rand. Read 4KB IOPS QD32 | Rand. Write 4KB MB/s QD32 | Rand. Write 4KB IOPS QD32 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hama USB 3.0 UHS-II SD Card Reader | 98.513 | 73.875 | 82.810 | 0.841 | 9.221 | 2251.3 | 1.039 | 253.7 | 12.396 | 3026.4 | 1.058 | 258.3 |
Lexar Professional Workflow SR2 UHS-II | 98.495 | 87.012 | 82.837 | 0.788 | 11.360 | 2773.3 | 1.337 | 326.3 | 13.116 | 3202.3 | 1.337 | 326.3 |
Lexar LRWM04U-7000 UHS-II Reader | 98.486 | 87.381 | 82.919 | 0.791 | 11.301 | 2759.1 | 1.308 | 319.4 | 13.267 | 3239.1 | 1.329 | 324.4 |
Hama USB Type-C 3.1 UHS-II SD Card Reader | 98.154 | 74.781 | 82.837 | 0.895 | 9.869 | 2409.4 | 1.121 | 273.6 | 13.225 | 3228.8 | 1.070 | 261.2 |
SanDisk Extreme Pro SD UHS-II USB-C Reader | 98.053 | 87.571 | 81.527 | 0.950 | 7.010 | 1711.4 | 1.141 | 278.7 | 7.551 | 1843.6 | 1.186 | 289.6 |
Sony S1 High Speed UHS-II Reader/Writer | 98.044 | 87.637 | 81.419 | 0.843 | 6.864 | 1675.8 | 1.118 | 272.9 | 7.375 | 1800.6 | 1.139 | 278.1 |
SanDisk Extreme Pro SD UHS-II Reader/Writer | 98.034 | 87.549 | 81.770 | 0.895 | 6.942 | 1694.8 | 1.144 | 279.3 | 7.522 | 1836.4 | 1.173 | 286.4 |
SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II USB-C Reader SDDR-409 | 97.943 | 75.275 | 81.554 | 0.844 | 6.718 | 1640.2 | 0.940 | 229.5 | 7.617 | 1859.7 | 0.978 | 238.8 |
Delkin Black Rugged Card Reader | 97.915 | 87.265 | 80.845 | 0.905 | 6.607 | 1613.0 | 1.126 | 274.8 | 7.087 | 1730.2 | 1.170 | 285.7 |
Delkin Dual Slot SD UHS-II and CF Card Reader | 97.316 | 87.418 | 82.769 | 0.788 | 11.224 | 2740.3 | 1.313 | 320.5 | 13.999 | 3417.6 | 1.298 | 316.9 |
Delkin Multi-Card CFast SD UHS-II microSD Reader | 96.974 | 87.681 | 82.850 | 0.790 | 11.191 | 2732.1 | 1.291 | 315.1 | 13.014 | 3177.3 | 1.318 | 321.7 |
Kingston MobileLite G4 UHS-II | 96.875 | 87.229 | 82.782 | 0.790 | 11.239 | 2743.9 | 1.306 | 318.8 | 13.516 | 3299.9 | 1.310 | 319.7 |
ProMaster Professional Dual Card Reader SD UHS-II | 96.786 | 87.593 | 82.782 | 0.791 | 12.044 | 2940.4 | 1.321 | 322.4 | 13.273 | 3240.5 | 1.306 | 318.9 |
Delkin Travel Reader | 96.696 | 87.454 | 82.248 | 0.943 | 11.241 | 2744.4 | 1.310 | 319.8 | 13.289 | 3244.4 | 1.283 | 313.3 |
SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II SD Reader/Writer | 96.679 | 87.352 | 82.878 | 0.793 | 11.165 | 2725.8 | 1.325 | 323.6 | 13.606 | 3321.7 | 1.310 | 319.9 |
Lexar Professional Dual Slot UHS-II Card Reader | 96.625 | 87.214 | 82.714 | 0.936 | 11.337 | 2767.8 | 1.233 | 301.0 | 12.613 | 3079.3 | 1.260 | 307.5 |
Transcend Multi-Card Reader RDF9 | 96.536 | 87.250 | 82.769 | 0.789 | 11.282 | 2754.5 | 1.315 | 321.0 | 13.164 | 3214.0 | 1.311 | 320.0 |
Kingston FCR-HS4 Card Reader | 96.376 | 87.732 | 82.769 | 0.804 | 12.233 | 2986.7 | 1.324 | 323.3 | 14.231 | 3474.4 | 1.346 | 328.6 |
DriverGenius USB 3.1(G1) / 3.0 UHS-II SD Card Reader | 96.235 | 74.146 | 82.054 | 0.989 | 8.108 | 1979.5 | 1.001 | 244.5 | 11.197 | 2733.6 | 1.029 | 251.2 |
Verbatim USB-C Pocket Card Reader | 95.647 | 87.012 | 81.433 | 0.831 | 10.876 | 2655.2 | 1.190 | 290.5 | 11.699 | 2856.3 | 1.251 | 305.5 |
SanDisk ImageMate Pro Multi-Card Reader/Writer | 95.057 | 73.880 | 79.385 | 1.080 | 6.259 | 1528.1 | 0.851 | 207.8 | 7.202 | 1758.3 | 0.579 | 141.3 |
Transcend SD Card Reader RDF5 Black | 94.817 | 86.495 | 81.298 | 0.839 | 6.941 | 1694.5 | 1.138 | 277.7 | 7.320 | 1787.1 | 1.124 | 274.3 |
SanDisk ImageMate All-In-One USB 3.0 | 94.051 | 83.900 | 75.388 | 0.826 | 5.267 | 1285.9 | 1.083 | 264.3 | 5.475 | 1336.6 | 1.092 | 266.5 |
Sony MRW-E90 XQD 2.0 / SD UHS-II Card Reader | 93.058 | 84.610 | 79.621 | 0.791 | 10.096 | 2464.8 | 1.244 | 303.7 | 11.819 | 2885.6 | 1.204 | 293.9 |
Delkin Universal Memory Card Reader | 85.417 | 78.746 | 74.367 | 0.790 | 9.840 | 2402.4 | 1.213 | 296.1 | 11.100 | 2709.9 | 1.228 | 299.7 |
Transcend Multi-Card Reader RDF8 Black | 85.340 | 78.627 | 74.416 | 0.791 | 9.689 | 2365.4 | 1.196 | 291.9 | 11.367 | 2775.2 | 1.221 | 298.2 |
In cameras the 256GB U3 card provided performance among the top UHS-I cards. Write speeds in cameras can be seen in the table below.
Kingston U3 90/80 MB/s 256GB Tested in Camera | Write Speed (MB/s) |
---|---|
Sony A9 | 78.1 |
Nikon D7500 | 77.7 |
Canon EOS R | 74.8 |
Fuji X-T3 | 72.0 |
Nikon Coolpix P1000 | 30.6 |
Cameras tested with this card: Canon EOS R, Fuji X-T3, Nikon D7500, Nikon Coolpix P1000, Sony A9
The following table contains information encoded in the SD card.
Kingston U3 90/80 MB/s 256GB SD — Internal Card Information | |
---|---|
Serial number (PSN) | 5900066 |
Product Name (PNM) | SD256 |
Product Revision | 3.0 |
Manufacturer ID (MID) | 0x000041 |
OEM ID (OID) | 42 |
Manufacture Date (MDT) | 06/2016 |
Total capacity | 256,490,078,208 bytes |
Compare prices on the Kingston UHS-I Speed Class 3 SD card. The lowest prices are highlighted in the table below. Prices are updated daily.
Card | Size GB | Lowest $ / GB | Prices | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon | B&H Photo | Adorama | |||
Kingston UHS-I Speed Class 3 SD | 32 | $2.19 | $69.95 | Check price | Check price |
Kingston UHS-I Speed Class 3 SD | 64 | $0.93 | $59.40 | Check price | Check price |
Kingston UHS-I Speed Class 3 SD | 128 | $0.39 | $49.28 | Check price | Check price |
Kingston UHS-I Speed Class 3 SD | 256 | $0.56 | $144.00 | Check price | Check price |