Sabrent NT-SS5G Wired 5 Gigabit Ethernet USB3 Adapter Test and Benchmark

I have a Sabrent NT-SS5G Wired 5 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter (USB3) and a network that can do 2.5 and 5 Gbe so thought I'd see if it works with Armbian on a Nanopi M4V2.

Using this distro:

Armbian_22.05.4_Nanopim4v2_jammy_current_5.15.48_xfce_desktop

Baseline using built-in 1 Gigabit ethernet port on Nanopi M4V2 board:

iperf3 -t 60 -c faststore (1 stream)

[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  6.63 GBytes   949 Mbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  6.63 GBytes   949 Mbits/sec                  receiver

iperf3 -t 60 -P4 -c faststore (4 streams)

[SUM]   0.00-60.00  sec  6.63 GBytes   950 Mbits/sec  176             sender
[SUM]   0.00-60.00  sec  6.62 GBytes   948 Mbits/sec                  receiver

Sabrent NT-SS5G attached to 2.5 Gbe port:

iperf3 -t 60 -c faststore (1 stream)

[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  16.5 GBytes  2.36 Gbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-60.01  sec  16.5 GBytes  2.36 Gbits/sec                  receiver

iperf3 -t 60 -P4 -c faststore  (4 streams)

[SUM]   0.00-60.00  sec  16.5 GBytes  2.36 Gbits/sec    0             sender
[SUM]   0.00-60.05  sec  16.5 GBytes  2.36 Gbits/sec                  receiver

2.36 Gbits/sec is about the best I ever see using the 2.5 Gbe port on this server from other machines, so this is quite good.

Note: as pointed out in several reviews of this Sabrent NT-SS5G, the USB 3 port (5 Gb max) limits the ethernet bandwidth to a lot less than 5 Gbe max.

Sabrent NT-SS5G attached to 5 Gbe port:

iperf3 -t 60 -c faststore (1 stream)

[ ID] Interval           Transfer     Bitrate         Retr
[  5]   0.00-60.00  sec  17.3 GBytes  2.47 Gbits/sec    0             sender
[  5]   0.00-60.01  sec  17.3 GBytes  2.47 Gbits/sec                  receiver

iperf3 -t 60 -P4 -c faststore  (4 streams)

[SUM]   0.00-60.00  sec  17.7 GBytes  2.53 Gbits/sec    0             sender
[SUM]   0.00-60.03  sec  17.7 GBytes  2.53 Gbits/sec                  receiver
 

This is as expected, the USB3 (5 Gb max) interface of the Sabrent NT-SS5G limits the throughput.  It is better than when connected to a 2.5 Gbe port, but not by much.

It does seem to be pretty stable though.  And the drivers were already included, I just plugged the device into a USB3 port and it autoconfigured, connection information showed 2.5 or 5 Gbe based on the speed of the port it was plugged into.

Since this only gives a marginal improvement over the 2.5 Gbe USB adapters, probably save your money and buy a USB3 to 2.5 Gbe adapter, there are several on the market.