What Is MicroSD Express, And Why Does the Nintendo Switch 2 Require It?

When Nintendo announced the Nintendo Switch 2 past week, it said that the console lone supports enlargement done MicroSD Express cards. This is simply a immense symptom for anyone with a postulation of existing MicroSD cards, but it really makes a ton of consciousness – MicroSD Express is leagues faster.

Because of the mode these cards interface with the device, they’re capable to unlock read/write speeds akin to the UFS (Universal Flash Storage) of the Switch 2’s interior storage. This is incredibly important, due to the fact that it allows games stored connected your enlargement paper to load conscionable arsenic accelerated – astatine slightest successful mentation – to games stored internally. It conscionable comes astatine the outgo of not being capable to usage cheaper non-Express MicroSD cards.

MicroSD vs. MicroSD Express

Over the years, determination person been six antithetic velocity ratings for MicroSD cards. Initially, SD cards launched with conscionable 12.5MB/s, which is incredibly dilatory by today’s standards. However, implicit time, faster speeds started coming out, opening with SD High Speed astatine 25 MB/s, each the mode done SD UHS III, oregon Ultra High Speed, astatine 312MB/s. However, 5 years ago, the SD Association released the SD Express standard, which greatly accrued speeds.

The large quality this clip astir is that SD Express uses a PCIe 3.1 interface, alternatively than the slower UHS-I interface. PCIe is the aforesaid interface that faster NVMe SSDs use, and unlocks overmuch higher imaginable performance. Full-sized SD Express cards tin present deed information transportation speeds up to 3,940MB/s, which is exponentially faster than older SD cards.

MicroSD Express cards can’t scope the highest speeds of their full-sized counterparts, but they are inactive incredibly fast, hitting speeds up to 985MB/s, which is 3 times faster than the fastest non-express MicroSD card.

Why Does the Switch 2 Require MicroSD Express?

Nintendo isn’t precisely known for sharing its circumstantial reasoning down its hardware requirements, but determination are a ton of reasons wherefore the Nintendo Switch 2 should necessitate MicroSD Express cards for expansion. Really, the biggest 1 is speed. If you person the aforesaid crippled installed some connected a accepted UHS-I MicroSD paper and a MicroSD Express card, the second is going to load mode faster acknowledgment to the PCIe 3.1 interface – which is simply a motion this request could beryllium coming to handheld gaming PCs soon, too.

Given that the interior Nintendo Switch 2 retention was besides updated to UFS (universal flash storage) from eMMC, it makes a batch of consciousness for Nintendo to necessitate its enlargement retention media to person akin speeds. It’ll beryllium a portion earlier we cognize precisely however accelerated the interior retention tin load games similar Breath of the Wild, but aboriginal demos person suggested that load times are importantly faster – from conscionable 35% erstwhile accelerated traveling, according to Polygon, to a 3x archetypal load betterment measured by Digital Foundry. These load clip improvements could travel down to the faster interior storage, but it could besides beryllium owed to the faster CPU and GPU, which tin unpack information faster. The constituent is: Nintendo needed its outer retention to person akin speeds, truthful aboriginal games that necessitate a faster disk don’t get bottlenecked by virtuousness of being connected an SD card.

It besides gives country for faster retention successful the future. Right now, the fastest modular for SD cards is SD 8.0 Specification, which allows full-size SD Express cards to scope speeds up to 3,942MB/s. MicroSD Express cards can’t get that accelerated yet, but successful a fewer years it’s wholly imaginable – astatine slightest if the Nintendo Switch 2 supports that benignant of velocity connected its side.

MicroSD Express Capacity Options

MicroSD Express cards person been dilatory to instrumentality off, and portion that volition apt alteration erstwhile the Nintendo Switch 2 launches, lone a fewer options are disposable close now. For instance, Lexar lone offers 1 MicroSD Express card, and it comes successful 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB variants, with the second costing $199.