Hacking How much can I fill my SD card?

[Kaze967]

I have a 4gb Kingston SD card and I'm wondering how much of ROM data I can fit in without causing considerable lag.
Would it handle ok if I would fill it to the brim? What is the recommended amount?
What about 2gb, 8gb, etc ones?

 

[noONE]

Uhm, AFAIK writing slows down a bit the less space you got left, but reading isn't affected that much... (at flashdrives that is) I've got a 8GB card with 80MB left at the moment, playing fine.

You shouldn't even be worried about the memory speed that much if you're not going to play one of the sensitive games such as the castlevania series, those are the only ones who MIGHT gain a tiny speedup/ less hangups - but then your better of getting a somewhat fast memory card (class 4 SDHC should be enough, formatted to 32KB clusters)

 

[scrtmstr]

you should never have slowdowns, some games do but not that much that it's unplayable. You should always leave a couple of MB of space, for making .SAV files. Otherwise your card might corrupt.

 

[Raika]

Most games won't lag even if the cart is almost filled, but some lag even when the cart has lots of free space coughPhantasyStar0cough. But leave a couple of MB for your save files.

 

[Kaze967]

Ah I see. Thank you all for the prompt replies.
So the lag from some games come from being played in a flashcart?

 

[Raika]

Ah I see. Thank you all for the prompt replies.
So the lag from some games come from being played in a flashcart?

No, some games lag even on official carts. It usually happens with 3D games, and lags will worsen online.

 

[Kaze967]

Oh, well thanks a lot for the info. =D
I appreciate it!