Hacking Which 8GB memory cards do you guys use?

[Genn]

Hey, this is mainly aimed at anyone who's used an 8GB card to play Castlevania and TWEWY. I've looked through older topics, but there was no definitive answer, so I'd just like to know which 8GB cards you guys have used that run those games properly (i.e. not affected with slowdown or freezing).

I've been using a 4GB Toshiba for a while now, but I need more space and I'd rather not swap between cards (it's hard enough trying to get it out of my Cyclo). Incidentally, the new Toshiba 8GB Class 6 cards were supposed to be out by now, but has anyone been able to find anywhere that sells them?

Also, how good are Silicon Power microSDs? I came across a review of their regular SD card which had a pretty quick access time (shown here), and later found a Class 6 microSDHC on eBay, but I don't know much about them.

Thanks in advance.

 

[UltraMagnus]

I do not play either of those games, however, class is the most important indicator is speed, and class 6 is the fastest. other than that the speed is just down to individual batches, and therefore, luck.


since you are in the UK, here is the cheapest class 6 8gb card I know of

 

[Genn]

Yeah I thought the same at first too, but I did a bit of digging and found that class only refers to read/write speeds, and that random access time (which isn't determined by the class number) is the most important aspect when it comes to using memory cards with flashcarts. That's why I concentrated on the access time results on the website I linked to. I'm sure class does have some bearing on performance with a flashcart, so I suppose it wouldn't hurt to get as high a class as possible. Cheers for the link by the way, hadn't come across that site before.

 

[corf]

That Toms Hardware article is SD cards and not MICRO SD.

 

[Genn]

I know, hence...

a review of their regular SD card

 

[corf]

Sorry I mis-understood.

 

[Sportsmaniac1322]

I do not play either of those games, however, class is the most important indicator is speed, and class 6 is the fastest. other than that the speed is just down to individual batches, and therefore, luck.


since you are in the UK, here is the cheapest class 6 8gb card I know of

Actually, to many people's surprise, classes of memory cards have nothing to do with how fast games play. Classes are write speeds, and yeah, class 6 cards write faster than class 2 cards do, but whether or not games play well is based on read speed. Since read speeds aren't rated, you just have to hope you get a good card I guess

.

And for the record, I use an A-Data 8GB class 6 microSD. Although I don't play Castlevania or anything like that, every game I've played with it has worked at 100% speed with no hiccups.

 

[UltraMagnus]

Actually, to many people's surprise, classes of memory cards have nothing to do with how fast games play. Classes are write speeds, and yeah, class 6 cards write faster than class 2 cards do, but whether or not games play well is based on read speed. Since read speeds aren't rated, you just have to hope you get a good card I guess

.

And for the record, I use an A-Data 8GB class 6 microSD. Although I don't play Castlevania or anything like that, every game I've played with it has worked at 100% speed with no hiccups.

yes, but read speed depends on a lot of the same things in the internal structure as write speed.

benchmarks are going to be the only way to clear this up though...

 

[Genn]

Yikes, 200+ views and no answer yet. And no one uses Silicon Power cards? Someone out there's gotta know

 

[Maikel Steneker]

I use Kingston class 4. They're okay, but games like Castlevania don't run properly with some noticeable slowdown. They're not nearly as good as the Kingston non-SDHC cards.

 

[mysticwaterfall]

+1 to Adata C6 8gig. Works fine on everything.

 

[Searinox]

Transcend 8GB class 4 and Supercard - Castlevania DoS intro runs fine only 26x up but then the menus don't display text properly. A faster firmware like DSTT solves that issue. PoR freezes with Wind and accessing the menu unless Patch Speed and DMA are on, then it still freezes occasionally on teleport. The trick is to touchclick the spot where you wanna go to avoid scrolling through the warp points. There also exists a PoR patch that removes a few soundeffects whose reading appears to be responsible for the freezes, thereby making the game run perfectly on any memory. I played TWEWY for 2 hours no freeze. No other games had any issues. Played 50 by now.

 

[retiredjerk]

i usually prefer kingston but for 8GB and 16GB i prefer sandisk.

 

[Chris_Skylock]

i usually prefer kingston but for 8GB and 16GB i prefer sandisk

I posted a 4GB sandisk non SDHC and someone tells me it's a fake. I saw a 8GB sandisk and was double thinking if I buy it since the 4GB non SDHC is fake. the 8GB has similar box but with SDHC.

can you show me the box of your sandisk and i can compare with the one in our Mall here.

I also saw a 8GB micro SD. forgot the name but it was the cheapest. I thought it might be destroyed early. The Sandisk 8GB was Php1,200 and this cheap 8GB is only Php900 something.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Genn]

All right, thanks for the input guys. My only worry, and the main reason for making this thread, was if I came across a game released somewhere down the line that displayed the same type of problem. I figured it's best to get a card that's capable of playing a game like Castlevania as a sort of guarantee that the card is future proof, just in case new games are released and show similar compatibility problems, freezing, etc. Anyway, I might just go for A-Data or Transcend; they're not expensive, so at least that's an advantage if any problems crop up.

 

[Ph1l0z0ph3r]

I also use Transcend 8GB SDHC and it works great. Won 1x Winner of Customer Choice Award - Flash Memory at NewEgg and is only 18 bucks. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820208453

 

[Martiin]

i would prefer Sansdisk or Transcend
I have a transcend

 

[nonysa]

My Kingston Japan class 4 8gb has been flawless with my CycloDS with the games you mentioned. Actually it's ran everything I've thrown at it like a champ. I also have tested an A-data class 6 at with mostly good results. The class 6 has problems with 1658 and saving though, otherwise no real problems.

The class 6 now lives in my M3 DS Real and runs 1658 with zero problems at all. It still refuses to run 2252's intro without the close trick, and music will still stutter even within the main game. 0735 hangs and is unplayable.

I have a theory ... the faster the class of the card, the more of a pain in the freaking butt it is. YRMV. Luckily the media is getting cheap now so most people can afford to buy several and find the one that works best for their backup solution.

Anyways cheers, and good luck!

 

[Genn]

Oops, should've posted an update. The Transcend card was out of stock for ages and the A-Data was quite a bit more expensive than I initially thought, so after reading nonysa's post (thanks!) I ended up buying an 8GB Class 4 Toshiba (C08G - the same model as the Japanese Kingston cards) for the paltry sum of £12.

Anyway, I did some tests on the 8GB Toshiba straight out of the box, before formatting it. The tests were all repeated a few times in succession to be sure the results were accurate, just in case the first set of results were anomalous or something (lower = better for random access, higher = better for burst and average read):

HD Tach results:
Burst: 12.8ms
Random access: 1.0ms
Average read: 12.5ms

cf_bench random access results:
512B - max: 0.787ms, average: 0.705ms
4KB - max: 2.637ms, average: 2.541ms
16KB - max: 9.873ms, average: 9.739ms

Just for comparison, here are some cf_bench results for my 4GB Class 4 Toshiba card (C04G). It was formatted using the often recommended Panasonic SD/SDHC formatter (Fat32/32k cluster size).

512B - max: 0.578ms, average: 0.540ms
4KB - max: 2.309ms, average: 2.164ms
16KB - max: 9.040ms, average: 8.600ms

In HD Tach, the 4GB microsd posted a random access time of 0.8ms.
I think cf_bench results are more relevant though, since it tests the microsd card speeds between the flash cart and the DS itself, compared to HD Tach which tests microsd speeds from a card reader to a PC.

Oddly, whilst it worked fine for the 4GB card, formatting using the Panasonic software slowed the 8GB card down. Using cf_bench, the original 0.705ms random access time increased to 0.788ms after formatting. I figured I'd try formatting it in Windows, but the standard Fat32/32k cluster was no good. However, choosing a 16k cluster size* brought both sequential and random access times down significantly.

I'm not sure how any of this really works, but to my surprise, the new speed results for the 8GB Toshiba formatted with 16k clusters are actually slightly better than the 4GB. The new random access times are as follows:

512B - max: 0.559ms, average: 0.536ms
4KB - max: 2.139ms, average: 2.092ms
16KB - max: 8.243ms, average: 8.217ms

...which I'm pretty pleased with. Random access time in HD Tach also went down slightly to 0.9ms (burst and read times were unchanged). The 8GB microsd loads the CycloDS menu just as quickly as the 4GB card too; performance doesn't seem to have taken a knock with the increased capacity. I've had no problems with Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin thus far; the intro fmv played flawlessly with no slowdown, continuously pausing/unpausing didn't cause it to freeze, etc.

I still don't know if microsd classes count for much when it comes to DS flash carts, but the Class 4 Toshiba does its job well. Thanks for everyone's input!



*re: cluster size: it won't let you choose a cluster size if you try formatting from the explorer window (it didn't for me, anyway). In XP, go to start > control panel > admin tools > comp management > disk management > right click on the drive you want to format and it'll let you choose the cluster size there.
Also, once you do that, use chkdsk to check for errors: start > run > type "cmd" (without quotes), then type "chkdsk x:" (also without quotes - x is the letter of the drive you want to check).



[tl;dr]: bought an 8GB Class 4 Toshiba, was pretty quick at first. Formatted it with Panasonic's formatter, but that slowed it down. Formatted it in Windows with 16k cluster size and now it works perfectly, is super quick, runs CastlevaniaoR flawlessly.

 

[Ryukouki]

i use kingston 8gb class 4 no issues as of yet!