Nintendo Switch 2 had a big start on Wednesday, and the new console looks huge, if mostly straightforward, upgrade its mega -popular predecessor. Bumps between the new Donkey kong And (pricier) Mario Cart The features of the game, mouse mode and the Over Hold Party Chat, though, was another important update: the device supports sharp microSD express cards. This may not be the most sexy feature, but it should improve storage performance in the faster load times and in the future handheld. During its presentation, the company briefed Samsung and Sandesk’s 256 GB cards, which is printed on the Mario logo.
However, this news has come up with an important warning: the console is Only Compatible with MicroSD Express. Cards that most people today use today – which are based on old UHS-I Bus interface – According to, – just one original switch will work to load videos and screenshots, not playing games. Nintendo’s support site. Nintendo says that Restricted is required Switch 2 performance upgrades and preserves, and it is worth noting that the console itself comes with a lot of generosity of 256 GB in terms of default. But if you ever need to expand the storage of the device, this change will potentially add its value, while you shrink the options you select.
Unlike traditional UHS-I cards, the right-handed sandsk models such as microSD express card come with a second row of pins on the back.
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What are MicroSD Express Cards?
SD Express is a relatively recent but rarely used standard that allows SD cards to benefit from NVME protocol and PCIE interface, which is the basic tech used by SSD. The microSD is the second row of “pins” on the back of the Express card and it can use the same lane price PCI Bandoth. As a result, it can produce dramatically faster reading and writing speed than its UHS-I. While the latter setting up rate is up to 104 megabytes per second (MB/S), microSD express cards have a maximum of 985 MB/s.
It is far behind the NVME SSDS that is used by PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, but the theory, when it comes to loading the play level, makes express cards faster than some old SATA -based SSDS, copying sports in sports or outdoor storage. It is worth noting that many UHS-I microSD cards can exceed 104 MB/s with proprietary card readers, but they are still lower than the microSD express level. The same is the same for the speedier UHS-II cards, which are mostly used by selected cameras and PCs by professional types and are at a maximum of 312 MB/s. (There is also an UHS-III interface, but no one uses it. Getting all this?)
Before Wednesday, only reliablely available MicroSD Express Card that we could find was This model is from Sandsk. We recently experienced it for the leader to buy our microSD card, and the upgrade was very dramatic. In the artificial benchmark Crystal disk markThe Sandsk card obtained, reads up to 899.12 MB/s and writes up to 650.41 MB/S. For comparisons, absolute fastest UHS-I card that we have experienced (Laxar’s professional silver plus) 209.25 MB/s to read and top for 193.93 MB/s to write – so, three to four times slowly.
In one of our “real world” tests, the Sandesk Express card took an average of 20 seconds in the 12GB folder, consisting of different file types and sub -folders in the PC and 52 seconds, with the folder back to the card. The average of the lexar card is 67 and 76 seconds respectively. The Gulf random speed – which measures how quickly the card can read and write small pieces of data scattered in a device and is especially important for gaming – similar was large, and even more in some standards.
Sandesk’s MicroSD Express Card is one of the few options that you can really buy today.
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Nintendo has not yet provided any official transfer speed rating for the new console, but all of them show that Switch 2’s storage Should be Even faster than ever, even if it is not equal to the speed of PS5 or Xbox Series X. It is also possible that like these other consoles, the Switch 2 has been dedicated to decking files, which can improve the real world more than the original switch storage performance. (We have reached Nintendo and we will update this post if we receive more details.)
Original SD Express Standard Was released In 2018, but the tech has not exceeded in most years. Top Sandesk card, a full -size noted SD card Not more than Adata. Before, Samsung and Lexor Announced MicroSD Express Cards that lose their original release Windows – though Samsung’s card is unveiled today, and Lexar released New “Play Pro” MicroSD Express Card Wednesday
Host devices that support quality, which need to see any better speed, have been extremely unusual in the frame at the same time. (If you apply a microSD express card in a device Does not Support basic tech, such as the original switch, it will be limited to the standard UHS-i speed.) And while Readers of the synchronized card Some can provide faster transfer rates on PCs, they are not cheap, so most people are better than buying faster outdoor SSDs.
SD Association We pointed to one Linked Page (!) With other synchronized devices arrived for comment, but picker is still thin, and very little of them Micro SD Express cards especially. Switch 2 is the highest profile device so far to embrace the standard, so it can be something that eventually takes these cards from “cool idea” to “useful niche”.
On Wednesday, Samsung and the Sandesk MicroSD Express Cards Nintendo quickly teased during their switch 2.
Nintendo
Price and heat questions
He said, there are several reasons why the SD Express has failed to remove this week before, and it remains to be seen whether the switch 2 will really fix them. The first and the most important price. We have reached Sandsk and Samsung for confirmation, but we do not know how much will cost the microSD express cards that Nintendo has been tampered with. If other express models of the couple available today are an indication, however, they are likely to be more expensive than traditional cards you may have purchased for the previous switch.
For example, the Sandesk express card costs $ 45 for 128GB model and $ 60 for 256GB version. 256GB Lexar Play Pro is $ 10 cheaper, but its 512GB and 1TB version are priced at $ 100 and $ 200 respectively. For reference, Samsung’s Pro Plus -Another UHS-I Card that we recommend in our purchase guide-its price is $ 17 for $ 17, 256 GB for 23, 512 GB for 38 38 and $ 80 for 1TB according to this writing. This is a huge difference.
In addition, the Play Pro is the only purchase microSD express card we’ve just seen that also supports more than 256GB. Nintendo says Console can support external storage up to 2TB, but with this capacity no express card is still available. Switch 2 SD Express will be one of the first mainstream devices to really advance the PUSH, so we will expect it to reduce prices and increase competition over time. But how quickly, and how much, lives in the air.
Nintendo
The second concern is related to thermal management. MicroSD Express cards can significantly remove the speeding speed, but they are still working with small frames that do not leave much space to eliminate heat. When we tested the Sandesk microSD Express model for our guide, we saw that it decreased under a longer, more permanent load-not enough to fall behind the UHS-I cards, but still below its rise is below a hundred MB/s.
The SD Express Speake has a method to test heat, and manufacturers like Sandesk advertise similar concerns. Nintendo has probably come up with ways to avoid severe thrilling with Switch 2. (We already know that for example, a cool fan is made in the new dock, for example.) But once we can move large game files around the device, it will be a matter of keeping an eye on it.
A Manufacturer question and answer posted On Wednesday, on Nintendo’s website, Switch 2 producer Kochi Kamoto noted that a move to the MicroSD Express will help maintain console performance in the long run. With the new Mario Cart WorldFor example, he says the speed of faster transfer will help build remote destinations in the open world of the game. He also noted that the switch 2 games would have large sizes of the file, but that they would immediately need to buy the system in the “doubts). MicroSD Express Card would need” after a large built -in capacity of Switch 2.
Hopefully this is the case. It would be unfair to call this PlayStation Vita situation as a portable console Fully depended on On the proprietary memory cards, and switch 2 will support the options of several manufacturers of the third party. But as it now stands, the storage upgrade for the new console seems as if they will be more attractive and more limited to start. And the benefit of providing a new tech is something unless the console arrives in June until we can know.
This article was originally published on Enoget
