Do Faster Micro SD Cards Actually Make Load Times Faster on Switch?

[@TEMINIX]

The Doom soundtrack and the cat should be its own channel.

[@denimchicken104]

Why isn’t that cat live-streaming 24/7?

[@burger84.]

yesssssss

[@That_Lady_Charlie]

Doomcat

[@BlinksAwakening]

You really should have run the game installed directly to the Switch's internal memory in the bottom right corner. Might have been nice to see how fast it runs directly off the game cartridge as well.

[@ScottManwell]

This is big brain

[@fuglytard1293]

I believe it is faster. Check this video out kzbin.info/www/bejne/gHLcaKiIf9aibJY

[@alfiehicks1]

Yeah, the bottom corner is where I'd put my physical copy of the Switch port of Doom Eternal... *_IF I HAD ONE_*

[@StarmenRock]

Internal memory is fastest, then cart and then any other micro sd. Max read speed for the switch micro sd is about 100mbps, but higher cards can mantain higher speeds for longer.

[@54356776]

​@@StarmenRock What do you mean higher cards ? Higher size or higher spec ?

[@That_Lady_Charlie]

please don't feed SD cards to your cat. they already have a good memory capacity.

[@DE23]

This makes me think int the future humans will become compatible with SD Cards and we'll be able to all have photographic memories.

[@shoesbuttback]

Untrue, my cat can't even remember that I fed her just 10 minutes ago.

[@-khayri-4280]

@@shoesbuttback Yeah my cat did the same stuff. So I fed him some Sd cards. I don't have a cat anymore.

[@alexsilva28]

@@-khayri-4280 F

[@fancyyahoo]

Take my like and get out of here!

[@DE23]

I misread the title, so I thought this would be comparing the load times of games on SD cards, System Memory, and physical cartridge games.

[@Steve-Fiction]

That would be a great test, too!

[@sonnyrynsaard3567]

not sure why they didnt actually do that to be honest

[@imrangaffur7919]

There’s another channel that did this. System < SD Card < Cartridge in terms of time taken to load.

[@kirin1230]

Same

[@sonnyrynsaard3567]

@@imrangaffur7919 what kind of storage is the internal switch packing? I'm assuming it's UFS

[@Bloops]

Wasn't expecting to hear the 8-bit Scrap Brain theme in a video like this but I'm a big fan of it.

[@Joeynator3000]

"We have nothing to put in the bottom corner, so here's my cat sleeping instead" That cracked me up. xp

[@goldmemberpb]

Well, this explains the really odd images they posted earlier. Maybe the switch pro or the next gen Switch will have UHS-2 support.

[@Elias-ti4te]

I don't think so. Those cards are to expensive and to reach those speeds the hardware will need to allocate more resources just for that.

[@traolin5877]

I doubt they'll be upgrading too much other than the new screen and maybe a GPU/CPU refresh. I won't hold my breath, but I'd like to see them add Bluetooth audio support so people can use their wireless headphones without a dongle

[@frbird51]

@@traolin5877 yeah, I can't believe the switch doesn't have Bluetooth audio support, it's the perfect device for it.

[@-khayri-4280]

@@frbird51 It actually does have the ability for 'Audio' bluetooth. Nintendo just won't do anything with it. Its almost as if they are saving the feature for a new version of the switch.. Hmmmmm..

[@tmpmisterix1479]

@@-khayri-4280 and then it turned out to not be the case

[@blindcommander]

Awesome. I have a Nintendo livened card for my Lite and have had no problems with it whatsoever. It was in the Switch section at Walmart with my Power-A Breath of the Wild Pro controller. LOVED the kitty at the end! We NEED to see more kitties! ❣️ Keep up the great work!

[@qwertylerqw3]

I feel like this test would’ve been better if you compared SD cards with varying stats that mattered more. Comparing it to a UHS-II SD card doesn’t make sense since the Switch doesn’t support the extra BUS, like you said A better high-end card would’ve been the Sandisk Extreme, which has an A2 rating (a rating that applies specifically to how it’s used in the Switch) Would love to see an updated video with a more relevant comparison.

[@NISSANZ33]

Where was this guide 3 years ago when I was shopping for an SD card?? Jk thanks for testing these

[@skullkid_gaming]

The timing of this video is perfect! I need to upgrade the current sd card in my Switch and was wondering this exact question! Think I'll go for the 400GB card.

[@heavyarms55]

I have a 1TB Sandisk card. It works wonderfully.

[@esk8jaimes]

Ditta

[@timseyer6769]

Now that is quality journalism! The only game where I was baffled by the load times was yooka laylee and the impossible lair. Especially the initial load up took soooo long...

[@pedroamaral8100]

Great video! most liekly the reason why the adata wasnt as fast as one would expect is because of the card size, storage mediums tend to read and write faster the more storage they have, this has to do with the cache if im not mistaken, as the card has more storage it needs to process more data and thus needing more cache which conversely lets it process more infromation in a faster manner. Still, I wouldn't expect that even if you were to compare the adata and "sannew" in the same disk size that adata would be faster, probably would be about as fast, those sandisk cards are about as fast as it gets with the UHS1 cards.

[@colby_247]

Actually before watch this video i already knew, Switch is design to use the UHS-1 micro SD card, so you don't need to waste money to buy more expensive one such as UHS-3 SanDisk Extreme. Just use the standard SanDisk Ultra is fine.

[@ShinobiPhoenix-YT0]

Except that UHS-III is 30/mb a second vs 10. Which matters if you are going for full "digital only" constantly downloading data to the card stuff. Write speed matters for that as well as helps prevent data corruption. 30 vs 10 doesn't seem like much, but that's like saying a 30% STR bonus doesn't matter vs only 10%. It adds up. Having a good internet download speed but be hindered by a card only able to write 10/mb a second, maybe the average person doesn't notice, but I sure as hell noticed Smash Bros Ultimate stopped having as many data corruption errors when I switched cards.

[@I_was_a_Bullfrog]

@@ShinobiPhoenix-YT0 but if the Switch won't read/write that quickly, why bother when it's likely going to cost more?

[@ShinobiPhoenix-YT0]

@@I_was_a_Bullfrog Write it does, read it obviously does what even my phone can do. Regardless, the newer Switch will at least be tech from at minimum 2018-2019 unlike the first Switch which was 2015 tech. So it's going to have tech that will literally do what things already do what consumer grade does at minimum.

[@blackjacksetzer7748]

great video just in time for a question i had rigth now, also man doom music makes even a sleeping cat look hardcore

[@notSoAverageGuineaPigEnjoyer]

You’re the best, Alex!

[@Syobnaf]

The amount of SD card b-roll footage in this video is impressive

[@RickWhitechest]

"We have nothing to put in the bottom corner, so..." You're putting loading from system there? "...here's my cat sleeping instead." ...okay, works too.

[@jonolasco]

My first thought was the cat was sleeping really fast.

[@RagManXX]

Did not expect to watch the entire video, but here we are. Interesting.

[@curri189]

Yes, I actually experienced this myself. Bought a cheap large capacity card that said it was fast... it was not. Returned it and got a Sandisk and it works like a charm.

[@Shaoife]

Love the music!

[@georged7627]

I think the cats left eye shutting was 10 milaseconds faster than the right eye when shutting....but both eyes were slightly faster than when the cat twirlled around getting comfortable 😁👍🏾

[@steven.d6492]

Hey that 400gb sd card is literally the exact one I have in my switch

[@Buphido]

Now I‘m curious what the difference between a sandisk ultra and a sandisk extreme with the same storage space would be. Because I happen to have the Sandisk 400GB shown in this video, but the Extreme instead of the Ultra.

[@1mpr0v3ment7]

The main difference between a Sandish Extreme and Ultra is the fact that the Extreme is a UHS-3 type card (meaning it has 3 sets of pins), while the switch does support it, it only uses USH-1 type memory cards. The extreme is virtually useless compared to the ultra since it can't make use of those extra pins for faster read and write speeds.

[@JimiCanRead]

@@1mpr0v3ment7 is this true of the oled as well? Any change in what it can read?

[@1mpr0v3ment7]

@@JimiCanRead It’s the same for the oled.

[@StarmenRock]

Read speeds on the switch are capped at 100mbps

[@burger84.]

4:48 hmm. Heard before. ……no. it’s. It’s. YOSHI!!!

[@diamondjim311272]

Thank you for posting this video. Very helpful as it will be a major factor when I upgrade my memory card in a few months time

[@uSCOTTpwnd]

0:40 Micro SD on an upside down wine glass in a running bathtub b-roll?

[@kacheek9101]

We need more content like this :)

[@Elias-ti4te]

You should include a max out ufh - i card to see if that make any difference now that we know the switch cannot take advantage of the uhs - ii standard.

[@conejonegro957]

amazing cat, 12/10 would watch it again

[@TheDevilsGreatestTrick]

I'm a little miffed that they remade Penguin Wars a MTX-Mess, but this informative (and adorable) vid made up for it. Cheers!

[@linkssz1699]

I was hoping you would have tried an A2 card, I'm interested to see if they make a difference.

[@symphony137]

This. The UHS-II card was a waste because it didn't even have an A1/A2 certification, so I already expected it to be slower than the A1 SanDisk.

[@sebastiancolon701]

Just the video I was looking for! Thanks!

[@Steve-Fiction]

I've been wondering about this for really long! Great to finally know.

[@guky667]

Thank you for taking the time to test this out

[@Myshora]

2 things: shouldn't you have compared SD towards in-console storage? The second thing is related to the first. A game like Minecraft MUST be played in-console storage, I have a "SanNew" and Minecraft had lot of lag issues (ghost blocks) and it took much time to log any Online data on boot. I finally moved the game from the SD to the console and it's night and day. Loads super fast and there are no lag issues at all anymore.

[@TheDeafDood]

I wonder if that will help subnautica and below zero as well? Seriously, the lag on there and frequent game crashes are awful.

[@frfrank1]

The COBWEB card is definitely the winner! Who would have guessed! Awesome review!

[@zachb4561]

That Kingston is in fact a fake, and I also want to say that I love the Samsung SD cards. I have had Sandisks melt but Samsung has always kept my games nice and safe!

[@shiethegal]

Really, it's the opposite for me. SanDisk cards have always worked for me, but with Samsung cards I kept getting load and installation errors.

[@zachb4561]

@@shiethegal A lot of the time on Amazon people get fake Samsung cards which have those issues- buying them in store or otherwise finding legitimate ones usually is fine. No shade against Sandisk though, they usually work great too!

[@elsamuraiguapo]

That sound effect when they say the name of the card is from super mario rpg

[@cjt217]

This video had an appropriate amount of waffling. 10/10 would recommend

[@StrangeDad]

Now, THIS is the kind of question I need answers to! Thank you!

[@pttpsyt]

3:20 the cat is called donut in polish

[@aris0up]

surprise master system scrap brain music, nice i have a sandisk 128gb one but i'm beginning to realize i might need another one soon. that 400gb one sure looks neat

[@MergonTheShade]

I'm getting to a point where I just want Alex to explain every piece of equipment I use. Not because I need it, but because it's so homey.

[@TheLegendryZelda]

There’s just something about his voice that pulls me in XD

[@Keanine]

I really thought this was going to include the Nintendo branded card too. I figure it's the same as the normal SanDisk one but with branding, but it would have been interesting to see the comparison regardless

[@JacaboBlanco]

They don't wanna piss of the Nintendo corporate folks lol

[@Ferroreo]

The fourth cat video alone granted this video a like from me. You do understand that this might be too much for your average viewer and provided a GREAT distraction while everything else was happening.

[@danabuu]

I'm just here for the cat lol

[@DjBloodsaw]

You may want to try running the test again between the adata and sannew cards without any internet connection active. You can see the during the notification pop-up of someone logging on that the videos lag(both at different times, 10 seconds(adata) and 19 seconds(sannew).

[@hipery]

You should have tried a UHS-1-U3/V30 card too.

[@TheNintendoWizrad]

That lenguin game takes nearly 1:30 to load... its all about the quality of development.

[@AnthonyDGreen]

And that's how I ended up ordering the Penguin Wars OST. Thanks, Alex.

[@tanthenotquiteman]

I never knew this! I might get a micro SD card now... (Also, love the cats 😻)

[@glaycard85]

Thanks for the guide! Btw your tone is so commercial LOL

[@Massiv1027]

Why did you call your cat pączki? It looks sweet, but what if somebody tries to eat it? xD

[@cash_eye]

Dude the Ahhhhhh scared the life out of me it's 1AM!

[@chen2win]

For a better test make sure the games are on the SD cards themselves

[@Cyberbrickmaster1986]

I like how your cat immediately lost interest in eating that card once it tasted it!

[@awesomecat9898]

Ayyy i got that same sandisk ultra 400gb sd card in my switch too! Its... Actually almost full now though...

[@mind_combatant]

the thing that should make the biggest difference is the random read speeds (different than the sequential read speeds), which are reflected in the "A" rating. sadly, you didn't test anything (marked) higher than an A1, so the testing doesn't really show much.

[@NATOnova]

should an A2 card run faster on the switch than an A1 card?

[@Mister_Soyuz_on_YT]

​@@NATOnovaThe recommended is A1 because anything higher won't push it to read higher speeds than its recommended speed. So, A1 is the way to go.

[@Tomohiko_JPN_1868]

Wanna request [SanDisk Ultra Family] Loading Speed comparison for Switch games with each size { 32GB , 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 400GB}. i am sure There should be decent difference. Because SD Card datasheet onlyl shows general spec. for the device (Not for Switch). and below. 1. The way Switch manage to load game data may affects spd. it is 2017 console with unique, peeky hardware design). 2. What kind of controller circuit in the SD card has ? 3.How to ctrl and which lane of 4 lanes, How effective ?

[@_SYDGAMING_]

The cat got the win for sure 🤣

[@TheDeafDood]

You neglected to test uhs1 U3 class vs uhs1 U1 class.

[@SpartanDiab]

I used to use a sandisk and they are great, I upgraded to a samsung evo plus about a year and a half ago and it felt a little faster, maybe placebo but i'm super happy with it and it's the micro sd I recommend to others.

[@Mr.M2045]

IDK, my 1TB seems to have a ok speed

[@I_was_a_Bullfrog]

Same here

[@clydefrosch]

we had this test 3 years+ ago, hadn't we? of course they will, but only up until the card reader specs. which aren't super high

[@TEMINIX]

Alex and John are the life of this channel.

[@Stratilex]

Zion is crying

[@meric12131415]

Agreed hands down the two best😁

[@symphony137]

The 400 GB SanDisk is the fastest because it has the A1 certification. These cards have higher IOPS (input/output operations per second). There are also cards with A2 for even higher IOPS. The fact that the ADATA card is UHS-II shouldn't matter at all, it simply means that it reaches higher sequential read/write speeds but it doesn't matter in this case, the Switch can't even take advantage of such speeds. IOPS are more important here.

[@NATOnova]

so an A2 card run faster on the switch than an A1 card?

[@Ray-dl5mp]

Great video !

[@Subfightr]

Thank you for your hard work

[@bb1televator]

To make everyone feel more insecure of their load speeds, Sandisk also has a UHD1 Ultra… Plus card lol

[@SDisonYT]

How do the load times compare to having the game saved on the switch’s internal memory, versus saving it to the card instead?

[@Mister_Soyuz_on_YT]

The Switch is faster but a Micro SD card with Class 10 will be equally fast as the console. So check your micro SD card has that and UH 1

[@iamapie13]

I like how you put a timer on your cat

[@aleblasco39]

I have a 128GB SanDisk Ultra and it does the job pretty good

[@b3ans4eva]

Everyone knows the cats are the real MVP in this benchmark. 💕💕

[@herokane9952]

When I researched h the difference between regular SanDisk cards for the switch and the Nintendo branded SanDisk cards for the switch I found some information that stated that the Nintendo branded SD cards by SanDisk were optimized specifically for the switch. You should try a test with one of those to see if there's a difference.

[@KHtrinity1]

Id like to see a comparison too. It could easily be marketing.

[@solidmage1720]

It doesn’t seem to work on the switch for me for some reason.

[@vinxcxcxcxc6354]

I use the sd card i bought for my old low memory budget smartphone from a cheap electronics store in 2016.

[@crashfan123]

These are the questions that keep me up at night

[@ThePaulKM]

I use a Toshiba Exceria card with my switch. Loading times are almost non-existent here. Absolutely would recommend Toshiba and would definitely buy it again. As a bonus factor it is an authentic Toshiba Micro SD card Made In Japan.

[@johnmendez9392]

Love the cat but maybe the stock switch speed should’ve been in the right hand corner oh and is the cat at 2 times speed? Just wondering for testing purposes

[@aceinspaces]

I have a slight problem: I have no idea how any of the cards performed because I was too distracted by the cat in the corner.

[@adultmoshifan87]

When I got my Nintendo Switch, I still had to save up before I could afford the £35 a 128GB card cost in 2017! The only way I cld make sure my Switch’s micro SD slot actually works beforehand was to use an old 128 MEGABYTE card my mom originally had in one of her Motorola feature phones!

[@Crybaby-Media]

Funny I have that exact first Sandisk card coming in the mail today . Strange timing

[@David-cz9ej]

Thank you very much! Your video saved me from buying a 512GB Samsung Pro Plus card (U3 A2 V30). Was blinded by the 160mb/s reading speed without checking if the switch can even use this mf expensive card to it's fullest potential. 😅

[@Cloysterpete]

I’d love the Switch Pro to include a 240gb nvme, I can’t imagine it though as Nintendo make a profit on hardware so use the cheapest components possible.

[@ZackSNetwork]

Nintendo would not use a NVME SSD at all. Those are to big, expensive and can run hot. They would use really fast internal memory that’s in modern smartphones and tablets. It would more than likely have 128gb of storage.

[@Tricolorrr533]

Let me guess, the internal storage still loads things faster

[@Matanumi]

....not really. Its honestly the same as the cards. It comes down to the switches processor- not the speeds of flash memory

[@Part_Time_Fox]

Not first, not last, but on time

[@metamaverick]

I can't argue on whether or not the Kingston cards is a fake or not, but the speed pretty much is "as advertised" on the card itself. The card indicates it is a Class 4 (4MB/s) where as the Sandisk cards are Class 10 (10MB/s). Basically this equates to C4 being 40% slower. Taking a rough approximate of the two faster times from (ADATA and SANNEW) we have about 1min 18sec for the top-end (~best case) load times for Class 10 cards which in turn would translate to an expected Class 4 load time of: (1min 18sec) * (1.4) = 109.2s = ~1min 49sec. So at the very least the Kingston card is working at its advertised speed.

[@levenix1781]

Yes, that 1 second loading difference is highly important

[@KHtrinity1]

I was thinking to myself that the duration of time I spent watching this video was probably longer than time I would've saved with the fastest SD card in my switch

[@ShinobiPhoenix-YT0]

Read speeds matter, but mostly you're fine going with the good SanDisk lines, write speed also matters to a point because it helps save data to the card easier and faster (which helps download speed and helps prevent save data corruption from write errors). You're still better off getting a Class 3 SanDisk, preferably the 1tb or 512gb (512 wasn't enough for me).

[@TheDeafDood]

Wow, a 1tb class 3? How much did that set you back?!

[@RandoOnline_]

That cat is blazing fast! Gyaaat!

[@mkbest]

Pączki? I love pączki! My favourite pastry. ❤️

[@Punmaster9001]

Can you repeat those first set of tests? I was distracted by the kitties

[@Ryan-rz3nb]

Now a performance test for each card 😌

[@TheAlastar8]

For this test mean anything the size of all tested cards would also have to be the same

[@dayvie9517]

Why

[@ReReCoil]

so THATS what the post was about. huh

[@JohnDoe-n2m3w]

Great video.

[@ishelton750]

i just got a wallmart brand sd card it was like 120gb for 11$ got one for a friend aswell, neither of us have complaints but im sure the sandisk one load a bit faster but its not the biggest deal for me honestly

[@sandrakreiner9001]

I'm just here for the sleeping cat