128 GB high endurance card vs. 256 GB "normal" card.

[dqgs]

Hello,
I'm looking for a new card for my Viofio A129 Duo and deciding between Samsung PRO Endurance (128) and EVO+ (256). I understand that endurance cards should be better for dashcams but I tried to make some calculations first.

Lets say I spend 2 hours every day in my car (which in my case is an absolute worst case), that works out to average bitrate of around 10 mbps (22 hours parking at 8 mbps, 2 hours driving at 32 mbps, give or take). That means PRO Endurance would last me for around 13 years, which is a lot.

EVO+ works out to half of that, which is still a lot, while having all the benefits of much larger storage.

It seems to me that with larger cards, having a high endurance card is not as important as I previously thought.

So...am I thinking right and EVO+ would better for me? (Apart from issues with warranty...)

 

[kamkar]

Endurance cards normally retain warranty when used in Dashcams, which are not the case with regular memory cards.
Normally i just use normal memory cards in my dashcams, and i have managed to get those replaced too several times.

 

[CaptureYourAction]

There have been a couple of users who have had issues with the Samsung Endurance cards in the A129. I would stick with the EVO+ or EVO Select.

 

[Nigel]

EVO+ works out to half of that, which is still a lot, while having all the benefits of much larger storage.

Have you worked that out right?

Typically an endurance card has twice the lifetime, but a card double the size also has twice the lifetime, so your EVO+ would work out at equivalent, not half, and would also give double the loop time which could be a big advantage. I know the Samsung Endurance card is rather better than most endurance cards and does apparently use MLC memory, but I still wouldn't expect to get twice the lifetime from a half size card, and remember that by half way through that 13 years, the cost of a 4 TerraByte microSD card will have dropped to the current price of a 64GB card so replacement by something much better will be cheap and the long term investment does not make much sense unless it is quite a small extra investement!

 

[dqgs]

Have you worked that out right?

I think I did, PRO Endurance can do 4000 rewrites, EVO+ (which is a TLC I think) can do 1000. At two times the size, it works out to around half TBW.

and remember that by half way through that 13 years, the cost of a 4 TerraByte microSD card will have dropped to the current price of a 64GB card so replacement by something much better will be cheap and the long term investment does not make much sense unless it is quite a small extra investement!

I agree. I don't want to keep a card for 13 (or 6,5 years), It just means that it has a large "safety margin" in terms of rewrites. While 32 GB TCL card would be dead in less than year and buying a HE card makes sense, I see less sense in buying high capacity HE cards - 256 GB TLC would do more than six years and by then would be oboslete anyway.

 

[Nigel]

I think I did, PRO Endurance can do 4000 rewrites, EVO+ (which is a TLC I think) can do 1000. At two times the size, it works out to around half TBW.

Thanks for giving those figures, I had forgotten how much better the Samsung Pro is than the other endurance cards, apparently it uses MLC memory instead of the TLC that nearly all the other endurance cards are using so probably gives over twice the lifetime.

I agree. I don't want to keep a card for 13 (or 6,5 years), It just means that it has a large "safety margin" in terms of rewrites. While 32 GB TCL card would be dead in less than year and buying a HE card makes sense, I see less sense in buying high capacity HE cards - 256 GB TLC would do more than six years and by then would be oboslete anyway.

In the days of 8GB, using MLC was important, by 64GB it didn't make much sense unless you could get very cheap MLC cards, now with 256GB you are right, unless your vehicle is driving 24 hours a day like some commercial vehicles then it doesn't make much sense.

Although it may be worth bearing in mind that we are currently still using 1080 resolution, same as we were in the days when 32GB cards were big! If you intend to upgrade to a decent 4K dual dashcam in the near future (4K has 4x the pixels so uses memory 4x faster to get good quality), the endurance cards may become worthwhile again. (I don't include low bitrate 4K dashcams in that.)