The nintendo switch 2 On Wednsday, and the New Console looks to be a sizable, if mostly straightforward, upgrade over its mega-spopular predacesor. Tucked between the And (pricier) , and Features, Thought, was another significant update: The device supports faster microsd express cards. This may not be the sexiest feature, but it should brings quicker load time and generally improved storage performance to the upcoming handhed. The company briefly showed new 256GB cards from Samsung and Sandisk during its presentation, complete with mario logos printed on.
However, the news came with a Major Caveat: The Console is only Compatible with Microsd Express. The cards most people use today – which are based on the older – Will only work for loading videos and screenshots from an original switch, not playing games, according to Nintendo Says This To preserve the switch 2’s performance upgrades, and it’s worth noting that the console itself come with a much more gener 256GB of space by default. But if you ever need to expand the device’s storage, this change will likely make doing
Unlike Traditional UHS-I cards, a Microsd Express card like the sandisk model on the right come with a second Row of pins on the back.
Jeff Dunn for Engadget
What are Microsd Express Cards?
SD Express is a relatively recent but seldom-used standard that lets SD cards take advantage of the nvme protocol and pcie interface, which is the underlying tech used by ssds. A Microsd Express Card has a second Row of “pins” on its back and can utilize a single’s Worth of pcie bandwidth. As a result, it can produce dramatily faster read and write speeds than its uhs-i counterparts. Whereas the latter advertise sequential transfer rates up to 104 megabytes per second (MB/s), Microsd Express cards have a a theoretical maximum of 985 mb/s.
That’s far behind the nvme ssds used And xbox series x, but in theory, it makes express cards faster than some When it comes to loading game levels, retrieving saves or copying games to the external storage. It’s Worth Noting That Many UHS-I Microsd cards can exced the 104 MB/s Limit with Proprietary Card Readers, but they still fall well well short of Microsd Express Levels even with The same goes for Speeder UHS-II cards, which are mostly used by professional types with select cameras and pcs and pcs and max out at 312 mb/s. (There’s also a UHS-III interface, but nobody uses it. Getting all of this?)
Prior to Wednsday, The only reliable available Microsd Express Card We Cold Find was We recently tested it for our And the upgrade was pretty dramatic. In the synthetic benchmark The sandisk card achieved sequential reads up to 899.12 mb/s and sequential writes up to 650.41 mb/s. For Comparison, The Absolute Fastest UHS-I Card We’ve Tested () Topped out at 209.25 mb/s for reads and 193.93 mb/s for writes – so, three to four times slower.
In one of our “Real-WORLD” Tests, The Sandisk Express Card Took An Average of 20 Seconds to Move A 12GB folder Containing Various File Types and Subfolders to A PC and 52 Seconds to WRITES to WRITES THECONDS. The lexar card averaged 67 and 76 seconds, respectively. The gulf in random speeds – which measure how quickly a card can read and write small bits of data scattered throughout a device and tend to be particularly important for gaming Benchmarks even green.
Sandisk’s Microsd Express card is one of the (very) few options you can actually buy today.
Jeff Dunn for Engadget
Nintendo has not provided any official transfer speed ratings for the new console just yet, but all of this sugges that the switch 2’s storage Should be Much faster than before, even if it’s not on par with the speeds of a ps5 or xbox series x. it’s also poses Which could make make the real-wind improvements over the original switch’s storage performance even greater. (We’ve reached out to nintendo and will update this post if we receive any further details.)
The original SD Express Standard in 2018, but the tech has the mostly gone nowre in the year since. There’s been the sandisk card noted above, a full-size From adata and not much else. Previously, and Announced Microsd Express Cards that Wound Up Missing Their Original Release Windows – Thought Samsung’s Card May Just Be the Same One Un Unved Today, And Lexar Did Reliese A on Wednsday.
Host devices that support the standard, which are required to even see any improved speeds, have ben highly uncommon over the same time frame. (If you put a microsd express card in a device that doesn’t Support the Underling Tech, Such as the Original Switch, It’ll Be Limited to Standard UHS-I Speeds.) And while Can delivery the faster transfer rates on certain pcs, they are available cheap, so at that point most people have been on ,
The Pointed us to a (!) With other compatible devices when reacted for comment, but the pickings are still slim, and very few of that that support microsd Express cards specifically. The switch 2 is by far the highhest-profile device to embrace the standard, so it would be the thing that next thing takes these cards from “cool idea” to “useful niche.”
The Samsung and Sandisk Microsd Express Cards Nintendo Quickly Teased DURING Its Switch 2 Unveiling on Wednsday.
Nintendo
Questions of price and heat
That said, there are multiple reasons why sd express has failed to take off before this week, and it remains to be seen white the switch 2 will truly fixed them. First and foremost is price. We’ve reached out to Sandisk and Samsung for confirmation, but for now we don’t know how much how much the microsd express cards that that nintendo have teased will cost. If the couple other express models available today are any indication, Thought, they’re likely to beh more expensive than the conventional cards you have bought for the previous people.
Sandisk’s Express Card, for instance, costs $ 45 for a 128GB model and $ 60 for the 256GB version. The 256GB Lexar Play Pro is $ 10 Cheaper, but its 512GB and 1TB Versions Cost a Whopping $ 100 and $ 200, Respectively. For Reference, -Another UHS-I card we recommend in our buying guide-costs $ 17 for 128GB, $ 23 for 256GB, $ 38 for 512GB and $ 80 for 1TB as of this writing. That’s a huge different.
What’s more, the play pro is the only purchasable microsd express card we’ve seen thus far that even supports capacities green 256GB. Nintendo says the console can support up to 2TB of external storage, but no express card with that capacity appears to exist yet. The switch 2 will be one of the first mainstream devices to truly push sd express in earnest, so we we we we We’D Expect it’ll Drive Pries Down and Increase Competition Over Time. But how quickly, and by how much, remains up in the air.
Nintendo
The other concerts to thermal management. Microsd Express cards can pump out significant faster transfer speeds, but they’re still working with tiny little frames that do’t much room to disseepate heat. When we Tested Sandisk’s Microsd Express Model For Our Guide, We Noticed that It Slowed Down Under Longer, More Sustained Loads-Not Enough to Fall Behind Than UHS-I CARDS, BOLOW ITS PEAK By a more Hindred MB/S.
The SD Express Spec does have mainisms for keeping heat in check, and manufacturers like Sandisk Advertise Similar Protections. Nintendo present has come up with ways to further avoid severe throttling with the switch 2. Keep an eye on once we can move large game files Around the device.
In a To nintendo’s website on wedding, Switch 2 Producer Kouichi Kawamoto Notes That The Move To Microsd Express will help the console’s performance Hold up Beter in the Long-winm. With the new Mario Kart WorldFor instance, he says the faster transfer speeds will help make far-off destinations in the game’s open world visible faster. He also notes that Switch 2 Games will have larger file sizes, but that he “doubt[s] Most people will need a microsd express card immediatively after buying the system ”Thanks to the switch 2’s larger Built-in capacity.
Hopely that’s the case. It’d be unfair to call this a playstation vita situation, as that portable console On proprietary memory cards, and the switch 2 will support options from Several Third-Party Manufacturers. But as it stands now, storage upgrades for the new console look like they’ll be much pricier and more limited to start. And just how much of an advantage the new tech provides is something we but know until the ,
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/the-nintendo-swich- 2- prromises-mjor- storage-upgrades- but- but- etl-yll-you 193758964.html?sRc=RSSRSRC