Video: Digital Foundry Shows How to Get the Fastest Load Times on Nintendo Switch

First

I don't have enough data to watch these videos. Which loads faster?

Internal Memory > SD > Cartridge

@Fbigabig out of principle, I hope nobody tells you. Simply for commenting "first".

I'm gonna be a Physical gamer so I can patiently wait loading times doesn't matter how long it is.

Internal storage is fastest. Really not sure I care about a few seconds difference though. I just found an old unused micro SD card and put it in.

@gatorboi352 finally something we both agree on.

@Anti-Matter Same, physical is always my choice since box arts and cartridges are pretty awesome to look at.

Little upset by the load times of cartridges :/
So many people complimented the idea of cartridges instead of discs but I don't see any benefits so far.

Interesting analysis. Size over speed on the SD cards, with the internal memory being the fastest set up. That being said, I still prefer to game with the cartridges, simply for ebay resale value.

The biggest thing I got from the video was that I'm not insane: the loading screen really is off-white.

@gatorboi352 @faint I despise people who do that. It's not as bad here but it ruins things like YouTube comment strings. Tons of dumb "First" and "I'm early" and "Notification Squad!" comments and replies clutter up the threads and prevent people who actually want to communicate with the content creator to be able to do so. Do people win some kind of award for being first or 10th?

I'll always opt for physical media over digital. I guess I'm more surprised that a cart takes slightly longer to load up than a microSD card as opposed to it being slower than internal on board memory.

Physical always the way.
Example: For the people who went digital for Wii u. The games are stuck on that system.
For the people who went physical. The games are with you to resell or whatever you like with it. You can also play it on your PC in the future if you like.

@flapjackashley2 although I agree with you but this is the Internet and all kind of crazies and children use it. 😉

Cartridge speed is fine for me. I'm sure that the cartridges are not high end like some SD cards you can buy.

Anyone bothered about 4 seconds needs to sort their life out!

@Yorumi
Think I read a tweet from the devs that the load times are drastically reduced on Switch (and all other consoles) be it cartridge or digital.

It's only 1-2 seconds difference between microSD and cartridge (internal is irrelevant since it will quickly fill up- but good to see it's super fast, even compared to SD).. Discs would have been twice as bad, I imagine.

@ieatdragonz Well with a disc it generally has to install the whole game to the hard disk before you even play - in some games this can literally take an hour.. for Ps4 for example.. that's a pretty big difference compared to putting in the cartridge and just playing I would think, right??

Now if we had a proper HDD we could install games from the media to the disk to cut load times. Also Switch as well as Wii U use flash storage as internal HDD? Didn't Nintendo tell us not to install Wii U digital content on external flash drives in the Wii U?

For comparison, what are the loading times on the Wii U Zelda? Physical and digital.

@UK-Nintendo I know. Sometimes it just feels good to vent.

@ieatdragonz theyre aboit 1 tenth the size of a disc and load faster theres all the benefit you need!

@Yorumi
Ya it was lol...

I don't understand how the internal storage is so unnaturally fast. Not that I'm complaining, it's just... impressive. The carts and microSD are paractically less than a second apart, and I think being flash memory both are faster than a typical moving disk hard drive would be. I guess, in the end, it's as fast as can reasonably be expected.

Say, how are you liking Zelda? I'm enthralled... like, the game is without doubt the best game I've ever played. Haven't felt this way from a game since Metroid Prime. Feels like Nintendo is back, finally, after a 10 year hiatus. And, that kinda extends to the Switch too imo. It's the first Nintendo console I can actually show off, and everyone at my work is going nuts over it. Today I was showing my coworker how a lizalfos threw a rock at me and hit a charging boar and killed it for me, and another production worker walked in and was like, "is this that Switch console?" I'd never even met the guy, but I was like ya, check it out. Showed him the tabletop mode and Zelda... he was like, "man this is so much better graphics than PSP" lol... (most people are probably out of the loop on Vita and Wii U).

But ya, really really loving it. That Zelda is just so fun. Got half the map charted already, just beat first dungeon, about 80 hrs in. Where are you at?

This is just stupid. How to save one second!!! People are being paid for these kind of surveys? I certainly hope not!

@GrailUK
It took me more than 4 secs to post this to ya lol

A few seconds difference isn't worth opting for digital licenses over physical carts.

@ieatdragonz You don't have to install the game to the hard drive. Something Xbox/PS/PC all need to do, even if you have a physical disc.

@Fbigabig Internal memory. Cartridges are the slowest, though we're talking a matter of seconds here.

Out of interest is it possible to install a game from cart onto the system memory?

@Yorumi
Hmm, I never thought about the abilities. I actually kind of appreciate being able to go anywhere (well, not anywhere given hot and cold and steep mountains). I like the walled off approach, but this is just different I guess. It's a different approach, and I don't think either is right or wrong I just think it comes down to preference.

I actually think this game has some of the best side quests and side content of any open world game I've played. The korok seeds weren't meant to be all collected I don't think- I believe they put 900 in the game because nobodies going to find all of them and so they have to make them more dense so that people who only find, say, 1 out of 4 are still able to upgrade a ton of slots. With that said I do think they should've given a better reward for getting all of them, but for all we know that item might be used for something really amazing and nobody's figured it out yet.

But ya, I look back on games I previously hailed like Dragon Age Inquisition and Final Fantasy XV and even Xenoblade X, and I can't help but be amazed at how dull their side quests were compared to Zelda. In FFXV it would be like, hey I'm a researcher, go find 5 red frogs. Takes forever, come back, give them to her, ok now give me 10 blue ones. Or in Dragon Age and XCX where it was just mindless fetch quests. But in Zelda it's like even the worst side quests are better than a lot of games main quests. One had me spying on suspected villagers at night, and I'd see little thought bubbles saying "Nobody knows..." and I'd follow the person and find out they're not the culprit, and then after like four people I investigated I finally was led to the culprit and there was this whole story behind it... i'm blown away by the quality of the side content in the game. Not all of it is as good as that one was by just generally speaking the side quests are much more interesting, even the ones where you have to find an item.

The one thing people have consistently said they don't like or are unsure of is the weapon durability. And I will admit at first I was a little put off by it just because there were so few slots in the weapons broke so fast. But now that I've got like 15 different weapon slots and the weapons last a lot longer before breaking, I've grown to appreciate it. And that's because it forces me to use all different kinds of weapons, stuff that normally I probably would never use. And it's a constant rotation so you're always fighting with something different and something new, and I think that makes the game really interesting. Not too many games can pull it off but this is one game where I think it just works. I do completely understand people's point of view on it though because I did feel the same way up till about 40 hours into the game.

There's just so much to explore and find in things that just blew my mind when I discover them. I found this island the other day and there's this crazy challenge on the island, and then I found a labrynth that's like 1/2 mile wide by 1/2 mile wide by 200 ft tall. Think David Bowie level maze. It was nuts, like some true Hunger games/Harry Potter awesomeness.

Four or five seconds longer to load Breath of the Wild isn't a big deal, but I do wonder whether the future holds some games with more frequent load times that could wind up adding up to make some significant difference. Monster Hunter, if it still uses those silly zones?

@UK-Nintendo for xenoblade chronicle x i thought it was alot better if u did have enough internal space for it as far as stuff goes,

seams nintendo wants digital over physical, not only rewards, but now gameload,
my ? is it worth easy trade in or ebay,over tied to your account
best buy games club is 20% of physical games, amazon has something similar believe, Can 3rd or 2nd or 1st party , do black friday deals every month? Taget sometimes does the buy2 get one free, toyrus buy1 get on 40%off sometimes, and then theres games that price drops every so often so that 60 is now40, the 40 is now 30 the 30 is now 20 for physical ones, while digital stays about the same.
once your internal storage is full u buy sd card unless u are fine deleting old stuff, so i hope eshop games reflects some of what they don't need ,but you might.

i'm not asking nintendo to make v1.1 with 128gb internal storage for switch, but maybe something to help loading times for games u buy physically. i know its far to early for the half gen upgrade for specs and stuff. i think its still a but early for digital only for the masses.

edited this is w/o tax in usd
10 switch games retail for 60 so thats 600
10 switch games with 20% off 60 is 480 + membership costs
10switch game with buy 1 one get 40% off is 480
10 switch games with buy 2 get 1for 60 free is 420
10 switch games retail sale each costs 40 400
i'll be generous with gb size wise but like 10 gb ave each 100 gb expect 3rd and 2nd party and first to eat it; up plenty for indies for like 26 gb internal storage
so if u don't delete u need 128 gb or better,min of like 40$
so thats like 640 at worst-cost for digital
and Nintendo gets more in there bank for digital
so 640- 400 is 240 almost enough for a 2nd switch, or other gaming consoles.

30 seconds is very fast for an open world game..no matter where you have it installed!

@Yorumi
If you haven't done Lakna Rokee shrine, google it and find out the quests needed to unlock it. Totally worth it. Also, climb to the top of Mount Lanayru... I think you'll find it worth your while.

Idk if you've met Robbie yet, but he's awesome. Probably my favorite character in the game. Purah is second favorite.

For a big game like Zelda: BotW, the loading time with cartridge is not bad. Maybe things will speed up with upcoming system updates?

I'm overall disappointed with these load times to be honest, regardless of the format—I mean they're not exactly "cartridge fast" as most people think of it. It's certainly not like it was back when I was a kid—I fear maybe it never will be again—that's for sure.

@gatorboi352 - 45th! I never thought this day would come. I nod in agreement and hearted your post.

neeto

@impurekind: "they're not exactly "cartridge fast" as most people thin of it. It's certainly not like it was back when I was a kid—I fear maybe it never will be again—that's for sure."

• Modern games are obviously more complex, than games for older consoles. There's also the fact of game optimization, whether, or not the game devs/pubs(developers/publishers) even tried to optimize, & if they did, how successful they were. I think/feel modern storage capacity gives modern programmer/devs/pubs a lazy cushion that they feel that they don't have to attempt to optimize their games, or not put much effort into it, at least.

@SanderEvers: "This test is of a REALLY LOW quality. They only tested TWO SD cards? And of the same manufacturer? Sorry, but I really REALLY don't agree with this test."

• Yeah, testing multiple games, & multiple brands of memory cards would give a better perspective. Not to mention, this test used a card in an adapter; in theory, that sightly adds a fraction of loading time. It's still good that a card w/ adapter was used for testing purposes, for every possible circumstance.

@Everyone_else: This test also doesn't consider that the internal storage has quicker physical, electrical, & data access to the main cpu/bus/etc.; It's similar to how sometimes a pc's usb ports on the front are either 2.0, &/or are extensional, whereas the usb ports on the back of the machine are wired directly into the board/bus/etc. There's also the fact of different sized sd card, & external hdds have different access speeds, due to different sizes, & data-scatter(de-optimization from general use). Edit: a few seconds loading time is not consequential to me; it would be, if it were more than a few seconds, or often. I also don't like the oddity of having to "dismount" a memory source, just to save to internal memory; choices should be given. That's a dumb oversight, which leads to people damaging the memory card reader, & if the Switch has it, the spring mechanism inside.

All said, I still may get a NS.

Personally, I treat my video game purchases like my music purchases…if I really respect and love the album and artist, I buy physical. If not, it's all digital. So if it's a game I will love and cherish, I'm buying the physical copy. Otherwise, it's a download.

On the subject, who really cares about seconds?!

Get it however you like

@ieatdragonz Well, I think the point of cartridges is they are much faster than optical media. DVDs are pretty much useless to play off of, so they have to be installed to hard drives. The cartridges allow a way to play the game without installing it onto a faster medium... though in this case the cartridges are slower than the internal memory.

These might be faster than a hard drive based system though.

The Zelda loading times are good, but I bet they can definitely improve them with one of those sweet sweet stability updates! 😉👍

he should have timed it with a wii u disk.. how soon we all forget

@UK-Nintendo Says the guy who just posted "Save space for ad revenue" as the first comment on the Layton article.

@impurekind The closest thing to that today is M.2 PCIe Gen3 SSD's, and I think we both know those aren't leaving PC's any time soon. Dat 4 GB/s data transfer rate, tho... Up to 40 times faster than the max data transfer rates of microSD cards on the NS!

@Capt_N I agree. I mean, I think there are ways to better mask any of the necessary but annoying loading times found in most modern games—and I know it's never going to be possible to load the likes of Zelda's massive open world in under a second—but I just don't think most developers are really bothering to even hide the loading times in creative ways anymore. There's definitely ways to load much of it in the background while distracting players on some other game screen or in some small transitional area or whatever, and I'd like to see more of today's developers actually try that kind of thing. Get creative, devs.

@impurekind Not possible except with future optimizations of BotW on Cemu, using M.2 PCIe Gen3 SSD's, that is... Can load almost 1/3 of the entire game's contents in one second.

I can't believe people are actually bothered about load times of a Cartridge.

@PlywoodStick Teh future.

The UHS-1 vs UHS-3 test and advice are bunk, a larger card is always going to load slower in it's same class, an effective test would have been to do 2 cards of the same size against each other, 1 of them a cheapie SanDisk UHS-1 and the other the premium UHS-3 Extreme model. I'd guess the load times of a 64GB UHS-1 card would be slower than the 64GB UHS-3.

I knew it would be ROM>SD>CART but I'm glad the difference is insignificant.