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[BagHutch]

Hi, this is a bit of a newbie question, but I've been reading over the forums and have found a lot of conflicting answers, so I'm posting this thread. I intend to purchase an Ultra II microSD and a Supercard Lite. With this combo, is there slowdown when playing many (or any) DS roms? I've seen Animal Crossing, the Castlevania intro and Tony Hawk mentioned a lot as problematic. Are they significantly slower than the real thing? Are these the exceptions to the rule, meaning 99% of games run 100% perfectly? I'd just like to know if there's slowdown (whether it renders it unplayable or just regularly slows it) in a lot of games.

Edit: I see we're not supposed to post "technical" questions here, but this is a general question about all Supercards, not a specific problem with my own Supercard, as I don't have one, so I figure this is the right place for it.

[cobraxt]

I have a Supercard Lite with a 1gb SanDisk Ultra II MicroSD.

I've played those three games you speak of (Animal Crossing, Castlevania, and Tony Hawk) and there seems to be no slowdown at all.

Out of all of the 30 or odd games I've tried, they all seem to work perfectly without any hitches.

[cobraxt]

i'm making a video of the castlevania intro right now, will upload in a sec

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lkdLovXLgE

[seam]

cool. kinda wish someone would post a comparison video between the castlevania intro on a regular sandisk and an ultra sandisk. i doubt theres any difference, but maybe it would put this whole speed issue to rest.

[cobraxt]

cool. kinda wish someone would post a comparison video between the castlevania intro on a regular sandisk and an ultra sandisk. i doubt theres any difference, but maybe it would put this whole speed issue to rest.

Yeah, I would do that if I had a regular sandisk sitting around. But I figured for an extra 10 bucks usd, why not just go for the ultra sandisk anyway for peace of mind. Makes transferring files from the computer faster (even if that might be the only advantage)...

[johnny9562001]

actually somebody tested the castlevania video with a regular sandisk and it still play smoothly without slowdowns. however like cobraxt said, for 10 more dollars why not go for the ultra, it has faster writting and games will play smoother. also games will load and play faster like in AC and Tony Hawk.

P.S. mini games in super mario bros. crash with a regular sandisk.

[seam]

"P.S. mini games in super mario bros. crash with a regular sandisk."

not a problem for me! i could never get the minigame section to load anyway. heh. always whitescreens when i select "minigames" from the main menu.

[W00t]

in that castlevania-video posted here before at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lkdLovXLgE
you can hear that the sound is distorted in the second half of the intro movie. same happens to me with my sandisk ultra ii micro sd 1 gb. if i use a sandisk 1 gb non ultra instead, distortion of sound starts a earlier in the intromovie, but the mmovie speed is always the same - no mater if u use ultra or non ultra micro sd 's. so slowdowns in the games themselves seem to be rare or not at all, since this castlevania-intro puts a lot of stress to the cards - unlike the games themselves obviously.

so if u can afford the extra $, get a faster card and you are on the safe side. or get a "cheap" sandisk non ultra and the games will be the same as fast, only the stress tests, like the vid, will show u got a slow card.

so: castlevania intro vid is by no means perfect on sc lite with sandisk 2 ultra!  movie speed is ok, but distorted sound shows problems in data transfer. on the other hand - there are no faster micro sd's than 80x yet.. and ultra ii are 60x.. (anyways, i havent tried 80x cards on sc lite).

cheerio

w00t

[meangreenie]

You can get rid of that sound distirtion by disabling 'In Game Reset' in the options when patching.

[W00t]

does this work for ultra ii and non ultra micro sd's?

does enabling of ingame reset use so much resources? hmm. comparing metroid prime pinball on a sc lite with sandisk card (ultra or non ultra) and a sc sd card (with a normal "slow" sd card) reveils a huge speed difference in the first pinball game.. unplayable slow on sc sd and nice fast on sc slite.

well, then what is a "good" benchmark or stress test for the supercard and its cards? is tony hawk more ressource hungry?

cheerio w00t

[FifthE1ement]

I will be testing the SanDisk Ultra II 1GB 60X VS the SanDisk 1GB 12X this coming week in the SuperCard Lite. So if you can wait until them I will be doing movies and pics to compare.

The best slowdown test is the Castlevania movie and Animal Crossing. Animal Crossing can have slowdown coming out of building while holding any direction on the dpad or in the begining after it asks you to press start and the letters come on screen.

FifthE1ement

[johnny9562001]

well FifthE1ement, its funny that you talk so many bad things about the SC lite but its good that you finally decided to get one. trust me, you wont regret it.

[FifthE1ement]

I never said anything bad about the SuperCard Lite but have held by my word at the start that it requires Ultra II memory for best performance. Only thing negative I have ever said was that I was disappointed with them not making it in other colors or fixing the GBA functions, and its safe to say I'm sure you have all felt that. I love the SuperCard and will proudly put the Lite next to my miniSD version. And now that RomMan has said black and possibly other colors are coming that problem has been corrected.

FifthE1ement

[W00t]

@meangreenie:

your suggestion of disabling "ingame reset" is unfortunately not successfull here - when i deselect "enable restart" in the patcher (and activate trim rom) i still get the distorted sound in the castlevania video using sc lite and ultra II 1 gb sandisk card

so ultra II still has no real advantage in the castlevania video other than that distortion starts later than with "normal" sandisk micro-sd 1gb card.. sorry to say that

cheerio

w00t

[W00t]

also disabeling all options in the patcher (so no rom trimming) AND formatting the micro sd ultra ii card with fat results in STILL having disorted sound in castlevania video.

is there ANYONE having castlevania video without distortion on an sc lite? what card are u using then?

cheerio

w00t