 <p>Ruby 1.9 adopted FasterCSV <a href="http://matthewbass.com/2008/01/05/csv-transmogrifies-into-fastercsv-in-ruby-19/" rel="nofollow">as its core CSV processor</a>, so I would say it's definitely better to go for FasterCSV, even if you're still using Ruby 1.8</p>