Formatting SD card for speed

Buy a high quality card that is designed for the job.

 

just buy from a well known brand. though, the higher you go GB wise, the less there is to choose from. if this is for an nds or dsi, go for something small size-wise. I don't know how large a card is possible, but I bought an everdrive for the gba. I checked beforehand, but it does have a size limit. I bought the biggest one possible which was either 32GB or 128GB (can't recall which), and I have tons of space left over after getting the goodmerge set and using clrmame pro to delete duplicates of games.

 

Reminder, just because its sometimes listed: "supports up to 128 GB" doesnt always means that 256 GB is not possible......

 

Sandisk Class 10 A1 rated. A no brand choice is never good because speeds vary immensely. When you get the card check it out with a full write/read test app and it should illustrate the speeds at the same time it checks authenticity. I'm speaking from 3DS POV but used two different authentic Sandisk cards of the same size, one was a regular cheapo version they had and the other was Class 10 A1 rated and the difference was night and day.

Also (again 3DS POV) cluster size can make a difference.