10 Best SD Cards for Nintendo Switch 2022 | UK Gaming Blogger Reviewed

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For those after a quick look, here is our Top 5:

1. SanDisk - Extreme Pro MicroSDXC Card for £21.75
2. SanDisk - MicroSDXC for Nintendo Switch for £17.39
3. Integral - Ultima Pro MicroSDXC Memory Card for £27.99
4. SanDisk - Ultra MicroSDXC Card for £9.49
5. Silicon Power - Superior Pro MicroSDXC Card for £31.60

For a more in-depth look at the comprehensive top 10 selection, make sure to read on to learn more about the different types of Nintendo Switch SD Cards available and understand how our ranking was determined.

This article's chosen EC site price listings are reflective of its publishing date.

1. Begin by Ensuring the SD Card Is Nintendo Switch Compatible
2. Consider Your Gaming Habits, and Choose a Card With Enough Space
   
3. Pick a Card With a Higher Transfer Speed and Enjoy Faster Loading Times

Naturally, it makes sense to check whether an SD card is compatible with your Nintendo Switch. Nintendo recommend any microSD (below 2 GB), microSDHC (4 GB-32 GB), or microSDXC (64 GB and above). 

You should probably steer clear of microSD cards that aren’t HC or SDXC, though, as their small size makes them pretty useless for gaming. Nintendo also warns that a system update will be required before you can use microSDXC cards with bigger memory.

Nintendo also advises that you use an SD card that is at least UHS-1 compatible and has transfer speeds of no less than 60-95 MB per second. These terms might sound confusing at first, but we’ll explain more later, and rest assured that all the SD cards we recommend adhere to these recommendations.

If you prefer to download your games from the Nintendo eShop (or you'd like to start), you probably already know the advantages – you’ll get your game almost instantly and it’ll take up no physical space in your house – but you will need to find space to store it digitally. 

Games can be deleted and re-downloaded at a later date, but with some games taking up nearly 15 GB (that’s nearly half of the Switch’s entire onboard memory!), it helps to consider how many downloaded titles you’d like to have stored on your Switch at any one time.

We recommend no less than 64 GB for all but the most casual gamers, but digital downloaders will definitely want to consider larger sizes in the realm of 128 GB or even 256 GB+, appropriate to their gaming habits, of course. 

While they might not need as much space as downloaders, physical buyers aren’t exempt either. Memory is needed for mandatory downloads, as well as storing in-game screenshots and saving files.

Now that Nintendo has made it much easier to transfer your screenshots to different devices, you’re likely to be taking, and sharing, more gaming memories, and you’ll need the space to accommodate this. 

As previously noted, 64 GB is the minimum you'd want to go for as an average Switch gamer, though it won't hurt to go higher even if you do only buy physical games. The great thing is with SD cards: sometimes, there’s very little difference in price between larger and smaller cards, especially when there’s a sale on.

Looking for games that all the family can enjoy? Check out the Best Nintendo Switch Games for Kids! 

SD cards are incredibly versatile pieces of kit and can expand the memory of everything from tablets to cameras to drones. Some may find it a nuisance to keep transferring their card from one device to another, but if you’d like the convenience of being able to store all your data in one place, you may benefit from choosing an SD card with extra-large storage - over 500 GB, or even up to 1 terabyte (TB).

You can slide a microSD card straight into a Nintendo Switch without any fuss, but other devices have larger slots designed for standard-sized SD cards. To use your microSD card in these devices, you’ll need an SD adapter.

SD adapters are plastic squares into which you can slide your microSD card. They’re about 5 cm long – the same as a standard-sized SD card – and enable you to use your card with larger-slotted devices such as a PC or laptop. Fortunately, most microSD cards come with adapters included, but it’s always worth checking before you buy.

We mentioned earlier that Nintendo recommends using an SD card with no less than a 95MB/sec (MBps) transfer speed, and at least UHS-I compatibility. Both terms describe the speed at which an SD card can transfer data from one place to another (in this case, your Nintendo Switch). 

Luckily, it’s pretty easy to decipher an SD card’s transfer speed. It’ll always be written on the packaging or in the online description, and much of the time the UHS rating will be featured on the card itself – simply look for a ‘1’, ‘2’, or ‘3’ enclosed inside what looks like a ‘U’.

Whether you should seek higher speeds is up to you. You won’t see a noticeable difference when viewing photos and videos, and the difference in game loading times is only a matter of seconds. For the hardcore, however, those few seconds can be crucial, so if you’re someone who looks to get the best out of their technology, a higher transfer speed is something you’ll want to consider.

This ranking has been compiled by the writing team at mybest UK via careful evaluation of the points made in the buying guide and thorough research of each product and comparing multiple verified customer reviews across the EC sites used.

Nintendo themselves advise that any microSD, microSDHC or microSDXC card is supported, as well as UHS-1 compatible cards with transfer speeds of no less than 60-95 MB per second.

The standard Switch and Switch Lite come with 32GB of onboard storage, while the new OLED model has 64GB. Games vary in size, so it's impossible to give exact figures, but for reference, it's worth knowing that Pokemon Sword requires 11.3 GB of space, while Breath of the Wild takes up 14.4 GB. 

As long as an SD card is Nintendo Switch compatible, there are no limits to how much memory it can have. SD cards range in size from a couple of gigabytes all the way up to colossal terabyte models that cost hundreds of pounds.

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Written and researched by Ben Willimett