In case you were wondering, no, the Nintendo Switch 2’s microSD Express cards aren’t good for the Steam Deck

I curse I don’t really person thing against the Nintendo Switch 2, different than its fishy effort astatine Zoom Meetings But Games and immoderate flimsy jealousy that it got DLSS enactment earlier a PC handheld did. Even so, I bash consciousness obliged to pass Steam Deck owners – and, successful fact, anyone who has immoderate existent portable PC – distant from microSD Express cards, enactment for which is 1 of the Switch 2’s cardinal retention upgrades.

microSD Express fancies itself the horseless carriage to microSD’s knacked mare, being capable to speech to its big instrumentality implicit an SSD-like PCIe/NVMe interface (rather than microSD’s aging UHS tech) and frankincense execute transportation speeds approaching 1,000MB/s. That’s 3 times quicker than the fastest 'standard' microSDs, which people looks similar delicious bait for the discerning handheld wielder. If it’s bully capable for the Switch 2, posits a increasing fig of reddit threads and forum posts, could it past chopped load times connected a Steam Deck oregon ROG Ally arsenic well?

No, is the reply to that. Although microSD Express could good beryllium the expandable retention of prime for aboriginal handhelds – the Xbox ROG Ally is skipping it, but who knows with the mysterious Steam Deck 2 – it won’t get anyplace adjacent its apical speeds erstwhile plugged into the portable PCs of today. That’s due to the fact that the devices themselves besides request Express compatibility, and nary do, due to the fact that they’re each inactive sticking with UHS-I and UHS-II interfaces. Which, successful turn, means immoderate microSD Express paper that slides into a current-gen Deck volition beryllium constricted to the show ceilings of the older-style slot.

Despite the results being, broadly, a forgone conclusion, I was inactive funny arsenic to what happens erstwhile you nonstop 1 of these newer cards backmost successful clip to enactment connected a non-Switch 2 handheld. I truthful got clasp of a 256GB PNY microSD Express card, launched conscionable precocious for you-know-what, and delivered it to the UHS-I receptacle of an archetypal LCD Steam Deck. From there, I pitted it against the outright fastest microSD paper we’ve tested connected RPS, a SanDisk Extreme Pro, successful a bid of game-launching races. The results whitethorn SHOCK you, unless you cognize the fundamentals of PC storage, successful which lawsuit they’ll bash nary specified thing.

Image credit: Rock Paper Shotgun

Even if we discount the weird outlier that is Aperture Desk Job, the microSD Express paper isn’t simply nary faster the UHS-based Extreme Pro – it is, consistently, a 2nd oregon 2 slower. And portion I didn’t trial each 5 games, I did spot immoderate grounds that the Extreme Pro is amended astatine cutting in-game load times arsenic well, with it firing up a Shadow of the Tomb Raider record successful 15.6s to the PNY card’s 18s.

I’m satisfied that determination isn’t thing mechanically incorrect with the latter. I did wonderment if it was suffering the commonly reported microSD Express weakness of overheating, which would theoretically chopped show via throttling, but past if the Steam Deck was blocking it from its higher speeds than it shouldn’t beryllium moving itself ragged to statesman with. A laser thermometer cheque besides confirmed it was peaking astatine the aforesaid 37°c successful its slot arsenic the Extreme Pro. Nay, we tin chalk this up to a operation of the SanDisk paper conscionable being unusually excellent, and the PNY microSD Express being mislaid and confused wrong a slot it doesn’t belong.

Point being, present we person confirmation that wherever current-gen handheld PCs are concerned, a microSD Express paper volition bash thing that an older, much interface-appropriate retention paper volition not. Except, perhaps, discarded your money. The PNY exemplary I tested is $56 for 256GB, astir doubly the terms of an equivalent-sized SanDisk Extreme Pro and lone fractional a subordinate little that card’s 512GB version. Meanwhile, the Samsung Pro Plus, my wide apical prime not conscionable of microSDs but of Steam Deck accessories successful general, is conscionable $28 for 256GB and $43 for 512GB.

I’d inactive perchance similar to spot microSD Express connected a handheld PC of the future, hopefully erstwhile paper prices person dropped. Storage standards alteration implicit time, and ideate however atrocious it’d beryllium if coagulated authorities drives ne'er became accessible capable to regenerate HDDs. For now, though, conscionable fto the Switch 2 beryllium their guinea pig – oregon bash astir PCish happening of all, and upgrade the Deck’s interior SSD instead.