Eagle team has run tons of tests on Tuxera NTFS / Paragon NTFS and other similar software, however, based on the result, there's no one that could keep up the hard-disk speed as it should be, in most cases, the speed even dropped below 50%. Therefore, we don't recommend using the said software combined with Eagle Library, doing so would possibly bring a terrible user experience.

The following are the details of the test run between Tuxera NTFS and Mac OS Extended formats:

Test Hardware Specifications:

OS: macOS Big Sur (11.2.3)
CPU: i9 9900K
Memory: 32GB 2666 MHz DDR4
Graphic Card: Radeon RX 590 8 GB
Local Hard Drive: WD SSD Black SN750 1TB
External Hard Drive Used For Test: Seagate Barracuda 2TB
Tuxera NTFS Version: Tuxera version 2019

1.Testing file copy with Finder

This part is to test the comparison in speed between Tuxera and native Mac OS Extended on the same external drive, by copying 50,000 files through Finder from the local drive to the external drive: WD 2TB HDD.

The text result for Tuxera NTFS ( 41 min 15 sec)
Mac OS Extended( 8 min 56 sec)

As the result shows, there is a 461% gap in performance, in other words, the Tuxera NTFS can only run the drive at 21.1% of its original speed.

2.Testing the performance combined with Eagle

This part is to compare the loading speed in respect of continually 'Refreshing' in the 'Random Mode', by copying the Eagle Library which consists of 2588 items from the local drive to the external drive: WD 2TB HDD.

The test outcome with Tuxera NTFS (Terrible user experience)
The test outcome with Mac OS Extended (Slightly better user experience)

As the result shows, the Tuxera NTFS performed terribly in respect of loading speed, hence, we'd say it is not suitable for storing Eagle Library.

Summary

From the test, it is evident that there's a huge performance gap between mac's native disk format(Mac OS Extended) and the Tuxera NTFS, whether in terms of simple file copy with Finder or in terms of loading thumbnails within Eagle UI, in the worst-case tested as above, the Tuxera NTFS can only run the drive at 21.1% of its original speed. Hence, it is not recommended to use the NTFS format on macOS.

Remark: the exFAT format is also not recommended, due to its lack of journalising, it could lead to data or file loss.

Why we don't recommend using Tuxera NTFS / Paragon NTFS on macOS?

Related Articles