avrdude benchmark for Flash and EEPROM programming

Note

1. Speed is usually not the most important factor when choosing a programmer or bootloader. Stability may be more important. In terms of programmer, budget may play a key role in selecting the programmer. In terms of bootloaders, code size may be an important factor to consider.
2. This page will focus on the programmers and bootloader mentioned in the FAQ. They are from either Microchip, or from the community (with hardware design and/or firmware source codes available).

Methodolody

tools/test-avrdude -b generates an output for which benchmark tables can be filtered. For example,

./test-avrdude -e ./avrdude.exe -b -d 0 -t .\
 -p "-c urclock -P COM20 -p ATmega328P -b 2000000" \
 -p "-c urclock -P COM20 -p ATmega328P -b 1000000" \
 -p "-c urclock -P COM20 -p ATmega328P -b 500000" \
 -p "-c urclock -P COM20 -p ATmega328P -b 250000" \
 -p "-c urclock -P COM20 -p ATmega328P -b 115200" | grep -v ^'[^T |]'

Results

The benchmark shows the wall clock time of avrdude carrying out the following tasks

• Fl-ewv: erase flash, then write a sketch with three sections separated by holes to flash and verify
• Fl-r: read the full flash memory and write to file
• EE-wv: write data with two data sections separated by a hole to EEPROM and verify
• EE-r: read the full EEPROM memory and write to file

The sketch and data payload is roughly one sixth of the respective memory size

avrdude 7.3 MSVC64 Windows binary, bootloader

	-c pgm	-p part	Fl-ewv	Fl-r	EE-wv	EE-r	Comments
✅	urclock	ATmega328P	1.73 s	0.62 s	1.25 s	0.45 s	-b 2000000 urboot u7.7 -eu-jPrac, ATmega16U2
✅	urclock	ATmega328P	1.79 s	0.80 s	1.25 s	0.46 s	-b 1000000 urboot u7.7 -eu-jPrac, ATmega16U2
✅	urclock	ATmega328P	1.92 s	1.15 s	1.25 s	0.50 s	-b 500000 urboot u7.7 -eu-jPrac, ATmega16U2
✅	urclock	ATmega328P	2.17 s	1.86 s	1.28 s	0.58 s	-b 250000 urboot u7.7 -eu-jPrac, ATmega16U2
✅	urclock	ATmega328P	2.76 s	3.49 s	1.34 s	0.81 s	-b 115200 urboot u7.7 -eu-jPrac, ATmega16U2
✅	urclock	ATmega328P	2.04 s	0.90 s	1.35 s	0.71 s	-b 2000000 urboot u7.7 weu-jPrac, FT232RL
✅	urclock	ATmega328P	2.09 s	1.02 s	1.35 s	0.71 s	-b 1000000 urboot u7.7 weu-jPrac, FT232RL
✅	urclock	ATmega328P	2.23 s	1.47 s	1.35 s	0.73 s	-b 500000 urboot u7.7 weu-jPrac, FT232RL
✅	urclock	ATmega328P	2.48 s	2.08 s	1.36 s	0.74 s	-b 250000 urboot u7.7 weu-jPrac, FT232RL
✅	urclock	ATmega328P	3.02 s	3.68 s	1.43 s	0.97 s	-b 115200 urboot u7.7 weu-jPrac FT232RL
✅	urclock	ATmega2560	7.78 s	4.83 s	4.08 s	1.44 s	-b 1000000 urboot u7.7 weu-jPrac, CH340
✅	urclock	ATmega2560	8.68 s	7.56 s	4.11 s	1.37 s	-b 500000 urboot u7.7 weu-jPrac, CH340
✅	urclock	ATmega2560	10.51 s	13.13 s	4.13 s	1.59 s	-b 250000 urboot u7.7 weu-jPrac, CH340
✅	urclock	ATmega2560	14.73 s	25.41 s	4.25 s	2.05 s	-b 115200 urboot u7.7 weu-jPrac, CH340
✅	urclock	ATmega2560	8.36 s	6.49 s	4.42 s	2.29 s	-b 1000000 urboot u7.7 wes-hprac, CH340, STK500v1
✅	urclock	ATmega2560	9.31 s	9.40 s	4.41 s	2.37 s	-b 500000 urboot u7.7 wes-hprac, CH340, STK500v1
✅	urclock	ATmega2560	11.22 s	14.94 s	4.52 s	2.56 s	-b 250000 urboot u7.7 wes-hprac, CH340, STK500v1
✅	urclock	ATmega2560	15.49 s	27.65 s	4.79 s	3.15 s	-b 115200 urboot u7.7 wes-hprac, CH340, STK500v1
✅	wiring	ATmega2560	12.41 s	31.17 s	5.62 s	4.37 s	-b 115200 -D, CH340, STK500v2
✅	urclock	ATmega328P	9.38 s	4.60 s	--	--	-b 115200 old Optboot o4.4 --s-h-r--, FT232RL, STK500v1
✅	arduino	ATmega328P	2.92 s	5.08 s	--	--	-b 115200 old Optboot o4.4 --s-h-r--, FT232RL, STK500v1
✅	arduino	ATmega328P	1.98 s	2.07 s	--	--	-b 1000000 MiniCore Optiboot o8.0 -?s-?-r--, FT232RL, STK500v1

avrdude 7.3 MSVC64 Windows binary, programmers.

Note: USBasp (ATmega8A based) and USBtinyISP (ATtiny2313A based)

	-c pgm	-p part	Fl-ewv	Fl-r	EE-wv	EE-r	Comments
✅	usbasp	ATmega328P	2.53 s	5.43 s	3.03 s	0.69 s	-B 0.25
✅	usbasp	ATmega328P	2.49 s	5.40 s	3.03 s	0.64 s	-B 0.5
✅	usbasp	ATmega328P	3.10 s	6.72 s	3.03 s	0.68 s	-B 1
✅	usbasp	ATmega328P	3.81 s	8.77 s	3.10 s	0.78 s	-B 2
✅	usbasp	ATmega328P	4.80 s	9.82 s	3.12 s	0.85 s	-B 4
✅	usbtiny	ATmega328P	3.54 s	8.97 s	1.38 s	0.56 s	-B 0.25
✅	usbtiny	ATmega328P	3.56 s	8.73 s	1.36 s	0.56 s	-B 0.5
✅	usbtiny	ATmega328P	3.53 s	8.98 s	1.39 s	0.57 s	-B 1