The A1 / A2 application class ratings are a little more complicated than you make them out to be here, I was mistaken on this myself for years but it's not simply a matter of labelling the binning of the IO performance of the flash in a particular card but actually denotes the use of write caching and command queuing to guarantee those minimum IO ops. No 'A' rating then no support baked into that card for these techniques to boost random IO performance. A1 cards actually have a tiny controller chip and a bit of cache ram embedded in it to handle these tasks so theoretically sees the benefit in any device you throw it into, meanwhile A2 cards make use of bigger caches and longer queues but to do so relies on the host device being able to handle a lot of that which requires that the card reader in use be compatible with the SD 6.0 spec AND that the host operating system has proper software support for it. Most card readers manufactured in the past few years should be fine as IIRC the SD 6.0 spec came out in 2017, but from what I've read there's still a bit of confusion as to whether the Steam Deck has the proper host software support in the operating system (yet). Apparently patches do exist adding proper support to Linux but they haven't quite made it into the stable kernel releases just yet, but if what I've read is correct then they are slated to be fairly soon.
So in other words, the jury is still out on whether or not an A2 class card is fully utilized by the Steam Deck? If I get a Steam Deck, I'll probably go for the ONN 256GB micro SD card. It is an A1 card, but I've used them in my Raspberry Pi's and Nintendo Switches and they don't do too bad. I remember seeing some benchmarks on the card compared to others and it scores pretty closely to a SanDisk Extreme of equal class.
@@mamaharumi To find out, one with a Steam Deck would have to run a benchmark on them to see if it's utilizing the extra cache of the A2. KDiskMark is the Linux version of CrystalDiskMark and can be downloaded as an appimage on the Steam Deck. Either way, an A1 card's IOPs are way better than a conventional hard drive as well as the access times. So an SD card is great for storing games that were made when hard drives were still the common storage option, as performance more than likely won't be gained from having them on the SSD, and the loading times will still be better than that of a hard drive. A good A1 card is cheaper than an A2 (typically), and shouldn't be skipped if you are budget conscious.
Thanks for making a separate video on this, this is by far the most important information for people like me coming from a Switch background. The A1 vs A2 is something I didn't know about, or didn't care given it doesn't matter for the Switch, so hats off for that 🎩
@@specialorder9379 Well since it’s switch many games are lower in file size…128gb plus the 64gb internal works just fine for me. Now on my deck I plan on getting a 512 or 1tb card.
Exactly the kind of info I've been looking for. Googling for "Steam Deck SD card" results in many articles listing supposedly good SD cards, but very few care to mention *why*. Very good info here.
So, I liked that smash button, as you said :) Thanks for the info... it will be useful in q4 when I get that mail from Valve. Keep up the Deck news and info coming in the mean time !
I've got an UHS-1 U3 A1 card (Integral Ultima Pro 512GB) and it seems quick enough to me to load games on my Deck. It would be interesting to know how much faster A2 vs a closest equivalent A1 card is on the Deck. I got my card new for £29, so am quite happy with A1's performance at that price.
Thought I was hearing things till I rewound it. Had to do the same to Mr. Sujano who says "like this video leave a like, don't like this video leave a like" :)
The EvoPlus by Samsung also is great same specs as the Select that you recommended and with the price when it goes on sale for the 512GB you can’t go wrong. My deck arrives tomorrow and I’m ready to go!!!
Evo Plus isn't made by Samsung any more and was replaced by the Select line. They're good cards if you can find a genuine one, but most now are either counterfeit and/or extremely over priced.
Say I was going to buy one on Amazon for dirt on sale right now but I hear a lot of bad things about them so I think I’m going to just stick with the SanDisk
@@erikedward283 Don't buy SD cards from Amazon or eBay, they're almost all counterfeit. I've been buying all mine directly from the Samsung website. I was able to get a 256GB Pro Plus with reader for $27.
Hey, thanks for the video. My Steam Deck is on the horizon, and I've been looking into a mico SD card for mine. Figured a 512GB one would be good, gives me 1TB total. Had you not posted this video today, I would have bought a less then great card. I know to avoid scams and stuff, but I didn't know what the various icons and numbers meant, so thanks for getting me out of a less then ideal situation!
It should be noted that the Evo Select card is branded the Evo Plus on places other than Amazon. It's the one I bought and it's weirdly validating to see you recommend it.
Ha, I was just wondering if there was any difference since the specs are identical ^^ Also wondering whether SanDisk is just overpriced or Samsung a lot worse than SanDisk? The SanDisk Extreme Plus 256 GB is 45 EUR compared to the Samsung Evo Plus 256 GB being sold for 25 EUR at a local retailer near me... 🤔
Don't know if I was just unlucky but I had to return 2 512GB Evo Selects to Amazon as they were a *very* tight fit for the Steam Deck (and Switch Lite's) SD card slot. I had to remove the first one from my Deck with tweezers as it wouldn't trigger the spring mechanism. I tried the replacement in my switch lite and it was also very tight. I have had no such problems with the EVO Plus. It may have just been a bad batch, but I'm sticking to EVO Plus's for now.
There is also a big price difference for me. The evo plus 512GB costs 52€ while the evo select costs 73€. The Samsung pro plus UHS-I U3 A2 looks like it's faster, but it costs 70€. So not sure if the steam deck even can take advantage of the 160MB read speed.
Is it a great idea to buy a 64gb steam deck and use a A1 1 Tb sd card and does it sill work fine and please tell me if there were any problems with the sd card
I know your comment is a year ago but no, definitely don't buy the smallest edition. You can open it up and change the storage size but that's if you are willing to do that. Or play it safe and just get a 1tb, then get a 1tb SD to make it a 2TB, store plenty of games on the go and you never had to open it up
FYI for people buying now, you do not need to spend the extra to get an A2 card, Steam OS does not support it so you will be getting possibly LESS performance on A2 than A1 due to the missing controller. Steam themselves sent out A1 SD cards for testing purposes to reviewers, because this would give the best performance and show off the deck in the best light.
@@SesshomaruSama15 but do you know if there is a significant difference while downloading or transferring games between between the sandisk ultra and extreme?or it's about the same.I honestly don't wanna waste my money on the extreme if it's not needed,i will reather buy the ultra 1tb
The Samsung Select Evo is A2 and is the highest performing card on the steam deck from at least 1 tester I've seen. If I'm not mistaken it's simply an OS update away from supporting A2, regardless it's not like it's gonna save much if any money to go A1 anyway. But thanks for the warning.
Yes! We all need to fight flash fraud - at least by forcing returns and refunds whenever we get a fake card Though apparently the Steam Deck performs these checks now during the initial formatting
Well done. Like you I went with the 1 TB SanDisk Extreme for my Steam Deck. I was able to get it on Amazon during their Prime sale and got it for $99.99. I have at it for almost a year now and have had zero problems with it. I also have to give credit to Valve for placing the micro SD slot away from the hotter parts of the system. It was just very well designed from the get go. Actually as of 3/3/24 it is on sale for $97.99 on Amazon. It is a great value for the storage size.
I actually already had a 1TB 2230 gen3 ssd out of my laptop that supported gen 4 but was $300 cheaper when I bought it to get gen 3 so I upgraded it myself to gen 4 after buying it. Wow that was a word salad if I ever... Funny thing is it already had a copy of win 11 on it from when it was in my laptop and low and behold it actually booted in the steam deck. It did take some updating to get the controls and what not to function correctly but I did play around with win 11 on my steam deck a while before ultimately erasing and installing steam OS. Anyway although I had the 1TB ssd installed and working great on the steam deck I still ended up buying a 512gb SD just for emulators/ROMs and extra storage for games that aren't too demanding. This video helped me make up my mind on which one to get so I wanted to say Thank You Gardiner for this in-depth explanation of SD card types. Now I've just got to wait a few days to get it and install all my emulators from my PC to it.
Awesome guide Gardiner! I have the Samsung Evo Plus 512GB (SDXC I, Class 3, A2, V30), I don't really know the difference between "Plus" and "Select" But it has been working fantastically. Honestly, most of the times I don't find it too different from an SSD. Loading times are incredibly quick. and it was in fact the cheapest 512GB card on the Swedish market. My brother tried out Witcher 3. Which he is very accustomed to on his powerful PC (with over 250 hours played) and he didn't even consider it being less than SSD speed during several fast travels across the map.
Not really the same. Samsung Evo Select has a read speed of 130MB/s and the Plus one has 160MB/s. Both are available on Amazon in Europe at almost the same price if the pro one is discounted.
@@spielerversumSamsung lists the speed of the Plus as "up to 130 MB/s" on their website. There's also a screenshot of a Samsung sales representative saying there's no difference between the two. I'll agree it's not the strongest of evidence, but it's stronger than any evidence to the contrary I've seen.
Just got my Deck a few days ago and this was very helpful! Thx! I’ve subbed. Oh and the Deck is so awesome. I’m a noob to a lot of the tinkering yet within 4 hours of having it in my hands I had two 3rd party launchers and Chiaki up and running. It is so easy to use and get used to. Love it.
If I can’t see benchmarks between A1 and A2 I’m not inclined to believe the Steam Deck can actually benefit from A2. Edit - Well I did some more research and found that A2 requires supporting drivers to achieve it’s advertised speeds. If the supporting drivers don’t exist on the device it is being used in then A2 cards could run slower than A1 cards. I found nothing to confirm that SteamOS supports A2. It might in the future, but if they had that now I’m sure they’d actually advertise it. I also read that the Steam Decks sent out to influencers to review had A1 cards in them from Valve. Valve obviously would want the Steam Deck to perform at its absolute best for reviewers and they sent A1 cards, so I can safely assume A1 perform better than A2 cards on the Steam Deck. Another thing staring us in the face is all users saying they can’t tell a difference between the SSD and the micro SD card in loading times. As a long time PC enthusiast I know that SSDs are way faster than any micro SD card in every way. The only reason the Steam Deck has similar loading times on both the SSD and micro SD card is because there is a bottleneck somewhere in the rest of the hardware. What I’m getting at is if people can’t tell the difference between the SSD and micro SD card then people most certainly won’t be able to tell the difference between using A1 or A2 micro SD cards on the Steam Deck. Even if/when A2 micro SD cards are fully supported on the Steam Deck they won’t outperform the SSD. If they allow you to boot from the SD card in the future I could see a benefit to A2 for running an operating system like Windows on it. Right now the SD card is just for just storing and reading game files with very little need to write. I don’t think A2 will be any better than A1 in this use case. My conclusion is that everyone should save some money and just get the Sandisk Extreme 1TB A1 card instead of A2. This video was misleading.
I have the exact same micro sd card as 1:49 except mine is 2tb. Yet I CANNOT format it on my steam deck for the life of me. When I click to format it goes from saying "testing" to "rescuing" then hits me with an error saying "the microsd card failed validation tests and cannot be formatted". The same microsd card works just fine on switch when I tried after the deck. Any ideas on what the issue can be?
stema deck can use max UHS-I , I have Samsung Evo Plus 512GB, UHS-I (Class 10) also A2 V30 and I did not noticed difference between sd card and ssd at least not nothing noticeable
Can I put my MicroSD card in my computer, download the game from my computer to the card, then put the card in my Steamdeck? Will the games be good to play?
So basically, your recommendation is to take the crème de la crème, which is also the most expensive choice. So in a sense, you can't be wrong saying this would give us the best performance for our steam deck. The question is : do you need it ? For instance, I'm using a 512 Go SDXC 1 U1 A1, which is considerabely more affordable, and SPOILERS : it works like a charm. I'm able to get games like Resident Evil Village running without any disturbances, so... I'm not really convinced I should upgrade my SD card to U3 A2, for now at least.
what you recommended is actually more expensive than both options he mentioned for equivalent sizes. samsung was 58$ for 512gb, sandisk 79$ for 512gb. Yours? 89$ for 512. oof.
Isn't the SD slot on the Steam Deck really old and only supports 100mb/s? So any amount of read/write speed above that would be a waste? If the $20 SanDisk and the $200 SanDisk both give the same final results, then why pay $180 extra?
Yeah, that what I read. I mean a faster card may be of benefit if you are transferring files from your PC but when it comes to actual gameplay I cant see why a faster card would be of benefit when the steam decks card slot read speed is 100mbps max. Which means a sandisk ultra over 64GB capacity 32gb card is slower) gives over 120mbps read speed. So why spend more on an extreme, extreme pro etc.
Don't cheap out on the microSD card for your Steam Deck or you'll regret it. I got the 1TB Sandisk Extreme U3 A2 microSD card and it runs/loads the games on my Steam Deck quite fast! You might think you only need fast read speeds but you also need fast write speeds if you want to download/install tons of games on the SD card fast. I have a decent Internet connection and I downloaded & installed approx. 500GB+ of games on my Steam Deck in less than 2 hours. If I was using a slow write microSD card.. that will take much longer.
Thanks for the video. I'm actually getting myself a Steam deck for the first time. So watching this video helped me figure out what sd card I wanna get. I'll be getting either a 1Tb if it's in stores. If not, then the 512GB.
I have a SD oled 1TB + the docker on its way, it should arrive next week. I have already a case, screen protector and an extra travel bag by Spigen at home. I ordered 2 x 1TB of those sandisk extreme microSD cards you mention in the video. I found them at a good price locally and that's why I bought 2 of them. Some recent titles and collections (and some older too, looking at you Halo MCC) are crazy big, but it should be enough storage for most of my Steam games + emulation with Emudeck/Batocera when on the go. Idk how smooth is to swap between microSD cards, does Steam update the library right away or is some tinkering needed?
I just got the samsung evo 256gb and it wont work on my steam deck. Attempting to format the card gives me a message saying that it failed the format, almost bricking it. Inserting it into a pc gives an error saying directory is invalid. With some command prompt fumbling i was able to make it usable again on both the pc and nintendo switch but attempting a format again on the steam deck just bricks it again. Am i doing anything wrong?
I got the 2nd SD card you recommended before I even watched the video. I'm glad I bought the exact card that's decent because I thought I bought the wrong one. SanDisk A2 V30 XC1
I'm ready to pull the trigger and get the Deck... but am waiting on a review of the AYN Loki. Either way this is super valuable info and thanks for the links as well
My best SD card recommendation wait till Amazon prime day basically a month from now for the absolute best SD card deals. Prices basically are halved you could probably get 1tb from SanDisk for 30-50$ and that's good enough
@@kaemelezzine1827 As long as they're buying from sandisk officially there's no risk, 400gb sd cards have dropped as low as 35$ and the 1tb card dropped to 68$ yesterday. Of course I might have overestimated the sales a bit, I think they will be hovering around 60-70$ P.S I am talking about the A1 cards since they're cheaper and the jury is out on whether A2 actually does anything for the steam deck
I notice there are 2tb cards on Amazon but just different brands like I saw one from Lenovo. Is there a reason these are not good? Or do you just prefer only SanDisk or Samsung brands? Just realized this video is a year old so new question do you still recommend those for the steamdeck OLED a year later 😂😅
I have a 128 gb sd card that isn't being used so i can just use that when my steam deck comes in the mail I know its ot alot but it has a base storage of 512 gb and i doubt im gonna go over that anyways, but if i do im definitely gonna look into that samsung 512 gb option should my switch still require the sd card that it is using
I have a question I hope someone can help with. I have a windows PC. I am trying to put my roms on an SD card but when I put that card into the steam deck it does not work. It wants me to format the card. When I format the card it deletes all of the roms. When I insert that formated card back into my windows PC it no longer reads the card. How do I fix this?
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Samsung Evo Select: amzn.to/3PgjRZA
SanDisk Extreme: amzn.to/3QH0U22
Other Steam Deck accessories: amzn.to/3qLrxbh
"Like that smash button"
Bro💀💀💀
Why not subscribe to that hit button while you’re at it.
2:34
My man said "why not like that smash button" 2:34
Me: huh? LOL
The A1 / A2 application class ratings are a little more complicated than you make them out to be here, I was mistaken on this myself for years but it's not simply a matter of labelling the binning of the IO performance of the flash in a particular card but actually denotes the use of write caching and command queuing to guarantee those minimum IO ops. No 'A' rating then no support baked into that card for these techniques to boost random IO performance. A1 cards actually have a tiny controller chip and a bit of cache ram embedded in it to handle these tasks so theoretically sees the benefit in any device you throw it into, meanwhile A2 cards make use of bigger caches and longer queues but to do so relies on the host device being able to handle a lot of that which requires that the card reader in use be compatible with the SD 6.0 spec AND that the host operating system has proper software support for it. Most card readers manufactured in the past few years should be fine as IIRC the SD 6.0 spec came out in 2017, but from what I've read there's still a bit of confusion as to whether the Steam Deck has the proper host software support in the operating system (yet). Apparently patches do exist adding proper support to Linux but they haven't quite made it into the stable kernel releases just yet, but if what I've read is correct then they are slated to be fairly soon.
So in other words, the jury is still out on whether or not an A2 class card is fully utilized by the Steam Deck? If I get a Steam Deck, I'll probably go for the ONN 256GB micro SD card. It is an A1 card, but I've used them in my Raspberry Pi's and Nintendo Switches and they don't do too bad. I remember seeing some benchmarks on the card compared to others and it scores pretty closely to a SanDisk Extreme of equal class.
Even if the device can't use the full potential of the A2 cards, are they performing any worse than an A1? or is it the same or better?
@@mamaharumi To find out, one with a Steam Deck would have to run a benchmark on them to see if it's utilizing the extra cache of the A2. KDiskMark is the Linux version of CrystalDiskMark and can be downloaded as an appimage on the Steam Deck. Either way, an A1 card's IOPs are way better than a conventional hard drive as well as the access times. So an SD card is great for storing games that were made when hard drives were still the common storage option, as performance more than likely won't be gained from having them on the SSD, and the loading times will still be better than that of a hard drive. A good A1 card is cheaper than an A2 (typically), and shouldn't be skipped if you are budget conscious.
Great comment. Thanks
Neat
Thanks for making a separate video on this, this is by far the most important information for people like me coming from a Switch background. The A1 vs A2 is something I didn't know about, or didn't care given it doesn't matter for the Switch, so hats off for that 🎩
Been using a 1tb sandisk extreme since day 1, great loading time performance on all of my games. No regrets!
How many games can you typically store on your switch with a 1TB card? I’m thinking about getting one.
@@specialorder9379 9 GTA 5 games at 100+GB size a game. OR 50+ indies.
Answer depends on game size.
I bought the same one I usually only buy these for whatever I need they may be pricey but they're really good cards
Steam deck will cap reada at 100MB/s ultra and extreme will perform the same but write speed is the difference.
@@specialorder9379 Well since it’s switch many games are lower in file size…128gb plus the 64gb internal works just fine for me. Now on my deck I plan on getting a 512 or 1tb card.
Exactly the kind of info I've been looking for. Googling for "Steam Deck SD card" results in many articles listing supposedly good SD cards, but very few care to mention *why*. Very good info here.
Agree, when I see many many options I just think ahh must be an company promoted themselves
Hi which one ?
1 samsung ?
2 extreme ?
Thanks
So, I liked that smash button, as you said :) Thanks for the info... it will be useful in q4 when I get that mail from Valve. Keep up the Deck news and info coming in the mean time !
Noticed "like that smash button" too xD
you have to like the smash button always... it's a must!
Unable to find that smash button 🤐
Men of culture here 😏
I was just searching for that comment :D
I've got an UHS-1 U3 A1 card (Integral Ultima Pro 512GB) and it seems quick enough to me to load games on my Deck. It would be interesting to know how much faster A2 vs a closest equivalent A1 card is on the Deck. I got my card new for £29, so am quite happy with A1's performance at that price.
where'd you get 512gb for so cheap?
the main difference is in game installation. Loading games, not so much
Did he just say "Like that smash button" ??
Lol🤣🤣🤣 this is perfect 👌
Thought I was hearing things till I rewound it. Had to do the same to Mr. Sujano who says "like this video leave a like, don't like this video leave a like" :)
I can't find the smash button. Where is it?
The EvoPlus by Samsung also is great same specs as the Select that you recommended and with the price when it goes on sale for the 512GB you can’t go wrong. My deck arrives tomorrow and I’m ready to go!!!
Good choice in SD
Not good id dies often
Evo Plus isn't made by Samsung any more and was replaced by the Select line. They're good cards if you can find a genuine one, but most now are either counterfeit and/or extremely over priced.
Say I was going to buy one on Amazon for dirt on sale right now but I hear a lot of bad things about them so I think I’m going to just stick with the SanDisk
@@erikedward283 Don't buy SD cards from Amazon or eBay, they're almost all counterfeit. I've been buying all mine directly from the Samsung website. I was able to get a 256GB Pro Plus with reader for $27.
Awesome presentation, easy to understand. Picked up a 512gb card using your link. I'm surprised you don't have 500K subs. Subscribed.
Hey, thanks for the video. My Steam Deck is on the horizon, and I've been looking into a mico SD card for mine. Figured a 512GB one would be good, gives me 1TB total. Had you not posted this video today, I would have bought a less then great card. I know to avoid scams and stuff, but I didn't know what the various icons and numbers meant, so thanks for getting me out of a less then ideal situation!
It should be noted that the Evo Select card is branded the Evo Plus on places other than Amazon.
It's the one I bought and it's weirdly validating to see you recommend it.
Ha, I was just wondering if there was any difference since the specs are identical ^^
Also wondering whether SanDisk is just overpriced or Samsung a lot worse than SanDisk?
The SanDisk Extreme Plus 256 GB is 45 EUR compared to the Samsung Evo Plus 256 GB being sold for 25 EUR at a local retailer near me...
🤔
Don't know if I was just unlucky but I had to return 2 512GB Evo Selects to Amazon as they were a *very* tight fit for the Steam Deck (and Switch Lite's) SD card slot. I had to remove the first one from my Deck with tweezers as it wouldn't trigger the spring mechanism. I tried the replacement in my switch lite and it was also very tight. I have had no such problems with the EVO Plus. It may have just been a bad batch, but I'm sticking to EVO Plus's for now.
There is also a big price difference for me. The evo plus 512GB costs 52€ while the evo select costs 73€. The Samsung pro plus UHS-I U3 A2 looks like it's faster, but it costs 70€. So not sure if the steam deck even can take advantage of the 160MB read speed.
"Like that smash button", lololololol. It only sounded normal to me because I am dyslexic as a mofo
I use an A1 1 TB SanDisk and it works perfectly on my Steam Deck. GTA V runs nice and smooth, and PS3 and PS2 games work exceptionally well.
Is it a great idea to buy a 64gb steam deck and use a A1 1 Tb sd card and does it sill work fine and please tell me if there were any problems with the sd card
I know your comment is a year ago but no, definitely don't buy the smallest edition. You can open it up and change the storage size but that's if you are willing to do that. Or play it safe and just get a 1tb, then get a 1tb SD to make it a 2TB, store plenty of games on the go and you never had to open it up
FYI for people buying now, you do not need to spend the extra to get an A2 card, Steam OS does not support it so you will be getting possibly LESS performance on A2 than A1 due to the missing controller. Steam themselves sent out A1 SD cards for testing purposes to reviewers, because this would give the best performance and show off the deck in the best light.
Any source available?
@@Dozerboy84 just look at more current NON MAY videos. the 1tb one thats 130$ is working more than fine for all my people
@@SesshomaruSama15 but do you know if there is a significant difference while downloading or transferring games between between the sandisk ultra and extreme?or it's about the same.I honestly don't wanna waste my money on the extreme if it's not needed,i will reather buy the ultra 1tb
The Samsung Select Evo is A2 and is the highest performing card on the steam deck from at least 1 tester I've seen. If I'm not mistaken it's simply an OS update away from supporting A2, regardless it's not like it's gonna save much if any money to go A1 anyway. But thanks for the warning.
@@Joker-yu5kp hey homie ive been using my deck no stop and if anything downloading is slower on the SSD honestly. Its not noticable if its there
The f3 tool lets you test if the device is correctly size and not some dodgy firmware. Also it will give a real life read/write speed test.
Yes! We all need to fight flash fraud - at least by forcing returns and refunds whenever we get a fake card
Though apparently the Steam Deck performs these checks now during the initial formatting
Well done. Like you I went with the 1 TB SanDisk Extreme for my Steam Deck. I was able to get it on Amazon during their Prime sale and got it for $99.99. I have at it for almost a year now and have had zero problems with it. I also have to give credit to Valve for placing the micro SD slot away from the hotter parts of the system. It was just very well designed from the get go. Actually as of 3/3/24 it is on sale for $97.99 on Amazon. It is a great value for the storage size.
2:35 Hmm... "like that smash button", are you sure you meant to post this on youtube and not tinder?
I actually already had a 1TB 2230 gen3 ssd out of my laptop that supported gen 4 but was $300 cheaper when I bought it to get gen 3 so I upgraded it myself to gen 4 after buying it. Wow that was a word salad if I ever... Funny thing is it already had a copy of win 11 on it from when it was in my laptop and low and behold it actually booted in the steam deck. It did take some updating to get the controls and what not to function correctly but I did play around with win 11 on my steam deck a while before ultimately erasing and installing steam OS. Anyway although I had the 1TB ssd installed and working great on the steam deck I still ended up buying a 512gb SD just for emulators/ROMs and extra storage for games that aren't too demanding. This video helped me make up my mind on which one to get so I wanted to say Thank You Gardiner for this in-depth explanation of SD card types. Now I've just got to wait a few days to get it and install all my emulators from my PC to it.
I bought a Samsung Evo 512GB when I got my Deck and it’s been great.
2:34 I just liked that smash button! Great video.
"Like that smash button" when I heard that the first time I was so lit and I thought I was hearing things loll (Thank you for the sd recommendation
I bought a Samsung PRO Plus 512GB for my steam deck and the read write speeds were excellent
have one coming on Wednesday. do you notice any difference from games running on the Deck storage vs. the Samsung?
@@boredapathetic it’s tiny
@@SahiPie you’re right, barely noticeable difference in load times, that’s it.
Awesome guide Gardiner! I have the Samsung Evo Plus 512GB (SDXC I, Class 3, A2, V30), I don't really know the difference between "Plus" and "Select" But it has been working fantastically. Honestly, most of the times I don't find it too different from an SSD. Loading times are incredibly quick. and it was in fact the cheapest 512GB card on the Swedish market. My brother tried out Witcher 3. Which he is very accustomed to on his powerful PC (with over 250 hours played) and he didn't even consider it being less than SSD speed during several fast travels across the map.
They're the same card with different branding. It seems Select is a brand specifically for Amazon.
@@jasper265 Ah! That explains a lot. Well, not a fan of Amazon here in Sweden, I try to avoid it like the plague. :D
Not really the same. Samsung Evo Select has a read speed of 130MB/s and the Plus one has 160MB/s. Both are available on Amazon in Europe at almost the same price if the pro one is discounted.
@@spielerversumSamsung lists the speed of the Plus as "up to 130 MB/s" on their website. There's also a screenshot of a Samsung sales representative saying there's no difference between the two. I'll agree it's not the strongest of evidence, but it's stronger than any evidence to the contrary I've seen.
@@jasper265 I must apologize. I meant the Samsung Pro Plus. All those names are too similar 😅
Just ordered the Evo Select from your link. It is on sale atm for $39.99. Thank you for keeping us informed!.SBD.
just got two of them now
2:50 If your card does not have an A rating, it is not guaranteed to meet A1 specs, though it wouldnt be much lower
Just got my Deck a few days ago and this was very helpful! Thx! I’ve subbed.
Oh and the Deck is so awesome. I’m a noob to a lot of the tinkering yet within 4 hours of having it in my hands I had two 3rd party launchers and Chiaki up and running. It is so easy to use and get used to. Love it.
chiaki?
@@joshc7765 it’s 3rd party software that basically acts as an app for PS4/5 remote play. Takes a bit of set up but works great!
You said the title of the video, nice touch.
If I can’t see benchmarks between A1 and A2 I’m not inclined to believe the Steam Deck can actually benefit from A2.
Edit - Well I did some more research and found that A2 requires supporting drivers to achieve it’s advertised speeds. If the supporting drivers don’t exist on the device it is being used in then A2 cards could run slower than A1 cards. I found nothing to confirm that SteamOS supports A2. It might in the future, but if they had that now I’m sure they’d actually advertise it. I also read that the Steam Decks sent out to influencers to review had A1 cards in them from Valve. Valve obviously would want the Steam Deck to perform at its absolute best for reviewers and they sent A1 cards, so I can safely assume A1 perform better than A2 cards on the Steam Deck.
Another thing staring us in the face is all users saying they can’t tell a difference between the SSD and the micro SD card in loading times. As a long time PC enthusiast I know that SSDs are way faster than any micro SD card in every way. The only reason the Steam Deck has similar loading times on both the SSD and micro SD card is because there is a bottleneck somewhere in the rest of the hardware. What I’m getting at is if people can’t tell the difference between the SSD and micro SD card then people most certainly won’t be able to tell the difference between using A1 or A2 micro SD cards on the Steam Deck.
Even if/when A2 micro SD cards are fully supported on the Steam Deck they won’t outperform the SSD. If they allow you to boot from the SD card in the future I could see a benefit to A2 for running an operating system like Windows on it. Right now the SD card is just for just storing and reading game files with very little need to write. I don’t think A2 will be any better than A1 in this use case. My conclusion is that everyone should save some money and just get the Sandisk Extreme 1TB A1 card instead of A2. This video was misleading.
Is SanDisk extreme A1 even a thing? I thought SanDisk's A1 cards were called Ultra.
I have the exact same micro sd card as 1:49 except mine is 2tb. Yet I CANNOT format it on my steam deck for the life of me. When I click to format it goes from saying "testing" to "rescuing" then hits me with an error saying "the microsd card failed validation tests and cannot be formatted". The same microsd card works just fine on switch when I tried after the deck. Any ideas on what the issue can be?
This good for switch too?
Good video, I went ahead and liked the smash button
So I have a questions. The pro model isn’t that much more expensive. Is that worth it over the plus model?
2:34 " like that smash button"
My sandisk extreme A2 V30 always gets an error when formatting. 😢
Apparently the Samsung Evo Select and Evo Plus are the same SD card , so if anyone else was slightly confused I saved you a google search lol
stema deck can use max UHS-I , I have Samsung Evo Plus 512GB, UHS-I (Class 10) also A2 V30 and I did not noticed difference between sd card and ssd at least not nothing noticeable
Can I put my MicroSD card in my computer, download the game from my computer to the card, then put the card in my Steamdeck? Will the games be good to play?
2:34 did he say "Like that smash button"?
So basically, your recommendation is to take the crème de la crème, which is also the most expensive choice. So in a sense, you can't be wrong saying this would give us the best performance for our steam deck. The question is : do you need it ? For instance, I'm using a 512 Go SDXC 1 U1 A1, which is considerabely more affordable, and SPOILERS : it works like a charm. I'm able to get games like Resident Evil Village running without any disturbances, so... I'm not really convinced I should upgrade my SD card to U3 A2, for now at least.
pretty sure U1 is fine, but it should be A1
what you recommended is actually more expensive than both options he mentioned for equivalent sizes. samsung was 58$ for 512gb, sandisk 79$ for 512gb. Yours? 89$ for 512. oof.
Thanks for this, I just bought the same card Sandisk 512 SDXC 1 U1 A1 and thought I bought the wrong one. Guess I'm good.
@@imenhashim6943 Which one you think is the best?
Would the SanDisk ultra 1tb be OK ?
Isn't the SD slot on the Steam Deck really old and only supports 100mb/s?
So any amount of read/write speed above that would be a waste?
If the $20 SanDisk and the $200 SanDisk both give the same final results, then why pay $180 extra?
Yeah, that what I read.
I mean a faster card may be of benefit if you are transferring files from your PC but when it comes to actual gameplay I cant see why a faster card would be of benefit when the steam decks card slot read speed is 100mbps max.
Which means a sandisk ultra over 64GB capacity 32gb card is slower) gives over 120mbps read speed.
So why spend more on an extreme, extreme pro etc.
I was just going to look for THIS INFO to buy one for my Deck and this video came in my recommended. Thanks a lot!
Turns out the 400gb card i got for my raspberry pi that i never used fits these classes perfectly. Thanks younger me.
Hi what is the difference between SanDisk Extreme and SanDisk Extreme Plus?
What’s the difference between the extreme and extreme plus?
can I use it on my PC as a storage source?
I mean, is it like an SSD or something like that?
Don't cheap out on the microSD card for your Steam Deck or you'll regret it. I got the 1TB Sandisk Extreme U3 A2 microSD card and it runs/loads the games on my Steam Deck quite fast! You might think you only need fast read speeds but you also need fast write speeds if you want to download/install tons of games on the SD card fast. I have a decent Internet connection and I downloaded & installed approx. 500GB+ of games on my Steam Deck in less than 2 hours. If I was using a slow write microSD card.. that will take much longer.
Thanks for the video. I'm actually getting myself a Steam deck for the first time. So watching this video helped me figure out what sd card I wanna get. I'll be getting either a 1Tb if it's in stores. If not, then the 512GB.
I have a SD oled 1TB + the docker on its way, it should arrive next week. I have already a case, screen protector and an extra travel bag by Spigen at home.
I ordered 2 x 1TB of those sandisk extreme microSD cards you mention in the video. I found them at a good price locally and that's why I bought 2 of them.
Some recent titles and collections (and some older too, looking at you Halo MCC) are crazy big, but it should be enough storage for most of my Steam games + emulation with Emudeck/Batocera when on the go.
Idk how smooth is to swap between microSD cards, does Steam update the library right away or is some tinkering needed?
What about the sandisk Nintendo switch 1TB sd card? Would that work with the steam deck?
Can you give an associate link for the "updated verison" that is linked on the SanDisk 1TB?
Best explanation about Micro SD and its specifications that I found after a lot of searching. Thank you very much for the information!
So what’s the best one (I like cheap but not at the cost of efficiency) I can buy
Do you think a S10 phone can run games on a Samsung Pro Plus or Evo Select micro sd card?
Where's an A1 vs A2 random i/o benchmark on the steam deck?
#DeckRequests
I just got the samsung evo 256gb and it wont work on my steam deck. Attempting to format the card gives me a message saying that it failed the format, almost bricking it. Inserting it into a pc gives an error saying directory is invalid. With some command prompt fumbling i was able to make it usable again on both the pc and nintendo switch but attempting a format again on the steam deck just bricks it again. Am i doing anything wrong?
Do you think the new 1.5 terabyte a1 card is worth the storage gain despite the speed loss. Could be good new video topic.
Will there be a problem if I use the SanDisk extreme Pro with the same features as the second card you showed instead of SanDisk extreme?
can you maybe tell me if the ''Kingston Technology KC600 - 256 GB'' is a good one for the steam deck ?
Is the scilicon power 1tb worth it? Will it support 1 tb worth of games?
2:34 "Why not like that smash button?" 😂
What about Amazon Basics cards? Are they garbage? And, given the ratings, is the maximum read/write speed important?
Thanks for the great video, if I wanted to run a batocera build on a Sd card do I recommend fat32 or NFTs. Would like to know the reasoning. Thank you
You would flash the batocera iso into an SD card and not worry about the format.
I got a Cafunhe SD card will they be good?
Very helpful video, thanks! I just "liked that smash button"!
I got the 2nd SD card you recommended before I even watched the video. I'm glad I bought the exact card that's decent because I thought I bought the wrong one. SanDisk A2 V30 XC1
I'm ready to pull the trigger and get the Deck... but am waiting on a review of the AYN Loki. Either way this is super valuable info and thanks for the links as well
I bought San disc micro ssd 1tb and. Cant format this cars on my steam deck 👎
thanks! il get the 1tb card. i really think i dont need 1 tb but il take it in case i need more storage (il probably use like 250 gb) used ur link btw
Are there tests for these micro SD?
Have you done testing on A1 vs A2? In theory A2 is faster, but the steamdeck might not be equipped to take advantage of it.
I don’t think he did any testing which is what I was assuming this video would have.
Besides the loading times, are there any cons of using a SD card versus a SSD?
Thx man, bought a Evo Select 512 but wanted that extra confirmation it was worth it.
Just ordered the Samsung Evo 512 GB for $29 on amazon for my steam deck baby that’s on its way lol. Thank you for explaining what everything means.
My best SD card recommendation wait till Amazon prime day basically a month from now for the absolute best SD card deals.
Prices basically are halved you could probably get 1tb from SanDisk for 30-50$ and that's good enough
1tb for 50 bucks sure will be fake. ! Buyers beware. Even at Prime sales. They don't go that low.
@@kaemelezzine1827 As long as they're buying from sandisk officially there's no risk, 400gb sd cards have dropped as low as 35$ and the 1tb card dropped to 68$ yesterday.
Of course I might have overestimated the sales a bit, I think they will be hovering around 60-70$
P.S I am talking about the A1 cards since they're cheaper and the jury is out on whether A2 actually does anything for the steam deck
Prime day, cheapest legitimate 1TB: SanDisk A1 for $110 - that didn't age well
@@nate6862 you're right, still I ended up snagging that 109$ 1tb sd card lol
Just have, got the Samsung Evo Select 512gb for £35 ! Now just to wait for my Q3 Deck slot
Can I use a 1tb switch SD card on my Steam deck
The evo select won't download fast for me. I tried everything.
I notice there are 2tb cards on Amazon but just different brands like I saw one from Lenovo. Is there a reason these are not good? Or do you just prefer only SanDisk or Samsung brands? Just realized this video is a year old so new question do you still recommend those for the steamdeck OLED a year later 😂😅
I got a Sandisc SDXC 1 1tb U1. I didn’t know about the U3 speck. It’ll still work right, but just slower?
I just ordered the 64GB Steam Deck and after watching your video, the 1 TB card from your link.
Which one better? Sandisk extreme or Lexar 633?
I've had better luck with SanDisk
There are now 2tb cards. Which one should I get? 1tb or 2tb
So you could say it's the same if I decide to get a 512gb ssd or a 512gb micro sd, right?
Question will the samsung evo plus work?
i cant find sandisk extreme plus, only extreme
Sandisk extreme 1tb, or sandisk extreme 1tb pro SD card. Which is superior in terms of loading speeds?
Where is the diffrence between ExtremePRO 1TB and the ExtremePLUS 1TB ??? Both 200MB/140MB ???
Awesome video man. Helped me make a decision on what to get.
This is the best sd card video I have seen so thank you for explaining it in a way we can understand and it helped a lot so thank you
Wait was there any real world testing to show that the numbers actually matter or we just reading off specs again?
what do the u3, xc/sc1/2 mean?
I made sure to like that smash button!
I have a 128 gb sd card that isn't being used so i can just use that when my steam deck comes in the mail
I know its ot alot but it has a base storage of 512 gb and i doubt im gonna go over that anyways, but if i do im definitely gonna look into that samsung 512 gb option should my switch still require the sd card that it is using
I have a 400GB A1 SD card lying around. I plan on buying an A2 for my actual Steam games, but would an A1 be adequate for running emulation games?
I have a question I hope someone can help with. I have a windows PC. I am trying to put my roms on an SD card but when I put that card into the steam deck it does not work. It wants me to format the card. When I format the card it deletes all of the roms. When I insert that formated card back into my windows PC it no longer reads the card. How do I fix this?
Could you do a video on all info you can find about the now 2tb micro sd card by SanDisk? Seems all gamer content creators didn’t get the memo.