With the Nintendo Switch only having 32GB of internal storage, you’ll want to get a Micro SD card to supplement your digital downloads, but which one do you buy? We’ve rounded up eight of the best Micro SD cards on the market to steer you in the right direction.
What Micro SD cards to look out for
The Nintendo Switch supports cards up to two terabytes and Nintendo recommends a UHS-I (Ultra High Speed) Micro SD solution for the system. Also abbreviated UHS-1, the cards hit minimum write speeds of 10MB/s. While UHS-3 cards are faster, which write at a minimum of 30MB/s, the speed difference between the two types of cards is negligible when it comes to booting games. From our tests, we noticed a memory bottleneck. This means that, for the Switch, you shouldn’t feel the need to pay the extra premium for more expensive UHS-3 cards, as it will not improve boot times.
Aside from making sure you get a UHS-1 Micro SD solution, you should focus on getting enough storage for your needs and pay attention to price per gigabyte. We’ve ranked the Micro SD cards accordingly in our gallery here.
Testing Methodology
To test the Micro SD cards, we downloaded The King of Fighters ‘98 onto all eight of our cards and performed a boot test to see how fast each card loaded the game. As you’ll see in the following slides, performance across all cards is largely the same.
SanDisk Ultra 64GB microSDXC UHS-I Card
Size: 64GB
Street price: $21.99
Price per gigabyte: 34 cents
Advertised speed: Up to 80 MB/s transfer speed
Game boot time: 9.9 seconds
SanDisk’s Ultra 64GB solution here represents not only the best 64GB deal, but the best price per gigabyte value in our roundup. If you’re likely to purchase physical copies of games and think 64GB of storage is enough to supplement your purchasing habits, this is the card we would recommend given its current street price.
Lexar 128GB 633x microSDXC UHS-1
Size: 128GB
Street price: $44.95
Price per gigabyte: 35 cents
Advertised speed: Up to 95MB/s read, 20MB/s write
Game boot time: 10.1 seconds
If you plan on purchasing many of your games digitally and think that 64GB of storage is not enough, then you should look to Lexar’s 128GB solution. It represents the second best price per gigabyte value in our lineup and is the most affordable 128GB card we’ve tested.
SanDisk Ultra 200GB microSDXC UHS-I card
Size: 200GB
Street price: $72.99
Price per gigabyte: 36 cents
Advertised speed: Up to 90MB/s read
Game boot time: 9.8 seconds
If you think 128GB still isn’t enough, we’d recommend SanDisk’s 200GB card here. It still offers a great price per gigabyte value at 36 cents and gives you a bunch of storage.
PNY Elite 128GB
Size: 128GB
Street price: $47.99
Price per gigabyte: 37 cents
Advertised speed: Up to 85MB/s Read speed
Game boot time: 10.1 seconds
The PNY Elite 128GB Micro SD card is a good, relatively capacious solution, but it currently retails for slightly more than Lexar’s 128GB offering. If you can find it for less, however, go for it.
Samsung Evo Plus 256GB
Size: 256GB
Street price: $129.99
Price per gigabyte: 50 cents
Advertised speed: Up to 95MB/s read, 90MB/s write
Game boot time: 9.9 seconds
If you plan on purchasing most, if not all, of your games digitally and want a ton of storage, Samsung 256GB solution here may pique your interest. It’s the most capacious card that we’ve tested, though it isn’t super cheap retailing for around $130.
With its fast advertised read and write speeds, it may be better suited for high-resolution video cameras.
Kingston Technologies 64GB SDCAC
Size: 64GB
Street price: $38.53
Price per gigabyte: 59 cents
Advertised speed: up to 90MB/s read, 45MB/s write
Game boot time: 9.9 seconds
At its current street price, Kingston’s 64GB SDCAC card is a tough sell. Its 59 cent price per gigabyte value isn’t particularly good, and you can find 64GB solutions from SanDisk and Lexar for less. As it is a fast UHS-3 speed card, it’s perhaps more fit for high-end video cameras.
Kingston Technologies 64GB SDCG
Size: 64GB
Street price: $45.99
Price per gigabyte: 71 cents
Advertised speed: Up to 90MB/s read, 45MB/s write
Game boot time: 10.1 seconds
Kingston’s 64GB SDCG variant is a card that we can’t recommend given its current price. It cost roughly double SanDisk’s 64GB solution.
ADATA 64GB UHS-I (3) microSDXC card
Size: 64GB
Street price: $49.49
Price per gigabyte: 77 cents
Advertised speed: Up to 95MB/s read, 90MB/s write
Game boot time: 9.9 seconds
ADATA’s 64GB offering here may make it a compelling card for high-resolution video cameras with its advertised speeds, but its performance benefits are lost on the Switch. We can’t recommend it for Nintendo's console given its current street price.
Conclusion
| SanDisk Ultra 64GB microSDXC UHS-I Card | Lexar 128GB 633x microSDXC UHS-1 | SanDisk Ultra 200GB microSDXC UHS-I card | PNY Elite 128GB | Samsung Evo Plus 256GB | Kingston Technologies 64GB SDCAC | Kingston Technologies 64GB SDCG | ADATA 64GB UHS-I (3) microSDXC card | |
| Size | 64GB | 128GB | 200GB | 128GB | 256GB | 64GB | 64GB | 64GB |
| Street price | $21.99 | $44.95 | $72.99 | $47.99 | $129.99 | $38.53 | $45.99 | $49.49 |
| Price per GB (less is better) | 34 cents | 35 cents | 36 cents | 37 cents | 50 cents | 59 cents | 71 cents | 77 cents |
| Advertised speed (higher is better) | Up to 80 MB/s transfer speed | Up to 95MB/s read, 20MB/s write | Up to 90MB/s read, write speed lower | Up to 85MB/s Read speed | Up to 95MB/s read, 90MB/s write | up to 90MB/s read, 45MB/s write | Up to 90MB/s read, 45MB/s write | Up to 95MB/s read, 90MB/s write |
| Game boot time (less is better) | 9.9 seconds | 10.1 seconds | 9.8 seconds | 10.1 seconds | 9.9 seconds | 9.9 seconds | 10.1 seconds | 9.9 seconds |
Price listed reflect time of print.
In short, here are the cards we recommend given their respective sizes.
64GB: SanDisk Ultra 64GB microSDXC UHS-I Card
128GB: Lexar 128GB 633x microSDXC UHS-1
200GB: SanDisk Ultra 200GB microSDXC UHS-I card
256GB: Samsung Evo Plus 256GB
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