which is faster? built in SD card reader or firewire reader?

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Hi,
I have the macbook Pro..it's about 3-4 years old now and it has a built in SD card reader. I always used CF cards and had a firewire card reader that I used.
I recently bought a 20MP SLR that now takes SD cards and I need transfers as fast as possible.

I like the fact of being able to use the build in reader and not carry extra readers, but I realized that this transfer rate might be much slower than with an external firewire SD reader hooked up.

Anyone know what the speeds are on this? I'm guessing that the built in would be USB 2.0 speeds (which I have found to be slower than firewire), but it would be awesome if the direct connection makes it as fast or faster than Firewire.
 

chscag

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The built in SD reader is not reading at USB 2.0 speeds but rather at system bus speed. That should be considerably faster than even Firewire 800.
 
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If say a 2009 MBP, system bus speed is 1066MHz. Much faster than USB2 480.
 

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