I simply received my Nintendo Swap 2, and my inner storage is already filling up with all my previous video games and saves! In the event you’re in the identical boat, you’ll have additionally observed you’ll be able to’t simply jam within the SD card out of your authentic Swap and maintain rocking. As a substitute, you may want a brand new MicroSD Specific card.
This Specific commonplace was introduced in late 2023, and it permits write speeds within the a whole lot of megabytes, however till now it was used just for high-end digital cameras and area of interest use instances. Because of this, the playing cards are few and much between, and so they carry a major value premium over the extra widespread MicroSD playing cards. Earlier than I get too caught up within the value and availability although, let’s simply go over what the distinction is between Specific and commonplace MicroSD playing cards and what it means in your Swap 2.
Specific Lane
{Photograph}: Brad Bourque
As you may need guessed from the title, MicroSD Specific playing cards are quicker, however to grasp precisely what which means, we have to break down what we imply by pace and the way it’s measured and displayed on MicroSD cards.
Regular, non-express playing cards use three metrics with some overlap in efficiency. We have an in-depth technical guide if you wish to know extra in regards to the non-express playing cards, however I will give the quick model right here. There are three ranges: Pace Class, denoted with a C, UHS Pace Class, as marked by a U for Extremely Excessive Pace Class, and Video Pace Class, with a V.
No matter the way it’s displayed, the quantity signifies that the cardboard is ready to learn and write not less than that quick. For the Circle and the V, it’s a direct comparability, so a circle with a “10” in it has a 10MB/s sustained write pace. There are two U variants, 1 and three, which correspond to 10MB/s and 30MB/s respectively. Playing cards are nearly at all times appropriate with slower units, so you may even see a number of symbols and numbers on every card.
The indicator for Specific playing cards is, maybe unsurprisingly, a stylized EX or E, generally with a quantity subsequent to it. As soon as once more, this represents the cardboard’s sustained write pace, with formally supported ranges from 150MB/s as much as 600MB/s. Keep in mind that these are minimal speeds, so you may even see producers quote even greater numbers, however whether or not you can assist these speeds will rely on the system studying and writing to the cardboard.
