Nintendo Switch 2 First appearance On Wednesday, the new console seems to be a big, even if simple, upgraded on its massive predecessor. Stuck in New donkey and (higher price) Mario Kart game,,,,, Mouse Mode and Overhaul Party Chat However, the feature is another important update: the device supports faster microSD Express cards. This may not be the sexiest feature, but it should bring faster load times and generally improves the upcoming handheld storage performance. The company briefly introduced Samsung and Sandisk’s new 256GB cards during the demonstration, and comes with the Mario logo.
However, this message comes with a main warning: the console is The only one Compatible with microSD Express. Cards used by most people today – based on older cards UHS-I bus interface – Loading videos and screenshots based on the original switch, instead of playing games Nintendo’s support website. Nintendo said so Limitations are necessary To preserve the performance upgrade of the Switch 2, it is worth noting that by default, the console itself has a larger 256GB of space. However, if you need to expand your device’s storage space, this change can cost extra the cost of doing so, while significantly reducing the options you have to choose.
What is a microSD Express card?
SD Express is a relatively new but rarely used standard that allows SD cards to utilize the NVME protocol and PCIE interface, the basic technology used by SSDs. The MicroSD Express card has a second row of “pins” on the back and can take advantage of PCIE bandwidth for a single lane. As a result, it can produce faster read and write speeds than its UHS-I peers. The latter’s publicity sequence transfer rate is as high as 104 megabytes (MB/s) per second, while the theoretical maximum of MicroSD Express cards is 985 MB/s.
Lots behind NVME SSD By PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, but theoretically it makes fast cards faster than some Older SSDs based on SATA When loading the game level, retrieve save or copy the game to external storage. It is worth noting that many UHS-I microSD cards can exceed the 104 MB/s limit of proprietary card readers, but even in these readers, they are still far from reaching microSD Express levels. The same goes for faster UHS-II cards, which are mainly used by professional types with select cameras and PCs, up to 312 MB/s. (There is also a UHS-III interface, but no one uses it. Get all of this?)
The only reliable MicroSD Express card we can find before Wednesday is This model comes from Sandisk. We’ve been for ours recently MicroSD card purchase guidethe upgrade is very eye-catching. In the synthesis benchmark CrystaldiskmarkSandisk Card achieves sequential readings up to 899.12 MB/s and then writes up to 650.41 MB/s in succession. For comparison, the absolute fastest UHS-I card we have tested (Lexar’s Professional Silver Plus) reads with a reading of 209.25 mb/s and writes 193.93 mb/s, so it is three to four times slower.
In one of our “real world” tests, the Sandisk Express card took an average of 20 seconds, moving 12GB folders containing various file types and subfolders to your PC and 52 seconds, writing the folder back to the card. Lexar cards average 67 seconds and 76 seconds, respectively. The bay is at random speeds (measurement of the speed of data that can read and write out small amounts of data scattered in the device, especially important for the game – equally large, and even larger in some benchmarks.
Nintendo hasn’t offered any official transfer speed ratings for the new console, but all of this suggests the Switch 2’s storage space It should be Even if it’s not the same speed as the PS5 or Xbox Series X, it’s much faster than before. Like other consoles, the Switch 2 has hardware dedicated to decompressing files, which may make a bigger practical improvement to the storage performance of the original switch. (We have contacted Nintendo and will update this post if we receive any additional details.)
Original SD Express Standard Released In 2018, but in the years since, the technology has mostly not been available. There is a sandpaper card on it, full size SD card From adata, nothing else. Before, Samsung and Lexar MicroSD Express cards were announced, which lacked their original issuance windows – although Samsung’s cards may just be the same card today, and Lexar did release it New “Play Pro” MicroSD Express Card Wednesday.
Within the same time frame, standard-enabled host devices can even see any speed required to increase speed. (If you put a microSD Express card in your device No Supports basic technologies (such as original switches), which will be limited to standard UHS-I speeds. ) Compatible card reader Faster transfer rates can be offered on some PCs, they are not cheap, so by then, most people are best to buy Faster external SSD.
this SD Association Pointed to us LinkedIn Page (!) Comment when contacting other compatible devices, but the picking is still slim, few of which microSD Especially the express card. Switch 2 is the most well-known device that has been standard so far, so it ends up bringing these cards from “cool ideas” to “useful niches.”
Price and calorie issues
That said, there are a variety of reasons why SD Express failed to take off before this week, and it remains to be seen whether the Switch 2 will actually fix them. First of all, the price. We’ve reached out to Sandisk and Samsung for confirmation, but now we don’t know how much the MicroSD Express card Nintendo teases will cost. But if there are any signs of other Express models available today, they may be much more expensive than the traditional card you purchased on the previous switch.
For example, Sandisk’s Express card costs $45 for the 128GB model and $60 for the 256GB version. The 256GB Lexar Play Pro is $10 cheaper, but its 512GB and 1TB versions are $100 and $200, respectively. For reference, Samsung’s Pro Plus – Another UHS-I card we recommend in our purchase guide – 128GB costs $17, 256GB for $23, 512GB for $38, and 1TB for $80. This is a huge difference.
More importantly, theatre professionals are by far the only MicroSD Express card we’ve seen to buy, even supporting capabilities greater than 256GB. Nintendo says The console can support up to 2TB of external storage, but there seems to be no fast card with that capability yet. The Switch 2 will be one of the first mainstream devices to really drive SD Express, so we hope it will drive prices down and increase competition over time. But how fast and how fast is it to stay in the air.
Another issue is related to thermal management. MicroSD Express cards can pull out faster transfers, but they are still using small, small frames that don’t leave much room to dissipate heat. When we tested Sandisk’s MicroSD Express model for the guide, we noticed that it slowed down under longer, more persistent loads – not enough to lag behind the UHS-I card, but still a few hundred MB/s below its peak.
The SD Express specification does have a mechanism to control heat, and manufacturers like Sandisk advertise similar protections. It is presumed that Nintendo has proposed a way to further avoid severe throttling with the Switch 2.
exist Developer Q&A On Wednesday’s Nintendo website, Switch 2 producer Kouichi Kawamoto pointed out that moving to MicroSD Express will help help improve the performance of the console in the long run. With new Mario Karting WorldFor example, he said faster transfers will help make far-flung destinations in the game’s open world faster. He also noted that the file size of the Switch 2 game will be larger, but he “does” doubt it[s] Due to the large built-in capacity of the Switch 2, most people will need a MicroSD Express card immediately after purchasing the system.
Hope this is the case. It is unfair to call this the PlayStation Vita situation because of this portable console Totally rely on On proprietary memory cards, the Switch 2 will support options from several third-party manufacturers. However, for now, storage upgrades for the new console look more expensive and limited. Until the new technology provides how many advantages The console arrives in June.
