MicroSD Express: Essential for Nintendo Switch 2

Last week, Nintendo unveiled the Nintendo Switch 2, announcing a significant change in its storage expansion strategy: the new console exclusively supports MicroSD Express cards. This shift might be inconvenient for gamers with collections of traditional MicroSD cards, but it's a forward-thinking move given the superior speed of MicroSD Express technology.

MicroSD Express cards leverage a PCIe 3.1 interface, which dramatically enhances read/write speeds to closely match the Universal Flash Storage (UFS) used in the Switch 2's internal storage. This compatibility ensures that games stored on an expansion card can theoretically load as swiftly as those on internal storage, although at the cost of compatibility with slower, less expensive non-Express MicroSD cards.

MicroSD vs. MicroSD Express

Over the years, MicroSD cards have evolved through six different speed ratings. Starting with a modest 12.5MB/s with the original SD cards, speeds have progressively increased, reaching up to 312MB/s with the SD UHS-III standard. However, the introduction of the SD Express standard five years ago marked a significant leap forward in performance.

The key advancement with SD Express is its use of a PCIe 3.1 interface, a stark contrast to the slower UHS-I interface of previous standards. This interface, commonly used in high-performance NVMe SSDs, allows full-sized SD Express cards to achieve transfer speeds of up to 3,940MB/s. While MicroSD Express cards don't reach these peak speeds, they still offer impressive performance, topping out at 985MB/s—three times faster than the fastest non-Express MicroSD cards.

Why Does the Switch 2 Require MicroSD Express?

Although Nintendo hasn't detailed its rationale behind this requirement, the primary advantage is undoubtedly speed. A game stored on a MicroSD Express card can load significantly faster than one on a traditional UHS-I card, thanks to the PCIe 3.1 interface. This could signal a trend towards similar requirements in future handheld gaming PCs.

The Switch 2's internal storage upgrade to UFS from eMMC further justifies the need for equally fast expansion storage. Preliminary demonstrations suggest that the new console offers substantially reduced load times, with fast travel in games like Breath of the Wild taking just 35% of the time according to Polygon, and an initial load improvement of 3x as reported by Digital Foundry. These enhancements could be attributed to both the faster internal storage and improved CPU and GPU capabilities. By mandating MicroSD Express, Nintendo ensures that external storage won't bottleneck future games designed to leverage faster disk speeds.

Moreover, this requirement paves the way for even faster storage solutions in the future. The current SD 8.0 Specification allows full-sized SD Express cards to reach speeds up to 3,942MB/s, and although MicroSD Express cards can't yet match this, future advancements could see them achieve similar performance if the Switch 2 supports such speeds.

MicroSD Express Capacity Options

Currently, MicroSD Express cards are not widely available, but the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 is expected to boost their adoption. Lexar offers a single MicroSD Express card in capacities of 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB, with the top-tier 1TB model priced at $199.

Lexar Play Pro MicroSD Express

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SanDisk, another major player, currently lists a single MicroSD Express card with a maximum capacity of 256GB, which matches the internal storage of the Switch 2. As the Switch 2 hits the market, it's likely that more options will emerge, possibly up to 512GB initially. Over time, as companies like Samsung ramp up production, we can expect a wider variety of high-capacity MicroSD Express cards.

SanDisk MicroSD Express 256GB

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