4mo ago

Nintendo Switch 2's support for MicroSD Express standard will hurt your wallet: Here's why

www.tomshardware.com

73 comments

Because MicroSD Express cards are more expensive. Saved you a click.
- Thanks. There has been a severe uptick in clickbait headlines. It’s quite annoying.
- SHOCKING
- Also:
  Underpinning the technology are NVMe and PCIe 3.0 interfaces, which allow for speeds of up to 2GB/s (using a PCIe 4.0 interface). You can read the deep-dive details of the tech on our sister site, AnandTech.
  Switch 2 needs storage transfer speeds that match modern consoles to allow ports from them.
  
  AnandTech
  RIP
- I saw a 256GB one on Amazon UK for £22. Might pick it up now in case there are shortages or the price skyrockets. That plus the system memory would be 512GB of storage and I tend to buy physical games too.
  Edit: The one I was looking at wasn't even the Express version. Lots of people are gong to get stung by this.
  Edit 2: there are some micro SD cards marked Extreme but these are not compatible with switch 2 despite the name being similar to the Express ones.
  
  It's generally not recommended to buy SD cards from Amazon. Bootleg cards are a big issue with Amazon. Here's an article on the subject.
  
  Cards like this are notoriously counterfeited so I would be cautious
I love nintendo, but they are one of the worst companies to their consumers....
- For putting a high performance card slot in their console? Literally don't use it then
  
  I honestly think it's fantastic. It's really only available on high end cameras right now, but putting it into a mass market device like a switch means they'll become more commonly used in other devices since manufacturers won't need to worry about users having the newer faster cards in hand already.
  Someone needed to be the first mover so that everyone else can start putting these in other devices.
- Yes, but using a standard external storage format is not why. Xbox uses a completely bespoke proprietary card that only approved vendors can use. This is just more expensive, which is basically how technology works now.
- In one important way they are consumer friendly in terms of keeping physical media alive. I doubt PS6 will have a disc drive and M$ have already confirmed any new consoles from them won't.
  Even these proposed "game key" carts can presumably be traded or sold so it isn't like a single use key for the online store.
- They’re not that consumer hostile most of the time, except those quirky Japanese sensibilities, which there is a lot of but it’s not malicious in intent imo. They are absolutely horrible to anyone who pirates their games, but those are not their customers.
  
  Emulation is not piracy. Don’t drink the Nintendo kool-aid.
  
  Sure, but my biggest problem with them is how expensive their games are and how they never go on sale. $70 was already pushing it, but now they might be asking $90 for physical game cards. Screw that.
Underpinning the technology are NVMe and PCIe 3.0 interfaces, which allow for speeds of up to 2GB/s (using a PCIe 4.0 interface).
What a deranged sentence.
- I think this is because you can treat PCIe 3.0 as its whole own things with later versions being iterative. Still a word soup but sometimes you can’t avoid it.
They really dropped the ball with the price of it all. Everything I watched yesterday was cool up until the cost...

73 comments