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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?
 
F

fernoca

Member
-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.
 
S

Salsa

Member
kingston_logo.jpg
 
P

Poyunch

Member
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
 
D

dallow_bg

nods at old men
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.
 
gar3

gar3

Member
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.
 
L

Luigiv

Member
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.
 
R

rpmurphy

Member
Is reliability any different between the major brands? Like the cards having trouble reading sometimes or chances of getting fried in bad situations.
 
E

Eusis

Member
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.
 
M

milsorgen

Banned
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.
 
S

sfried

Member
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)?
 
N

nintendors

Member
so the million dollar Qs is....does reading SDXC cards require special hardware ??

if yes then 3DSi purchase is justified :p
 
E

EvilDick34

Banned
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.
 
G

Gav47

Member
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.
 
I

Instro

Member
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.
 
E

Eusis

Member
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.
 
Z

zroid

Banned
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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