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Best SD cards for 3ds?

C

chickdigger802

Banned
With the talk of retail games on DD, I guess it's time to upgrade my 3ds card?

I believe they can go up to 32gb right? Which is the best card in terms of speed/price?


How big are 3ds games?
 
-32GB can cost up to $100 (depending on the brand).
-Class # helps too, usually for that size Class 8/10 is nice.
-Adata, Sandisk are good brands, Adata is affordable too.
-Format any SD card using the SD Formatter that can be downloaded around before use.
-There are no retail games digitally yet, but around you can see that many are under 1GB (biggest 3DS-carts are 4GB but digital release won't have some of the extra junk retail releases have-).

Oh! and try not to buy 32GB cards on eBay or weird online just because they're cheap. There are many selling fake 32GB cards and can end damaging SD reader/slots.

EDIT:
Since the up to $100 is quoted so much.... :p
As I said, is "up to". There are lower prices, there are deals, etc. but I chose to said it like that, because it also helps for people when looking and comparing prices; than by starting at the lowest price. There are many places that sell "cheap 32GB cards"; that are not the best for games.

There are deals for trusted places and good prices posted below.
 
kingston_logo.jpg
 
Man I have one of those normal ass blue SanDisk cards. I didn't want to pay extra for "Ultra" or whatever. I do notice it takes time for apps to appear when I turn on the 3DS. :x
 
Unless it's from Amazon directly, I don't like to buy cards from Amazon for fear of fakes.
That card is only 4 bucks more at Best Buy. I may as well order it, my 2GB is just about full.
 
I went to Amazon and bought a 32GB Kingston directly from them last summer. Safest and probably cheapest route for a legit card on-line.
 
Generally the expensive brands like Samsung, Toshiba and Lexus have much better performance than the cheaper ones.

One important thing to point out is: Not all Class 10 SD cards are made equal.

Class 10 just means the card has a minimum guaranteed write speed of 10MB/s. The class designator says nothing of the cards read speeds or it maximum/average performance. The SD card included with the system is only a Class 2 because the write speeds can drop just below 4MB/s for short moments but in terms of average performance it'll actually outperform a cheap Class 10 in read speeds.

So yeah, if load times are important to you then don't be stingy. If the price:capacity ratio is more important to you then get a semi cheap brand like Kingston or Sandisk. Ultra cheap generic cards just aren't worth it.
 
Is reliability any different between the major brands? Like the cards having trouble reading sometimes or chances of getting fried in bad situations.
 
I have a Transcend one, but it read as being ejected when I put it to sleep once, so I've since gone back to the bundled in one. Maybe I'll replace it with one of these being mentioned.
 
fernoca said:
-32GB can cost up to $100 (depending on the brand).
-Class # helps too, usually for that size Class 8/10 is nice.
-Adata, Sandisk are good brands, Adata is affordable too.
-Format any SD card using the SD Formatter that can be downloaded around before use.
-There are no retail games digitally yet, but around you can see that many are under 1GB (biggest 3DS-carts are 4GB but digital release won't have some of the extra junk retail releases have-).

Oh! and try not to buy 32GB cards on eBay or weird online just because they're cheap. There are many selling fake 32GB cards and can end damaging SD reader/slots.
Click to expand...


You can get a 32GB class 10 from Amazon for thirty bucks.
 
Sagitario said:
51JDLuB5COL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

SanDisk SDHC SDSDU-032G-A11
Class 10
32GB
30MB/s transfer speed
Click to expand...
This is what I use. Although 32GB isn't a requirement, I highly recommend anything that is Class 10. Anything below that and stuff like SwapNote will load slower.
fernoca said:
-32GB can cost up to $100 (depending on the brand).
Click to expand...
I got my SanDisk for $50. Online bargain hunting is part of the game.
Edit: Looks like Amazon wins again. Back then it was $50 for the lowest price one. Glad they dropped.

Does anybody know if 3DS is capable of supporting SDXC cards (with a future firmware update of course)?
 
so the million dollar Qs is....does reading SDXC cards require special hardware ??

if yes then 3DSi purchase is justified :P
 
Gav47 said:
Why do you need a 32gb card for a 3DS?
Click to expand...

Because starting in August you can get NSMB2 FULL RETAIL GAME for download and going forward Nintendo will start putting(and 3rd party to i assume) all their full retail games on Eshop. You gonna need a bigger card son.
 
EvilDick34 said:
Because starting in August you can get NSMB2 FULL RETAIL GAME for download and going forward Nintendo will start putting(and 3rd party to i assume) all their full retail games on Eshop. You gonna need a bigger card son.
Click to expand...

Fuckin A,I thought 32gb was kinda overkill but I hadn't realised SD card prices had dropped so much.
 
chickdigger802 said:
With the talk of retail games on DD, I guess it's time to upgrade my 3ds card?

I believe they can go up to 32gb right? Which is the best card in terms of speed/price?


How big are 3ds games?
Click to expand...

Currently the biggest are 2GB I believe(at retail, or is it 4? Not sure). Of course that maximum will increase over the course of the systems life. DD versions should be smaller I imagine though.
 
Gav47 said:
Fuckin A,I thought 32gb was kinda overkill but I hadn't realised SD card prices had dropped so much.
Click to expand...
Yeah, even with just regular eShop titles the price of 32gb cards can easily make it a "why not?" proposition. Especially since as generic media you can just get a reader for PC and temporarily pull it out for USB stick-type purposes as needed.
 
Instro said:
Currently the biggest are 2GB I believe(at retail, or is it 4? Not sure). Of course that maximum will increase over the course of the systems life. DD versions should be smaller I imagine though.
Click to expand...

Where's that thread....
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=456554

There are apparently four games that use a 4GB card, which is currently the largest size. 512MB is the most common.


I bought a 16GB c10 for my 3DS a few weeks ago; I'm still a bit of a traditionalist, so I will likely only go the digital route for games that will benefit greatly from it. Stuff like Animal Crossing, basically.
 
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