The Pergear 260GB CFE-A is the latest CFexress Type A card to hit the market. It has taken a long time for companies other than Sony to start making CFexpress Type A cards, and now Pergear joins Angelbird, Exascend, ProGrade, Delkin Devices, and Lexar to provide third-party solutions.
It isn’t a huge surprise that it has taken this long for more companies to start supporting CFexpress Type A, because you can currently only use the cards in Sony cameras such as the Sony a1, a7S III, A7 IV, A7V, FX30, FX3, and FX6.
When CFExpress Type A cards were first announced they were only available in smaller-sized capacities, and initially, the highest capacity was limited to 160GB.
In July, Exascend announced its 240GB Essential CFexpress Type A Card which I reviewed on the site. They also then released higher capacity 320GB and 480GB cards.
It wasn’t until September 2022 that Sony announced 320GB and 640GB cards.
In April 2023, Angelbird announced its AV PRO 1TB card, which is the highest capacity available on the market. Unfortunately, in a lot of places around the world, it has been out of stock ever since its launch.
Sony also recently released a 960GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH Memory Card.
In some ways, CFexpress Type A is a strange format because there are limitations to the capacities that can be made, and only a handful of cameras, which are all made by Sony, use this type of media.
Pergear 260GB CFE-A
Key features
- 260GB capacity
- 3D TLC NAND
- PCI-Express 3.0
- Read up to 880 MB/s; write up to 900 MB/s
- Min write speed 400MB/s
- Handles 8K 30 FPS
The Pergear 260GB card has read and write speeds of 880MB/s and 900MB/s respectively. It is also claimed to have a guaranteed min. write speed of 400MB/s.
Fast Speeds?
The Pergear 260GB CFE-A card has claimed read and write speeds of up to 700MB/s. The claimed min write sustained speed is stated as being 400MB/s.
Now, the main reason the Pergear 260GB CFE-A card is very affordable is because if you look at competing cards like the 240GB Essential CFexpress Type A Card it is able to record 8K RAW at up to 60fps and the sustained write speeds of the card is 550 MB/s.
So how do these claim speeds compare to the Exascend 240GB Essential, Sony 320GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH, Sony 960GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH, and the Angelbird AV PRO 1TB?
| READ SPEED | WRITE SPEED | |
| Pergear 260GB CFE-A | 880MB/s | 900MB/s |
| Exascend 240GB Essential | 800MB/s | 700MB/s |
| Sony 320GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH | 800MB/s | 700MB/s |
| Sony 960GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH | 800MB/s | 700MB/s |
| Angelbird AV PRO 1TB | 820MB/s | 730MB/s |
What you clearly need to be aware of is that these listed speeds are largely irrelevant in the real world and you are not going to see maximum read or write speeds. The most important speed to try and find out is sustained read and write speeds which are generally a lot lower than maximum speeds. Unfortunately, some manufacturers don’t quote sustained speeds.
So what are the minimum sustained write speeds of the cards? Well, below you can see the ones that I was able to find information about.
| MINIMUM SUSTAINED WRITE SPEED | |
| Pergear 260GB CFE-A | 400MB/s |
| Exascend 240GB Essential | 550MB/s |
| Sony 320GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH | Not listed |
| Sony 960GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH | 200MB/s |
| Angelbird AV PRO 1TB | 650MB/s |
Please note that this is the minimum guaranteed write speed and it is not necessarily as high as what you will get in the real world.
Capacity
I had a look at the capacity of the card on a Mac and it showed 256.05GB. 260GB is a decent capacity for the type of recordings you can do on the Sony cameras that take the cards.
If you were recording UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) at 59.94 fps in H.264/XAVC S-I 4:2:2 10-Bit on the Sony a7R V a 260GB card would allow you to record for about 1 hour.
If you were recording UHD 4K (3840 x 2160) at 23.98p in H.265/XAVC HS 4:2:2 10-Bit the Pegear card would allow you to record for more than 11.5 hours.
CFexpress Type A cards have limited capacities. 1TB is currently the highest capacity available.
Record 8K
The Pergear 260GB CF-E card should be easily capable of recording 8K and 4K high frame rate material from the Sony a1 and Sony a7V.
Above you can see the recording data rates listed by Sony for the a1.
Above you can see the recording data rates for the Sony FX6. Again, the Pergear card can easily handle all of these requirements without breaking a sweat.
Fast Media Offload
What you clearly need to remember, and this goes for any type of media, is that transfer speeds will vary depending on both the read and write speeds of your card, your card reader, your computer, and what type of hard drive you are transferring to.
If you are using a CFexpress Type A card and transferring to an HDD drive, you won’t be getting fast transfer speeds. If you are transferring to a very fast SSD/NVMe then you will see lightning-fast offload speeds.
Real World speed tests
I did a few tests to see what the sustained read/write speeds of the Pergear 260GB CF-E card were. For the test, I was using a Mac Studio and a Pergear USB-C 3.1 card reader.
Pergear 260GB CF-E
Above you can see the results for the Pergear 260GB CF-E card with the stress set to 5GB. I got a sustained write speed of 520.1MB/s and a sustained read speed of 708.2MB/s.
Exascend 240GB Essential
As a comparison, above you can see the results for the Exascend 240GB Essential card with the stress set to 5GB. I got a sustained write speed of 540.1MB/s and a sustained read speed of 658.3MB/s.
Pergear 260GB CF-E
I also tested the Pergear 260GB CF-E using the AJA System Test Lite software under a 4GB load to see what the read and write speeds were. The min. write speed was 217MB/s and the min. sustained write speed was 5626MB/s which was well above the 400MB/s sustained write speed that the company claims.
Exascend 240GB Essential
I also tested the Exascend 240GB Essential with the AJA System Test Lite software under a 4GB load to see what the read and write speeds were. The card performed well in this test, and the write speeds were a lot more consistent than that of the Pergear.
Pergear 260GB CF-E
I also did another test to see how many frames per second the Pergear 260GB CF-E could handle recording 4K DCI ProRes 422HQ. The card could sustain 117fps.
The results I obtained during all of these tests clearly show that the card is easily capable of recording 8K 29.98p H.265/XAVC HS 4:2:2 10-Bit. The maximum data rate when recording 8K 29.98p on the Sony a1 is 520 Mb/s. It can also easily handle 8K 25p from the Sony a7V.
Exascend 240GB Essential card
Above is a comparison using the Exascend 240GB Essential card. when simulating recording 4K DCI ProRes 422HQ. The card could sustain 113fps.
TheExascend is also easily capable of recording 8K 29.98p H.265/XAVC HS 4:2:2 10-Bit. The maximum data rate when recording 8K 29.98p on the Sony a1 is 520 Mb/s. It can also easily handle 8K 25p from the Sony a7V.
Pergear 260GB CF-E
Ok, so what about if we decrease the test file to 256MB and have a look at how it performs? As you can see the write speed was far more consistent when the card is only dealing with small amounts of data having to be written. The min. write speed recorded was 250MB/s and the sustained write speed was 457MB/s which was well above the advertised min. sustained speed of 400MB/s.
Ok, what about if we load up the card with recorded files (about 70% full) and have a look at how it performs? As you can see the average write and read speeds did decrease. The min. write speed recorded was just 158MB/s, however, the sustained write speed was 419MB/s which was above the advertised min. sustained speed of 400MB/s. This test clearly shows me that the cards performance does take a hit once you have a decent amount of recorded data on it.
Let’s do one more test with the loaded-up card with recorded files (about 70% full) and have a look at how it performs with the test file size set to 256MB? As you can see the average write and read speeds were very similar to when the card was empty. What was interesting is that the min. write speed recorded was 368MB/s.
Price & availability
The Pergear 260GB CF-A card is very affordable at just $189 USD. Below you can find links for purchase
Pergear: https://www.pergear.com/collections/cfexpress-type-a-memory-card
10% code: V75AZ49F51DX
Date:2023.6.28-2023.7.10
US Amazon (10% coupon on the front page)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4H7SLJ1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4H96YX5
DE Amazon (coupon on the front page)
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0C4H7SLJ1
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0C4H96YX5
JP Amazon (10% coupon on the front page)
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0C4H7SLJ1
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0C4H96YX5
JP Pergear：https://pergear.co.jp/collections/cfexpress-type-a-cards
10% code：XD2ZMJ0TEA85
Date:2023.6.28-2023.7.10
Pergear also makes 80GB and 520GB versions of the card.
How does the price compare to the competition?
| PRICE | |
| Pergear 260GB CF-A | $189 USD |
| Exascend 240GB Essential | $259 USD |
| Sony 320GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH | $598 USD |
| Lexar 320GB Professional CFexpress Type A Card GOLD Series | $584.99 USD |
| Angelbird 1TB AV Pro CFexpress 2.0 Type A | $499.99 USD |
The Exascend 240GB Essential, Sony 320GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH and the Lexar 320GB Professional CFexpress Type A Card GOLD Series are the only real competitors at this capacity. However, the Angelbird 1TB AV Pro CFexpress 2.0 Type A at $499.99 USD for 1TB is a very compelling option.
| PRICE per GB | |
| Pergear 260GB CF-A | $0.72 USD |
| Exascend 240GB Essential | $1.66 USD |
| Sony 320GB CFexpress Type A TOUGH | $2.03 USD |
| Lexar 320GB Professional CFexpress Type A Card GOLD Series | $1.82 USD |
| Angelbird 1TB AV Pro CFexpress 2.0 Type A | $0.49 USD |
Above you can see how much the cards cost per GB.
Conclusion
If you own any of the Sony cameras that utilize CFexpress Type A cards, then the Pergear 260GB CF-A offers a good balance of capacity and performance, while representing excellent value for money. It has decent enough sustained read and write speeds and the card can handle anything you can throw at it without breaking a sweat.
I have reviewed Pergear CFexpress Type B cards on the site before and I have found them to be solid and very affordable options. This Type A card follows in those same footsteps.
The card worked flawlessly in all of the cameras I tried it with and that’s about all you can ask. It is very cost-effective, but it faces stiff competition from the larger capacity Angelbird 1TB AV Pro CFexpress 2.0 Type A card that costs the same per GB as the Pergear.
