Rumour: 'Switch 2' May Support Samsung's Upcoming MicroSD Cards For Higher Transfer Speeds

And to get people to buy the new MicroSD cards, all Switch 2 consoles will only have 64gb storage and all Switch 2 cartridges are only 1mb text files that tell the console to download from the eShop.

This seems like it’d be significantly faster than Switch, which is fine by me. I don’t really know how helpful this is if it just supports these SD cards, but I’m down for these really fast times!

Really great news, if it's actually true.

Not gonna do much good if they can't make it in larger sizes than 256GB. The new hardware means bigger file sizes and while Nintendo will likely keep theirs low, third parties already have Switch games that are 30-50GB. I'm gonna want more than six or seven games on my system.

@topher6490 Do you know for a fact that they can't make the new cards larger than 256GB?

New console NIntendo need a improvement loading speed

Veey interesting rumor - but, why would Nintendo of America be in charge of hiring for this endeavor though, as opposed to, you know, the HQ of Nintendo of Japan?

@Lightsiyd Given that Samsung only announced a 256GB that's not even out yet and SanDisk just now got anything larger than 1TB transferring at up to 250MB/s (less than a third of the speed of these new cards)... I'd say yeah, for the foreseeable future, they can't make these new cards larger than 256GB.

Are they new sd cards backward compatible with the non-express ones? Would be great of they supported both and gave us 2 sd-card slots. One for cheap storage and another for demanding games...and an easy way to transfer files between them.

The Switch 2 rumour mill has been a little boring up to now. For around a year prior to the Switch reveal, almost every week brought new rumours. Most turned out not to be true but it was a fun time. Who can forget this monstrosity.

Or remember when Nintendolife backed up the Eurogame article that revealed the NX would be a hybrid console with detachable controllers and the majority called BS. But if true, Nintendo were doomed.

With Switch 2 however, the best leak we've had is a pic of a device that looks exactly like a Switch but with a USB port and magnetic rails.
Perhaps the rumour mill will ramp up once January arrives.

Honestly they should have just included an expansion slot for a small form factor M.2 NVME SSD. Even cheap and cheerful 3rd Gen PCI-E is way faster than Micro SD

I hope the days of ‘impossible ports’ are in the rear view mirror of the Next Switch. Games running at lower than official low settings does not fit the bill as it might have 7-8 years ago when the PS Vita was also still in production.

This would be lovely but even better would be upgraded servers. Downloading anything on switch is painfully slow.

Look, I really don't care as long as loading times can be kept down to a minimum I'm happy. I don't care how that's realized as long as it is realized.

If the system is made and boxed and just waiting to go out the door, can they still develop more for it or are they not actually at the “ready to go” level?

The most accurate sounding rumor to me was that they had already manufactured millions of them so that nobody has issues finding them when they finally release next year.

I can't see Nintendo going for this anytime soon. We'll be lucky if the Switch 2 can even utilise SanDisk Extreme MicroSD cards.

These max theoretical speeds are great, but the thermal throttling on these tiny cards is the real bottleneck.

Let's hope the port is water cooled.

I hope it's true, it's kind of funny that a cartridge console have worse loading time than bdray console. The bdray has ssd though, lol.

What will size options be?

I am hearing way too many rumors. Nintendo needs to clear our heads with the actual specs on the tech soon. Or the basic level info they will tell. Won’t get the real details until someone opens it up and looks inside after it is available next year.

SupermetalDave? I thought he went into exile after all his NX theories were basically the exact opposite of what Switch turned out to be. 😂

Oh boy, the stories I could tell you lot about transmission line theory and how it constrains practical PCB design...

Missed opportunity for the sub-heading to say "We feel the Need for Speed".

Sounds like a marketing deal.

“A successful collaboration with a customer to create a custom product”

Oh man, that’s just gotta be Nintendo. What other potential customers are out there involved in… products?

I know Lurpak makes like, dairy products, but Samsung is weak on dairy, so we can safely rule that out. That pretty much just leaves Nintendo in the product space.

Top sleuthing.

Any possibility of Switch 2 coming with an NVME SSD for internal storage and different storage options at launch?

My other question is that if the console is theoretically about to be revealed in the next few mothat and Nintendo is manufacturing ahead to make sure they have enough supply, why would they only be hiring for this just now?
But yeah, and why also Nintendo of America? Probably because NoA is developing the ALARMO 2 with sd card slots to load Switch screenshots! 😄

There exist very small M.2 SSD cards in sizes up to at least 2T with transfer speeds of 5000MB/s or more. In 2024 is kind of silly to still be using speed and size constrained SSD cards. Then again this is Nintendo we are talking about. They always seem to keep a media type around for one generation past its sell-by date.

Sure inserting an M.2 SSD is not as simple as inserting an SD card (although it’s still pretty simple…it’s still plug-and-play), but the trade off is well worth the additional effort of gasp having to tighten a screw.

Slim pickings regarding switch 2 news. During the 7,5 years of the current switch life span, I have never once thought 'you know what Nintendo should do.... increase the MicroSD transfer speed'.

@syrupdash 64gb will be the black Deluxe version. Basic 8gb in white.

I’ve heard a rumor the Switch 2 will make you a freshly baked cinnamon roll every time you clear a level or chapter in a game.

Storage is still my biggest question with the next console. It basically took them the whole generation to reach the maximum 2TB cards and if S2 is like a PS4 then even 2TB is not going to hold too much. Personally I think we need a new storage format that isn't micro SD and I also wonder if the dock in the new hardware may be used as a storage medium with a higher capacity than the handheld main part and fast transfer speeds

I just purchased a larger SD card. While researching the differences between the official SanDisk and other options I found on Nintendo’s website mention that the official cards operate at max of 100MBps read and 90MBps write. Not 60. In reality it may dip to anywhere below the max, but the max is higher than 60.

@Warioware Allowing the Switch 2 to support more storage when in dock mode is not out of reach. It’s just, how will Nintendo implement it

They need to add support for external 2-4. TB SSD.

Wii U is the only Nintendo console ever to support any external USB SSD used on PC.

The first thing i did with my Legion Go PC handheld that launched in 2023 were to add another 2.TB of SSD.

I have 2 gaming PC's too, so i don't need to install these huge games on a handheld.

Switch 2 is a easy skip for me if SD cards are the only option.
I'm tired of swapping SD cards, when on other consoles you can have everything installed at the same time on external storage.

Right on. I just upgraded to a 1TB 200 speed card so if true, whatever's next will be able to use it to its fullest extent.

Anything to sell you something again at a brand new raised price tag.

What do people do when they encounter long "loading times" in the real world? A line at a bank? Waiting for a busy restaurant to being your food? Dear lord...the DMV?

I guess its because I have the Resident Evil doors and step loading screens burnt into my brain still after 20+ years, but im not all that bothered by load times.

I'll stick to my 1TB I got at a sane price that can store all my games and then some instead of the slow commercial "upgrade" cycle starting at something like 128gb or 256gb for what will probably be $150 or drastically more depending on situations around the globe.

@Toastmaster just use a larger sd card

It's great news that they're (probably) using fast storage for the Switch Successor!

Realistically, I'm probably going to plop my current Switch's existing 500GB microSD card in there. It's half full of original Switch games, and it doesn't need to be faster than that until the new console's internal storage is full of Switch 2 exclusive games.

At that point, hopefully, they will have figured out how to build 500GB or even 1TB microSD Express cards, and meanwhile the Switch 2's microSD port will support them from the beginning.

The Switch 2's built-in internal storage will hopefully not be as encumbered by thermal throttling as these microSD cards seem to be, and hopefully they can figure that out before I need to buy one.

@MJF SD are very slow vs a Samsung T9 SSD which have over 2000.MB/s in benchmark.

Also. A 2.TB SD card cost more than a 4.TB Samsung SSD which is a lot faster...
PC Handhelds like Legion Go and Rog Ally supports these fast 4.TB SSD drives.

@rjejr his face when the Switch got revealed was priceless...from Supermetal to Supersalty in a nanosecond.

Ok, may support new SD cards, but it should also give us possibility to adjust "blue light" level (like we can do this in "f.lux" or "Night light" windows built-in app).

For the Switch 2 I hope they allow us to transfer our save files externally too. It's a real drag to have those tie to just the console and Switch account. There's a reason memory cards like microSD exist, they exist to save memory, not storage.

@Toastmaster Likely they'll include a 128gb or 256gb ssd internally but they will never support an external ssd. One reason for that was so to prevent the device from getting hack or exploit while it's still supported. That's also one of the reason why hdd weren't supported for Switch even though Wii U supported those. They also don't want to use a storage format that is way too fast as it could overheat the system very quickly or suck up battery faster but they also don't want use one that is too slow either. 256gb at this point is the sweet spot, it's not too fast that transferring or running a game is problematic but also not as slow as the Switch internal storage either.

@Toastmaster I'm just saying you don't have to swap sd cards if you get a big one.
you said you're sick of swapping them.
get a big one.
fixed.

@MJF I refuse to pay more for a SD card than the console itself, especially not when SD are very slow vs SSD on top of it.

Good luck running 150-200.GB games from a SD card without loading stuttering.

Fun fact: Even Android Cell phones supported USB SSD/HDD natively for over 10 years now without using hack.

@Serpenterror Yes, sadly 256.GB at most.
External storage don't cause any heat on any console at all.
There is no heat transferred through any USB cable on anything.

Kingston 1.TB SSD are frequently on sale for 50 bucks, but would cost far less for Nintendo if they bought millions of them.
After removing x amount of space for the OS and cache on a console you also lose a lot of space.
If you install newest Call of Duty games on Switch, you don't have room for more than Tetris besides it.

Also, good luck running huge games like Indiana Jones, Call of Duty BLOPS 6 etc. from a slow SD card without loading stuttering.

@Toastmaster the console doesn't have a price or a release date yet.
I mean even when the memory cards are released they won't be as fast as an SSD.
I would personally refuse to play a 2LB handheld.
Makes no sense.

@MJF Handheld times changed.

On PC Handhelds it's common with 2 or 4.TB .M2 NVME SSD.
My PC Handheld have 2TB + 512.GB SSD.

That 2.TB SSD are mostly filled with small games, because i have the big games installed on one of my gaming PC's.

Yes, the 2.TB on my Handheld only mostly have 10.GB games at most and are still almost filled.

On PC i only have 6.TB SSD, and need to upgrade to 10.TB soon as the games get bigger and bigger.

I wonder if Nintendo got the memo that games increases in size every year...

@Toastmaster I said "LB" not "TB"

@MJF What's LB?

@Toastmaster pounds