USB Speed Comparison and Real Impact | Generated by AI
USB 2.0 and USB 3.2 differ dramatically in speed:
USB 2.0 has a maximum theoretical speed of 480 Mbps (60 MB/s). In practice, real-world read/write speeds are typically lower—usually around 30-40 MB/s for storage devices.
USB 3.2 comes in two versions. The older USB 3.2 Gen 1 (also called USB 3.1 Gen 1) reaches 5 Gbps (625 MB/s theoretical, ~400-500 MB/s practical). The newer USB 3.2 Gen 2 offers 10 Gbps (1,250 MB/s theoretical, ~900+ MB/s practical).
The practical difference: USB 3.2 is roughly 10-20x faster than USB 2.0 depending on which USB 3.2 variant you’re comparing to. For example, transferring a 10 GB file would take around 4-5 minutes with USB 2.0 but only 20-30 seconds with USB 3.2 Gen 2.
In real-world usage, the actual speed you see depends on the device itself—a slow external hard drive might not fully utilize USB 3.2’s bandwidth, while SSDs can take better advantage of it. USB 2.0 devices are now quite dated and rarely used for new storage devices.