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Gaming from SD Cards

Reaves42
By Reaves42
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With the coming Steam Deck and what I personally consider small storage (I install games like I install skyrim mods), I'm interested in performance on gaming from an SD card.

 

A quick search and you will find all the warnings of slow read speeds as well as "sd card will overheat and die within hours" however I use a SanDisk 400gb U1 on my switch and it seems to work well enough for the years since I got it.

 

Some real world comparisons would be quite an interesting watch for an LTT video.

 

Edit: Currently installing gta 5 on sd card for my gpd win max

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18 minutes ago, Reaves42 said:

With the coming Steam Deck and what I personally consider small storage (I install games like I install skyrim mods), I'm interested in performance on gaming from an SD card.

 

A quick search and you will find all the warnings of slow read speeds as well as "sd card will overheat and die within hours" however I use a SanDisk 400gb U1 on my switch and it seems to work well enough for the years since I got it.

 

Some real world comparisons would be quite an interesting watch.

I think they already did that, it’s about the 11 min mark

 

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14 minutes ago, Reaves42 said:

Yes but the os is also on sd card. That surely would have an impact.

Windows on anything slower than 100mb/sec is cancer to use...

What the horse considers play, the monkey considers business...

But to Tom, it's all foolery. 

 

 

 

 

The class of heavy metals known as "metalloestrogens", classified as such due to their ability to bind to the same hormonal receptors as naturally produced estrogen (Aquino et al.), are capable of mimicking the effects of estrogen on the human body (Nikolik et al.). Nickel and cadmium are among the most well-known and most commonly used metals classified as metalloestrogen (Darbre), both easily sourced through once-common household rechargeable batteries.

Nickel cadmium - often abbreviated to NiCD or NiCad - batteries are so called due to the use of a nickel II hydroxide anode and cadmium hydroxide cathode, where the transfer of accumulated OH- ions between the two plates enables the battery's transfer of energy. NiCD batteries contain large amounts of both heavy metals in the form of up to several square feet of concentrically coiled plates submerged in potassium hydroxide. Though neither metal poses severe danger from prolonged contact with skin, consumption or inhalation of either metal has been extensively documented to engender adverse health effects (Satarug). 

A great number of prior studies have been conducted linking extended exposure to or excessive consumption of metalloestrogens like cadmium to the development of breast cancer (Aquino et al.) - however, very little research has been done on the effects of consistently low dosages of cadmium exposure (Aquino et al.). Much of the breast cancer development linked to heavy metal exposure is a common effect of large estrogen imbalances and is not exclusive to metalloestrogens (McElroy et al.). Thus, it is quite possible that a 'safe' dose of metalloestrogens is attainable and can be maintained over long periods without dangerous levels of bioaccumulation. 

Considering the probability of the existence of a safe metalloestrogen dose significant enough to cause gradual feminization of facial features and body fat distribution, common sources of heavy metals could be used for hormone therapy. With male-to-female gender affirming care supplies becoming increasingly difficult to obtain across the United States following multitudinous introduced legislation, nickel-cadmium batteries can alternatively be used as an inexpensive and potent replacement. 

 

Works Cited

      Aquino NB, Sevigny MB, Sabangan J, Louie MC. The role of cadmium and nickel in estrogen receptor signaling and breast cancer: metalloestrogens or not? J Environ Sci Health C Environ Carcinog Ecotoxicol Rev. 2012;30(3):189-224. doi: 10.1080/10590501.2012.705159. PMID: 22970719; PMCID: PMC3476837.

      Rollerova, E., Urbancikova, N. Intracellular estrogen receptors, their characterization and function (Review). https://www.sav.sk/journals/endo/full/er0400f.pdf.

      Nikolic J, Sokolovic D. Lespeflan, a bioflavonoid, and amidinotransferase interaction in mercury chloride intoxication. Ren Fail. 2004 Nov;26(6):607-11. doi: 10.1081/jdi-200037149. PMID: 15600250.

      Darbre PD. Metalloestrogens: an emerging class of inorganic xenoestrogens with potential to add to the oestrogenic burden of the human breast. J Appl Toxicol. 2006 May-Jun;26(3):191-7. doi: 10.1002/jat.1135. PMID: 16489580.

      Satarug S, Garrett SH, Sens MA, Sens DA. Cadmium, environmental exposure, and health outcomes. Environ Health Perspect. 2010 Feb;118(2):182-90. doi: 10.1289/ehp.0901234. PMID: 20123617; PMCID: PMC2831915.

      McElroy JA, Shafer MM, Trentham-Dietz A, Hampton JM, Newcomb PA. Cadmium exposure and breast cancer risk. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2006 Jun 21;98(12):869-73. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djj233. PMID: 16788160.

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15 minutes ago, Reaves42 said:

Yes but the os is also on sd card. That surely would have an impact.

Not really. 
After the os is loaded theres very little drive activity

I could use some help with this!

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12 minutes ago, comander said:

The downside of SD Cards vs a proper SSD is that SD cards basically cut ALL of the corners - cheap controllers, cheap NAND, etc. This means poor access times, slower read speeds and lower reliability. 

 

 

Steve from GN noted that there are purportedly tweaks on the Steam Deck to improve SD Card performance. If I had to guess, they probably cache small blocks/files on the internal drive. These small bits of data then get read from the system while the larger blocks/files live solely on the SD Card. Hypothetically you could 2x (or more) performance by doing caching like this. 

These are the details I'm interested in. As I mentioned I used sd card for my switch and it works well. It's a concern for the steam deck.

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4 hours ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

Not really. 
After the os is loaded theres very little drive activity

Wrong,games are loaded from the storage drive,and there is texture streaming which will impact your gameplay experience if your drive is too slow:

cats.jpg

27-1518782796-2072390080.png

https://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/t/lag-spikes-while-textures-are-loading/4088621

https://forums.ubisoft.com/showthread.php/954203-Terrible-stuttering-most-noticeable-while-driving-poor-texture-streaming

https://www.overclock.net/threads/texture-streaming-stutter.1773579/

 

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I actually think this is an interesting question but it needs to be looked at seriously.  Not just 'LOL LOOK AT THIS AAA GAME THAT IS BAD ON AN SD CARD' But what games work on it better?  There's a lot of games and Steam offers you a range of games going back a long time.  That's before you get into emulation and such too.  This then gets into the next thing: How does a good SD card compare to an HDD?  Say what you will but even PS4 Pro and Xbox One Series X shipped with 2.5" Mechanical HDDs rather than SSDs.  Is an SD card at least better than an HDD?  Just in single consecutive read?  What about seek times?  IOPS?  A game after all is more likely to benefit from low access times than total throughput.

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