Is a more expensive microSD card better for your Nintendo Switch?

The Nintendo Switch is a great portable console, but that portability does come at a cost – storage space.

Nintendo decided to go an interesting route when it comes to storage on its Switch consoles. The original console released in 2017 only came with 32 GB of internal storage.

The company has since released the Switch OLED version, but even it only doubles the storage capacity to 64 GB.

Fortunately, all Switch consoles, including the Switch Lite, can add more storage through a microSD expansion slot. It’s available on all models of the Switch.

Utilizing this extra storage will be pretty much required, considering the massive size of today’s game files.

Nintendo offers support for microSD, microSDHC, and microSDXC. Of the three different platforms, microSDXC (extended capacity) is the largest, offering storage sizes of up to 2 TB.

With that much storage, you should have no problem fitting all your Switch games on your console.

But what about speed? There are several different speed standards for microSD cards, each exponentially faster than the previous.

When you’re looking for a microSD card for your Switch, is getting the fastest card available the best option?

Will faster, more expensive microSD cards be better in your Nintendo Switch?

Short answer: Sometimes

Pretty vague, right? When you’re looking for a microSD card for your Switch, you probably shouldn’t go with the cheapest option available, but the most expensive option is probably a waste. Let me explain.

The Nintendo Switch can utilize microSD cards that fall under UHS-I (Ultra High-Speed Class 1). UHS-I cards are capable of speeds up to 104 MB/s, but some manufacturers offer up to 150 MB/s on their own UHS-I cards.

READ MORE: How to expand the storage of the Nintendo Switch OLED

Knowing this, you might think that finding the fastest UHS-I card will be the best option for the Nintendo Switch, but that’s not quite the case either.

Nintendo’s website says that the Switch supports microSD card speeds between 60 and 95 MB/s. That means that paying extra to get a proprietary option with much faster speeds is likely a waste.

When looking for a microSD card for your Nintendo Switch, it’s best to prioritize speed as long as you take advantage of the standard UHS-I speeds. Anything faster than 95 MB/s is most likely overkill.

If you are looking for a solid option, this officially licensed microSD card from SanDisk should be about perfect for your needs.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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