Hacking Micro SD Card game speeds & Acekard question

[Royal_Mark]

So yeah, I'm a fresh account here just to ask a question, I admit, but I was one of the people on Pokestation who helped with the (attempt) to translate Pokemon B/W2 if that makes you feel better, and I usually stick around at forums like these, but enough of that, I want to know a couple things... (TLDR below)

For one, is it worth upgrading right now? I have an old Acekard 2, not 2i, just 2, bought like 2 years ago, and I did note that when I played Pokemon HG/SS it would lag inbetween entering/exiting sometimes, opening menus on B/W etc, is this my Acekard or is this my SD Card? (Its a really standard, cheap, no-class one) The lag wasn't bad, was still plenty playable, but I fear B/W2 really won't hold up. And yes, I bought my real copy already. ALso my top screen broke so I cant test it right now. (Buying a new one along with new sd card etc)

Basically, I want to know what kind of SD Card I need, now Ive been googling this for a while and I found out from that 'Rydian' guy(Btw youre everywhere when you look this stuff up, props to him) here
http://gbatemp.net/threads/grrrr-sd-card-classes-again.336766/
that the class doesn't play that big of a role when you talk about class vs brand and it makes sense, and he recommended a Transcend, can anyone second this or suggest another micro sd card that runs B/W2 pretty smoothly?

And for the last bit, do you think I need to upgrade? I was thinking of going R4i or even a Supercard to get with the times, or optimize my speed, cause it really got laggy on Pokemon games with cheats etc, Im hoping it's just my crappy SD card.

TLDR
Can anyone suggest me a good micro SD card that'll run B/W2/most games smoothly with no lag? Is the Acekard 2(not i, just 2) 'outdated' right now/will upgrading improve speed?

Thanks for reading etc

Edit: Also Rydian spoke of read and seek speeds, I found the read speeds for certain SD cards, but didn't know what's considered fast enough to run games with no lag. But didn't find any 'seek' speeds at all, anyone know what he was talking about? Also it'll be really helpful if you all could help me find the specs of a DS Cart, like how fast does a actual retail game read/seek/save etc, we'll be able to compare toe to toe then.

Edit edit: Are Supercard's SERIOUSLY 40 bucks? C'mon, kinda breakin' my balls there, I was hoping 30ish, but is there a cheaper place to find one than 40?

 

[Rydian]

Yeah I don't have much of a life. XD

The Acekard series is dead, go for something else if you upgrade your cart (DSi/3DS compatibility for example).
http://gbatemp.net/t290097-which-flash-cart-should-i-get
If you're used to the Acekard series then you'll be right at home with the R4i Gold, it uses Wood which is built from the same software AKAIO was, so they look and run almost the same (minus different shortcuts and menu placements).

But yeah it sounds like your SD. If you have a decent SD, then games should be normal speed most times, and faster when it comes to saving and such.
http://gbatemp.net/threads/ds-dsi-3ds-hacking-f-a-q.278137/
There's an explanation of what the specs really mean and what to look for (class isn't a direct measurement of flash cart performance, but will hint build quality at you).
Most people grab a Class-6 from the recommended manufacturers (Transcend, A-Data, PNY... Kingston is popular but is NOT a manufacturer, they're a reseller/rebrander) and it works fine for whatever. Seek speeds and such are benchmarks that manufacturers almost never put out, because the average person doesn't need it. This is why we make broad guesses based on class/manufacturer, as a cart that's built better in general is liable to have decent enough speeds.

Seek speeds don't matter that much anymore now that flash cart softwares have updated to account for most tricks pulled on the DS and MicroSD quality has slowly raised over time, and as long as your MicroSD is of decent quality* it'll be fine.

The Supercard is $35 in most import shops because it has it's own onboard processor (that's more powerful than that of the DS) which lets it run special homebrew like a specific SNES emulator and GBA emulator, and gives it easy access to extra features like real-time cheat selection and junk. It's also the only cart that has never needed a hardware update to bypass DSi/3DS updates, which is why it's so heavily suggested for DSi/3DS users.



* - We get a lot of people in here that bought like, a $5 no-name "16GB" MicroSD off ebay and are shocked that it's a piece of shit, which is why we push "Just buy a decent one to begin with" so hard. As long as you don't buy a cheap piece of crap, you'll be fine.

 

[Royal_Mark]

Ah okay, thanks for the reply, so basically it just looks like I need a new Micro SD card and stuff will run much better, I guess I'll just go with this one.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208453

Also, no I'm not upgrading my DS, I have a Lite and I dont wan a 3DS for anything else worth upgrading for right now, except Pokemon X/Y which isn't even gonna be released till November(lol, no time soon). So since I'm not, I will be fine with my old Acekard 2? I mean I heard they were 'slow with updates' now, will I really need those? I might just bite the bullet and upgrade, though it'll be a bit pricey cause I have to buy a new screen for my DS too, which is like 20 bucks, and a charger and I want a new stylus for it. That's like 25ish. Plus the SD Card.

25 + 35/15 + 8 = 68/48 (DSTWO/R4iGold)

 

[Rydian]

Firmware updates never affected DS/Lite users, but AKAIO updates are the game compatibility and bugfix updates. We haven't seen a sign that those have died yet (AKAIO is made by a separate team and they updated before Christmas), but we also haven't seen much activity since care for the DS is waning.

 

[Royal_Mark]

Ah alrighty, well thanks Rydian.
I'll just get a new Micro SD card then and just call it a day, should fix up the lag problems etc

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

RetroGameFan still puts out updates Im not sure if he does Acekard ones but he does DSTT ones every month or so, and thats what I elected to buy based on the fact I have at this time no intention of getting a DSi or above and with that dudes updates my TT plays everything I throw at it.

Maybe check see if he does Acekard updates too if your getting loading issues with some roms

Also I use a Class 4 16GB "Team" branded MicroSD and that works well

 

[Rydian]

RGF's stuff is for carts without updates, getting something like an R4i Gold that can also use Wood is good too.

 

[Kouen Hasuki]

RGF's stuff is for carts without updates, getting something like an R4i Gold that can also use Wood is good too.

Oh deffo, I was more mentioning it in case he wanted to go along with his current card a while longer