Amazon $38.72
The same is true in terms of where you buy your memory cards.Fakes are abundant on many online marketplaces, so opt for a retailer that you trust.You can test the speed of your card using free tools like CrystalDiskMark (Windows) or Blackmagic Disk Speed Test (Mac) to ensure you’re getting the performance you’ve paid for.Are Cartridges or Internal Memory Faster?
According to tests performed by Digital Foundry , physical cartridges (game cards) have the slowest read times of all, while the console’s internal flash memory provides the fastest load times.
Games stored on microSD cards were marginally faster to load when compared with a physical cartridge (usually under a second when fast traveling in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild ), but still trailed the internal storage by up to several seconds in that same game.
Nintendo
This bolsters the theory that the Switch is limited to around 100MB/sec read speed in terms of removable media, since it’s unlikely that a microSD card would be able to achieve higher read speeds than internal flash memory.Advertisement
Ultimately, there’s not a huge amount of difference between the three mediums and it shouldn’t influence where or how you decide to store your games.Transferring Games Between Storage Is Tedious
It’s a good idea to buy a memory card as soon as you get your Switch console since Nintendo doesn’t make it particularly easy to transfer games between the internal storage and removable microSD cards.The only way to do this is to archive the software and re-download it again to the microSD card.
This takes time, bandwidth, and patience.
We’d recommend buying an adequately-sized microSD card that suits your gaming habits.If you play a lot of games and bounce between titles regularly, a larger pool of storage will be of benefit.For casual gamers, a 128GB or 256GB card will likely be enough for the lifespan of the console.
Aside from a better display, the revised OLED Switch ships with 64GB of internal storage, double the original and Switch Lite models.This is still a paltry amount of space considering how some games balloon to 30GB or more in size, so we definitely recommend a memory card.Nintendo Switch (OLED Model).
