Switch loading times tested: MicroSD vs carts and internal storage

Which is fastest? Tom puts Nintendo Switch loading times to the test, where speeds differ between cartridge, internal storage, and MicroSD while testing Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

[Knushwood Butt]

Game carts are the slowest. Hmmm.

[davand114]

Flash memory is faster than ssd but also more expensive. The load times on cartridges are similar to what you get with a ssd.

[SirBradders]

Ssd uses flash memory?

[davand114]

@sirBradders
Yes, most ssd's use NAND-based flash memory. The NAND flash memory in the switch has a 400MB/sec read speed

[nitus10]

A stock standard SSD has on average a 480MB/s write to a 500MB/sec read and if you care to look you can get SSD's (yes they are expensive) that have performance in the 2000MB/sec region. If you wish to compare capacity SSD's are cheaper in cost per GB compared to SD or cartridges but in the cost per GB Hard Disk Drives (HDD) are still the best.

A stock standard 2.5" 5400rpm HDD can have a read speed of around 100MB/sec with writes normally 25% slower, although this does depend on the brand and the tests being carried out.

Getting back to SD and cartridges the following gives you a reasonable list of card performances and if you care to look the better performance the greater the cost. https://havecamerawilltrave...

If you do look at the table you will see that most of the high-performance SD cards are around the same performance of an HDD and with an SSD being over four-times better again. Opt for cheaper SD cards and you may find that their overall performance can be a quarter that of a stock standard HDD.

Picking a good performance SD card with an acceptable cost to GB requires the buyer to do some research compared to purchasing either an SSD or an HDD.

[Pancit_Canton]

FFXV has better load time than this. You better off putting your game on the disc and save $10.

[JEECE]

FFXV is installed on your HDD.

[nitus10]

All games are installed on the internal storage of the PS4 or XB1 with even the most stock standard internal disk having a performance of 100MB/sec reads to 80MB/sec writes which is not that much of a difference than the performance of a good Class 10 SD card.

Also, the minimum size of the PS4 and XB1 storage is 500GB and the PS4 has an easy customer swap capability for a larger capacity internal storage device (can be an SSD if you wish) or if you wish a USB3 external storage device.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

LOL but those fast travel time and load game time are like over 1 minute

[DarkZane]

Wow, the people who said carts would be faster and have less loading times were full of it.

Guess the PS4 and X1 installing the game to the hard disk was the way to go, as the load times are better and discs are cheaper.

[davand114]

The internal flash storage inside the switch is way faster than the read speed of the hdd inside the ps4/x1. The switch uses high speed flash memory which has a read speed. The flash memory of the switch has a read speed of over 250MB/sec and the hdd in the ps4 is limited to 85mb/s. That's why you see load screens in games like the witcher are over a minute. The only problem with the flash memory in the switch is that while it's very fast it's also pretty damn expensive to put into a device.

[davand114]

The read speed of nand in the switch is 400MB/sec.

[nitus10]

Somehow I can't see The Witcher 3 being installed on the internal storage of the Switch, that is assuming TW3 was ported since the base game plus patches is about 50GB, with the two DLC's adding an additional 20GB.

It would be great if SSD's of similar capacity were about the same price as a HDD but you still would be limited to the speed of the internal bus which in the case of the PS4 and XB1 is SATA 2 (300MB/sec) and SATA 3 (600MB/sec) for the PS4pro and the Scorpio.

I have no idea what the bus speed of the Switch is but I very much doubt that it is SATA 3 Express (16Gb/sec or 1.6GB/sec). If I use M2 SSD storage on my PC I can get a performance of up to 3.2GB/sec although currently I only use a stock standard SSD (SATA 3 Express) and opening a Web browser (ie. Chrome) takes less than a second. In this case, my SSD has a read speed of 540MB/sec and coupled with my HDD (read speed of 140MB/sec) I am in no way maximizing my PC bus.

Even if you did have storage that could perform at SATA 2 or 3 speeds it may be possible that the game actually limits loading times so you may not notice that much of a difference in performance.

[davand114]

@nitus10
It actually doesn't make much of a difference if you install a sdd into the ps4 because the console has a limited that only lets the drives read up to 85MB/sec. You aren't able to reach the full read speed on any drive you install into the ps4. I'm not sure why Sony decided to do that though.

[nitus10]

@davand114

You are quite right.

I actually installed an SSD into my original FAT PS3 because it was relatively cheap and a 500GB HDD would have been a waste. I did notice some performance gain but it was marginal and very much game dependent.

I do have a 1TB 720rpm HDD in my PS4 and again there is some performance game but it is dependent on the game I am playing. Takes approx 35 seconds to fast travel and approx 50 seconds recover from death in The Witcher 3 although with my 5400rpm 500GB default drive it took over a minute. I doubt that an SSD would improve those times even on the PS4pro and I am not about to go out and buy a 1TB SSD to save a few seconds.

This would not be the fault of Sony it would be a developer choice

[iofhua]

You lost me at "installing the game"

If you're running off a cart, no need to install.

The cart is still faster than the mechanical drive in your Ps4. This was a comparison between carts and SD cards, both of which are faster than your rotating rust.

[PCgamer98]

B...b...but nintendo fanboys said bd sucks and carts will be better, cheaper, faster, and efficient.

[davand114]

They are; if you noticed none of these options have a spinning disk or platter like the options for ps4/x1.

[jasonpugh]

No offense but if you don't have an extra 5 seconds to wait for a game to load, you shouldn't play.

[porkChop]

It's interesting that the game cards are slower than the micro SD cards. Although, they are UHS-1 level cards which are very fast. And really, if you plan on using a micro SD with your Switch it should be UHS-1 anyway. A regular micro SD would likely be much slower than the game cards. Either way, all these options are still much faster than discs and HDDs.

[nitus10]

Not necessarily. A stock standard HDD can have a read speed of 100MB/sec with a write speed of 80MB/sec that is dependent on the brand and the tests being carried out. SD cards are a mixed bag with speed ranging from less than 25MB/sec (cheap) to over 250MB/sec (expensive) with the mean being in the region of 80 to 100MB/sec reads for class 10 SD cards.

As far as cost per GB HDD's are around three to five times cheaper than an equivalent sized solid state storage device be that an SD card or SSD. A stock standard SSD has a read of 500MB/sec (writes approx 20% slower) is something like two to three times faster than a high-quality SD card which in turn is almost two to four times more expensive.