What Do the Specs, Symbols, and Numbers on an SD Card Mean?
Storage Capacity
Storage capacity tells you how much data an SD card can hold.
Unsurprisingly, it’s also one of the biggest factors in how much an SD card costs.
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Maximum Transfer Speed
SD card maximum transfer speed indicates how much data it can transfer per second.
First, you’ve got SD card types, but this only classifies cards by their storage capacity.
Buying an SD card with enough storage space and speed is most important.
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You’ll only need this spec to check that your gadget supports the card you’re buying.
You won’t get UHS-II performance out of a UHS-I port.
A UHS-II card will revert to UHS-I transfer speeds in such cases.
Since 2000, we’ve had three different speed classes:
Min.
Thankfully, this is also the most descriptive speed classification (a rare win for SD specs).
SD Card vs. microSD Card: What’s the Difference?
The only difference between SD andmicroSD cardsthat matters is the size of the cards themselves.
What Is a Wi-Fi SD Card?
A Wi-Fi SD card is a unique bang out of SD card with Wi-Fi connectivity.
It all comes down to what you’re using the SD card for.
For example, larger Nintendo Switch games require anywhere between 16.3GB and 55.4GB of space, according toThe Gamer.
So, a 256GB card would easily give you enough space for 4-5 larger games on a single card.
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Not everyone needs the fastest cards, though.
However, you won’t get the full performance from a high-spec card in an older SD slot.
So, there’s not much point in buying the fastest UHS-II card if your rig only supports UHS-I.
For example, the Nintendo Switch can transfer speeds up to around 90MB/s, according toWired.
Unfortunately, it isn’t always easy to find out how fast the SD slot on a rig is.
Which key in of SD Card Do You Need?
SDCard.org
Quite simply, you want enough storage space and speed for your intended usethat’s it.
The classifications and marketing around SD cards only complicate things unnecessarily.
