USB 3 Stick in USB2 port

[tigerstyle]

So I know it'll work, and some of the cheaper USB sticks are roughly the same for USB2/3 £12ish.

But is a USB3 stick any faster in a USB2 port than a normal USB2 stick?
Or is it better to buy one of the dedicated 'fast' USB2 sticks that are around?

I'm eager to upgrade by 5 year old 4 gig stick!

 

[Surveyor]

I have a 32GB Corsair Flash Voyager USB 3.0 memory stick.

Plugged into a USB 2.0 port the write speed is ~29MB/s which is about as fast as USB 2.0 goes.

 

[doyll]

USB2 and USB3 standards are 480Mb/s and 5Gb/s
USB2 stick R/W speed is totally different... in the 80Mb/s & 40Mb/s range.
USB3 stick R/W speed is usually better... some actually as fast or slightly faster than USB2 standards.

http://usbspeed.nirsoft.net/?g=4gb

Edit: 1MB = 8Mb

 

[Surveyor]

Theoretical bandwidth doesn't mean much.

The maximum actual read/write speed you'll see from USB 2.0 is ~30MB/s.

It's the same with SATA.

SATA 2 theoretical bandwidth 375MB/s, in actual usage more like 275MB/s.

SATA 3 theoretical bandwidth 750MB/s, in actual usage more like 550MB/s.

 

[doyll]

That's true.

Point is all reasonably priced USB sticks are slower then 30MB/s.. Even USB3 sticks

 

[tigerstyle]

USB2 and USB3 standards are 480Mb/s and 5Gb/s
USB2 stick R/W speed is totally different... in the 80Mb/s & 40Mb/s range.
USB3 stick R/W speed is usually better... some actually as fast or slightly faster than USB2 standards.

http://usbspeed.nirsoft.net/?g=4gb

Edit: 1MB = 8Mb

Testing at the link there and my current stick is:
Read: 7.5 MB/S
Write: 5.4 MB/s

So anything is probably better!

 

[doyll]

Testing at the link there and my current stick is:
Read: 7.5 MB/S
Write: 5.4 MB/s

So anything is probably better!

I wouldn't bet on that. Most sticks have no data of what their r/w speed as.

Some USB3 sticks give performance up to half of USB2 spec.
Google "Benchmarks USB Thumb Drive Charts"