I’ve picked up a few more utility cartridges over the last year and finally got around to playing with them. Using CBM Disk Transfer Benchmark, I’ve compiled transfer rate comparisons for the Mach 5, Better Working Turbo, KCS Power Cartridge, and Final Cartridge III.
I decided it made sense to have a dedicated page for this data, so I’ve put all of my speed loader benchmark data on a dedicated page. It includes tables and graphs.
As for today’s additions, they are all cartridge-based fast load systems from utility cartridges. This table shows all of the cartridge-based fast loaders I’ve measured to date.
| System | Load Bytes per Second | Load Time | DTB Load Score |
| 1541 baseline | 403 | 01:51.5 | 1x |
| KCS Power | 1303 | 00:34.5 | 3x |
| Better Working TURBO | 2101 | 00:21.4 | 5x |
| Epyx Fastload | 2121 | 00:21.2 | 5x |
| Mach 5 | 2121 | 00:21.2 | 5x |
| Warp Speed | 3017 | 00:14.9 | 8x |
| Final Cartridge III | 3406 | 00:13.2 | 9x |
| Super Snapshot 5 | 4163 | 00:10.8 | 10x |
| Action Replay 5 | 5352 | 00:08.4 | 13x |
| Retro Replay | 5352 | 00:08.4 | 13x |
Baseline 1541 load rate compared to CARTRIDGE-BASED fast loaders.
You can see save speeds and how these fit in with the rest here.