Of course, capacity is only half of the equation - what about speed? Well, here the Switch isn't quite so future-proof. Switch Loading Times! Cartridges vs Micro SD vs Internal Storage! Here's Tom Morgan's look at Micro SD loading times stacked up against the Switch's internal memory and an actual physical cartridge. Therefore, our recommendation is that you get the largest Micro SD card you can afford, though our recommendations also include best value offerings based on GDP or USD per gigabyte calculations. The most important point here is that the more space you have, the more games you can install to the card and the less time you have to spend deleting or re-downloading games. Massive 512GB cards are becoming relatively affordable and even 1TB cards are starting to make sense, though. 2TB cards are in the works from Kioxia, with their mass production starting in December 2023, and we're also seeing 1.5TB cards from SanDisk make their way onto the market - at vast expense, however. The Switch supported Micro SD cards up to 32GB at launch, but a software update soon thereafter pushed this limit all the way to 2TB. As of 2023, 256GB and 512GB cards are the best options in terms of cost per gigabyte, while 1TB cards now cost the same per gigabyte as 128GB cards - a stunning turnaround. We've selected four cards from a few different companies, all of which excellent value for money and come with favourable customer reviews. Our US recommendations are slightly different, as there are more brands represented on than on its sister sites. 1TB cards are also getting much cheaper than before, meaning you don't pay much more per gigabyte to get a massive amount of game storage on your Switch.īest Value Bulk Storage Switch Micro SD Cardġ28GB Integral Ultima Pro MicroSDXC UHS-1 Best Switch Micro SD cards UKįor UK buyers, there's been something of a shift as 512GB cards now offer the best value per gigabyte by some margin, with 128GB and 256GB options behind. Anyways, enough chat - here's our top picks for the best Micro SD cards for Nintendo Switch! Whether you intend to stick to physical cartridges or digital purchases, Switch's need for mandatory downloads in some scenarios means that a Micro SD card of some description is an essential purchase. In crunching the numbers, it reveals that the Micro SD cards we've chosen over slightly speedier load times compared to the internal storage, which is worth remembering if you're intending on either buying a game digitally or getting it as a physical cartridge. It's worth noting that higher capacity cards are becoming increasingly affordable, so choosing a 256GB or even 512GB option might offer the best value for money.Īs well as simply recommending cards for you to try, we'll also share the results of our load time tests for different games, and also the best ways to move your data over from the internal storage to the SD card, and from the card to the internal storage, too. Regardless of how much storage capacity you need though, we've got a good selection of cards that should be sure to suit what you need. These can range from cheaper cards that provide the best price-to-performance ratio to some absolute behemoths that offer upwards of a terabyte of storage.ĭF Direct Special - Grand Theft Auto 6 Q+A - You Have Questions, We Have Answers Watch the latest DF Weekly, where Digital Foundry staff discuss the hottest gaming technology news.

It's at this point where we've decided to step in and help, recommending our picks of the bunch when it comes to a multitude of different Micro SD cards you can choose.

Figuring out the best Micro SD card for your Nintendo Switch may be a little bit more difficult than you might anticipate, with questions over capacity and the general performance of installed games on an SD card versus a cartridge or the console's internal storage. With the humble SD card slot, you'll be able to add in a card that will increase your storage to no end and give you significantly more game storage space. Despite all its successes though, its internal storage simply isn't big enough in 2024 - the 25.9GB of accessible space isn't enough to keep multiple games, and to make matters worse, sometimes you can't fit larger AAA games onto it at all, making an SD card an absolute necessity. The Nintendo Switch may well be getting on a bit now, but the fact is that it's been a smash hit for Nintendo.

Installing micro sd card switch