Question about mini SD speed reqs.

Magicster · July 19, 2006, 12:30:53 AM

I was just wondering if 80x is enough to eliminate any possible slow downs with GBA games on my SP.

I'm pretty sure 150x will eliminate the problem completely but 80x is cheaper

I was also wondering if this card is compatable:
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4858780?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

johnny9562001 · July 19, 2006, 12:39:43 AM

huh, yes and no. you see the supercard sd can only read at max 60x, so 80x is more than enough to have no slowdownson nds roms only. since Nds roms read from the SD card but gba games are loaded into the supercards 256mb=32 meagbytes of internal memory, so the sd card speed doesn't matter at all, it wont change anything for gba games, they will still have slowdowns. Also FYI, lot of gba games have slowdowns but its not that bad, some games dont even have slowdowns at all. you might be better of with a g6 lite or wait for the m3 lite or supercard lite, hoping they improve the speed in gba for supercard lite.

Magicster · July 19, 2006, 01:37:47 AM

Quote from: "johnny9562001"huh, yes and no. you see the supercard sd can only read at max 60x, so 80x is more than enough to have no slowdowns, that is on nds roms only. since Nds roms read from the SD card but gba games are loaded into the supercards 256mb=32 meagbytes of internal memory. so the card speed wont change anything. Also FYI, supercard has slowdows on a lot of games but its not that bad, some games dont even have slowdowns at all. you might be better of with a g6 lite or wait for the m3 lite or supercard lite, hoping they improve the speed in gba for supercard lite.

How did you find out this info? So i should be fine with just 80x for GBA games? i cant play DS games so i dont care about DS lag.

markus · July 19, 2006, 01:48:37 AM

I think you missed the point he was trying to explain.
There is no lag on DS games, but there is lag on GBA games.

The reason why GBA games slow down is because of the supercard and not the SD card. So no matter how fast your SD card is there will always be some lag.

Magicster · July 19, 2006, 02:05:35 AM

Ok so just this final question, 150x is overkill and therefore i should just get an 80x for the cheaper price. Right?

bitblt · July 19, 2006, 02:30:31 AM

If you don't plan on using your miniSD for anything else (phone, camera, etc.), and you don't mind slower PC->miniSD file transfers, then 80x should be fine. I recommend paying an extra $10 for the extra speed.

Magicster · July 19, 2006, 03:17:49 AM

Yeah im probably not gonna use it for anything else nor do i really care about transfer times. Anyways thanks for the input guys.

FifthE1ement · July 19, 2006, 03:23:25 AM

I wouldn't believe the whole "Supercard can only read" speech as all devices can read past their abilities at burst speeds if not just at regular speeds. The more room you give something for overhead the better it will perform. I recommend at least 60X for the Supercard Mini-SD as I have tested both a Sandisk 2GB Mini-SD and an ATP 2GB ProMax Mini-SD against each other and the ProMax out performs the Sandisk by a huge margin.

Not only did the Sandisk have major slowdowns in 50% of game menus, Animal Crossing, Metroid Prime Hunters, Metroid Pinball, just to name a few games, but it also performed horribly on the Castlevania test with a 1/5 with still frames and choopy audio. With the slower media you'll also notice longer load times between screens, chuggy and laggy frame rates, and audio chops in mainly the memory intensive DS games. With the ATP ProMax 150X Mini-SD 2GB it corrected the issue and it’s like having the original game cart in your DS!

I would always suggest a Mini-SD or SD with a read/write speed of 60X or higher, 150X recommended! The SanDisk was about 4kb/sec (20X) while the ATP is 22kb/sec (150X) in transfer rate with the possibility of 50kb/sec! And the Supercard Mini-SD along with the ATP Mini-SD has absolutely NO SLOWDOWN on ANY DS games!

There will always be slowdown in GBA games as per the slow ram onboard the Supercard, I can't figure out why Supercard doesn't add a feature to its patcher which allows the GBA games to also play from the Mini-SD card instead of loading it onto the onboard memory. This would solve the crappy ram problems 100%! I would suggest the links below for the best Mini-SD's on the market with the best compatibility!

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4906941
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820183011
http://www.usamemory.net/promaxminisd.html

FifthE1ement

bitblt · July 19, 2006, 06:25:53 AM

Quote from: "FifthE1ement"I would always suggest a Mini-SD or SD with a read/write speed of 60X or higher, 150X recommended! The SanDisk was about 4kb/sec (20X) while the ATP is 22kb/sec (150X) in transfer rate with the possibility of 50kb/sec! And the Supercard Mini-SD along with the ATP Mini-SD has absolutely NO SLOWDOWN on ANY DS games!

I have three Supercards . . .
SCSD + 2GB pqi 150X SD
SCCF + 2GB pqi 60X CF
SCmini + 2GB Sandisk (??X) miniSD
. . . all perform well with no noticeable slowdowns.

Unlike CF media, SD media uses a proprietary protocol that requires approval (logo branding) to read data using fast 4 bit mode. The Supercard reads SD media using the slower 1 bit MMC mode.

However, faster SD media seem to have fewer compatibility issues with SC. I recommend paying the extra $10 for the extra speed. The extra speed is nice for PC->SD transfers anyway.

baiken122 · July 20, 2006, 12:38:11 AM

what happens if you used an ordinary mini SD card, i think around 10x ? you will really feel a slow down ? are there any mini SD with 60x of speed in the market? im having a hard time looking one here in the philippines

FifthE1ement · July 20, 2006, 12:53:13 AM

You will notice slowdown. Mostly in game menus but it can get pretty bad in Animal Crossing, Madden 06, Metroid Pinball, Metroid Prime Hunters and a few others.

You can really notice it if you have been playing your game carts daily then first get your Supercard and start playing your backup. Animal Crossing drove me nuts as it actually pauses with slow memory going in and out of buildings. It also lags so bad on the main menu the each letter of the words come out one and a time and chug. Its pretty bad in Metroid Prime Hunters when you move around a lot.

I had a Sandisk 2GB (aprox 20X but it doesn't say on the box)and upgraded it with a ATP ProMax 2GB 150X. Once I made the switch Animal Crossing worked like a charm just as it doesn on my regular game cart. The menu was fast again and the pause between coming in and out of buildings was gone. Metroid Prime Hunters was back to normal as well and I can now free look with no stutter. Menus in all games have returned to normal as well. So yes, faster cards really do make a difference.

It might not matter to you but I can't stand it when something is wrong. It killed me on Animal Crossing since I play that daily and my game cart was normal. I was like WTF but now with the ATP its like I have my game cart in! I don't care what anyone else says as I've done the test and it REALLY DOES make a difference.

Check my links above for a Mini-SD as they all ship worldwide and are cheap!

FifthE1ement

Al-Dorado · July 26, 2006, 04:58:38 AM

Hi @all!

I ordered a Supercard MiniSD a few days ago, and now i need to buy a MiniSD Card. The ATP Cards are not available in Europe, so i would have to buy it in the US, which might not be the best solution for me.

The best one's (in my opinion) i found here in my country, are the Kingston MiniSD 2GB 80x, Transcend MiniSD 2GB 80x and the COS Extrememory MiniSD 2GB with 133x speed.
Now im not really sure which one i should pick, because the card with 133x speed is as much expensive as the Kinston MiniSD. But i dont know if the card by COS can play the games with no noticeable slowdows, although it's a 133x card.

I hope you can help me with my decision. THX!

Greetings,
Al-Dorado

Note: COS 133x -> http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B000F9ZBWI/302-3578099-2103240?v=glance&n=11052861

bitblt · July 26, 2006, 03:29:34 PM

They will probably all work fine, but I can't guarantee anything. In general I would recommend the faster SD.

FifthE1ement · July 26, 2006, 03:31:48 PM

If I had to choose it would be the Transcend as its the best memory manuf in the list. They have very good compatibility and speed. 80X should do you good and you should have no slowdown. 150X is better as it gives the card more overhead but you should be fine.

FifthE1ement

ssj4android · July 26, 2006, 05:46:44 PM

Quote from: "Magicster"I was just wondering if 80x is enough to eliminate any possible slow downs with GBA games on my SP.

I'm pretty sure 150x will eliminate the problem completely but 80x is cheaper

I was also wondering if this card is compatable:
http://shop1.outpost.com/product/4858780?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Supercard is horrible as a GBA only cart. If you're going to be playing a lot of GBA games, get an M3 or something.