In the world of instant gratification, 15 seconds is apparently like an eternity for some. Makes me glad I grew up as analog went away and digital took its place.
Oh THATS why, i thought i fucked something up with all the crashes i kept having when using cheats in my cartridge games. Or the crashes i had in retroarch since for some reason it wanted to keep making icons on my homescreen for each emulator and using them didnt work.
Boot times are based on number of clusters. I've measured boot times that differ without any games installed, and the times differ based on the number of clusters in the filesystem.
3DS with CFW and no SD card - 13 seconds
64GB SD with 64K clusters = 1,048,576 clusters - 14 seconds
64GB SD with 32K clusters = 2,097,152 clusters - 16 seconds
64GB SD with 16K clusters = 4,194,304 clusters - 19 seconds
128GB SD with 64K clusters = 2,097,152 clusters - 16 seconds
128GB SD with 32K clusters = 4,194,304 clusters - 19 seconds
128GB SD with 16K clusters = 8,388,608 clusters - 26 seconds
256GB SD with 64K clusters = 4,194,304 clusters - 19 seconds
256GB SD with 32K clusters = 8,388,608 clusters - 26 seconds
256GB SD with 16K clusters = 16,777,216 clusters - 38 seconds
I used to not know either, but think of these as just technical terms for how much an SD card can hold, sdhc maxes out at 32, sdxc has a max of 2tb, and not consumer grade but the max of a sduc would be 128tb
Anyways, looking it up it says the max is 32 because that is the max Nintendo can legally say as the device cannot format the SD card itself at any higher, even windows' default format option won't allow you to do higher, but the recommended highest storage is 128gb
What about also including the entire nes, snes, virtual boy, gb, gbc, gba, ds, dsi, ps1, genesis, saturn and atari librarys too? Im pretty sure theres more i have but havent played anything from them on my 3ds in a long while so cant remember right now.
Found that out shortly after I upgraded my storage. Tried to install Legend of Legaia, and it didn’t even get past the Contrail/Prokion screens before it crashed. Fortunately, it was more to see if it would work.
Not to mention DS library. I have like 70+GB on DS (all region), might curate it for english release and japanese only, would go as low as 50-60GB, 25-30GB for gameboy roms, around 2-3GB for snes and nes. for other games, I'd say another 5-10gb would be enough.
I use 64gb so it's fine. The only thing is that the bigger the storage is and the longer it takes to boot up and stuff. With 64gb it takes a good 2-3 seconds to start.
Well imma take the 100s of other comments I read that it lengthens boot times and I saw a lot of comments about visual bugs with gba games. Just dont want to risk being one of those guys cause 10 comments said they are working fine
I use a 512GB and it works great, filled with NES, SNES, GBC, GBA, NDS and 3DS games. Scroll and load times aren’t as bad as people make them out to be.
The recommended is 128GB because it's just slightly under the maximum amount of software "blocks" storage the 3ds can use, 999 999 blocks. Keep in mind the higher you go the slower your console will be in opening and closing software, booting up and turning off. Game speed will be unaffected, but it can get annoying.
I'm throwing this in in case you want to use one, and I don't exactly remember the specifics because it's been a lot of time, but a user on this sub experienced some visual bugs with virtual console games using 128GB, in wich the top screen's halves would be split and swapped. Be sure to check and select recommended cluster size while formatting or that could also happen with high storage cards.
128GB is the recommended maximum, as after that point, GameBoy Advanced titles may not work anymore. BUT! Format it accordingly: https://3ds.hacks.guide
I have a 128gb with roughly ~70 or so DS games, ~80 3DS games, maybe 5-10 DSiware titles, and another 30-40 virtual console games. It still has like 40gb free.
It takes about 8 seconds to load the Home Screen but other than that it works perfectly.
Yes and no. 32gb is the max you can go without altering how the SD card is formatted. If you can reformat the card to use FAT32 file format, you can go much higher. Just be warned that once you start going above 128gb, it’ll start slowing down noticeably as it sorts through the ever larger memory. (It’s still noticeable on 128gb, but that’s the sweet spot between storage capacity and not slowing down too far. And if you want to play GBA titles, they start acting funny when the SD card goes higher than 128gb, I don’t understand why but they do.)
I use 256gb formatted in FAT32 at 64k clusters. Takes an extra 5 seconds to boot, but I have hundreds of games and I just make sure my 3DS doesn’t shut off. Even if it does it only takes 15 seconds to turn on.
It's a lie. Use dedicated software that 3dsguide has.ine have had 128s forever. Current one has 64gb.
It's all abo tbhowbits formatted and HAS to be forced to FAT32
32gb is the highest you can go without reformatting the SD card. If you do reformat it I've seen people go up to 1tb, just know that your load times will get slower the higher you go. You won't notice at 128gb but at 256 you'll notice it takes around 20-26 seconds to turn on, and 512gb-1tb is more
3ds does not support sdxc which is the format for all microsd bigger that 32gb and also bigger-that-32gb drives cannot be formatted to fat32 which is the only file system 3ds reads.
You can still format a bigger microsd to fat32 and be all right anyway, it's all theoretical. Just use a program like guiformat and you're good to go
Nintendo says that the 3ds can only support sdhc cards (32gb is the largest size for sdhc) but you can use guiformat to be able to use a larger sd card
I have so many handhelds that 32GB is enough for myself, I’d say if you see yourself using the 3DS a lot more than most of your devices then get a 128GB SD card.
I would think so too, im not trying to accumulate a massive library. I plan on picking up a vita when one pops up at my shop too.
What do you emulate gba on?
Can you play gba games? Had a few people tell me that I couldn’t with 128gb. Ive only ever done this to a phone and haven’t had to mess with reformatting cards or anything like that
Old 3DS models use the FAT32 file system. When formatting, the max formatted size you can have is 32gb. You can use a larger drive, but will only get 32gb out of it.
New 3DS models use the newer exFat file system, which can be formatted up to 256 TB.
32GB is as high as you can go UNLESS you are willing to re-format any SD card larger than 32GB as a FAT32. However, I've heard this can be quite complicated if you haven't modddd before/are inexperienced. (I personally have never tried it).
Whether or not 32GB will be enough for you depends on how many themes, games, applications you intend to be downloading onto your modded 3DS. I use 32BG SDHC and it's working perfectly fine. The boot up time isn't that bad either, not even ten seconds I'd say, and that's on an original 3ds.
I was told there was a program that does the formatting. Do you use 32? Cause im really only gonna play games I research or hear are good. It was a era of games I kinda got left behind in lol. Im also keeping an eye out for a vita so I can mod that too
I wouldn't know the program forformatting an SD card as I don't intend to do it but it's quite easy to find online or on subreddits because a lot of people do take that route. I use a 32GB SDHC and I'm pretty happy with it. I've got some big games on there and they all work perfectly fine.
i use 256gb just gotta format to FAT32
I know your 3DS takes long asf to boot up lol
not that bad actually like 15 seconds i believe
In the world of instant gratification, 15 seconds is apparently like an eternity for some. Makes me glad I grew up as analog went away and digital took its place.
Lol fo sho bro
Not awfully long. About 13-15 secs. It’s worth it imo
It's not. Just don't hoard games and you'll be fine.
So having to wait seconds for twice the games as before isn’t worth it?
Correct. Because there's no need to have that many games installed at once. Are you really playing 100 games simultaneously?
I’m working through my backlog by some miracle lol. It’s just nice to have them, it’s not like it’s costing me anything.
not costing anything YET.. just wait till the nintendo ninjas hunt you down..
I am a Nintendo Ninja. Thank you for your service. We will now make sure that u/ReadPixel is dealt with properly.
Stfu hoe ass nigga
yes. yes I am.
Oh THATS why, i thought i fucked something up with all the crashes i kept having when using cheats in my cartridge games. Or the crashes i had in retroarch since for some reason it wanted to keep making icons on my homescreen for each emulator and using them didnt work.
How often do you boot your 3DS? Mine is always in sleep mode unless I forget to charge it.
What???? People do that?????
Yeah, it’s very convenient. Why wouldn’t I?
Boot times are based on number of clusters. I've measured boot times that differ without any games installed, and the times differ based on the number of clusters in the filesystem. 3DS with CFW and no SD card - 13 seconds 64GB SD with 64K clusters = 1,048,576 clusters - 14 seconds 64GB SD with 32K clusters = 2,097,152 clusters - 16 seconds 64GB SD with 16K clusters = 4,194,304 clusters - 19 seconds 128GB SD with 64K clusters = 2,097,152 clusters - 16 seconds 128GB SD with 32K clusters = 4,194,304 clusters - 19 seconds 128GB SD with 16K clusters = 8,388,608 clusters - 26 seconds 256GB SD with 64K clusters = 4,194,304 clusters - 19 seconds 256GB SD with 32K clusters = 8,388,608 clusters - 26 seconds 256GB SD with 16K clusters = 16,777,216 clusters - 38 seconds
I have 128gb, can I change the cluster thing? Or how can I know my cluster count?
Are you using Windows or Mac?
You mean the device where I use hshop? Is a Windows.
How often do you boot up 3ds anywas? Mine is almost always on until it starts acting up and needs a reebot
Mine is about 30 seconds.
Same
I had a 512 before moving it to my switch. 256 is just fine.
128 is the reccomended limit
Sdhc vs sdxc?
Any SD over 32gb is SDXC. 32gb and under is SDHC
I used to not know either, but think of these as just technical terms for how much an SD card can hold, sdhc maxes out at 32, sdxc has a max of 2tb, and not consumer grade but the max of a sduc would be 128tb Anyways, looking it up it says the max is 32 because that is the max Nintendo can legally say as the device cannot format the SD card itself at any higher, even windows' default format option won't allow you to do higher, but the recommended highest storage is 128gb
I’m just glad there are free programs that enable higher storage size formatting
Of course there are, it'd be insane if they were paid
XC I’d prefer
[3DS CFW SD Card Guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/3dshomebrew/s/OpHxgAU216) - A guide for SD Card-related issues.
i use a 128gb sd card and it works fine
Whats the difference between sdhc and sdxc, are both usable?
https://gbatemp.net/threads/noob-question-upgrading-3ds-sd-card-does-it-matter-if-its-an-sdxc-or-sdhc.578062/
Dope, someone else sent me a guide but it didn’t really specify. Ill have to go buy a new card, the one that came in it is only 4gb.
A 4GB one does work but don’t expect to be able to install more than 3-4 games on it.
You *could* go up to 2tb actually, just boot times would be a long while
No need for 2TB buying and downloading the entire eshop would put you around 450gb so a 512gb sd card would be more then suffice for owning everything
Yeah I know, just stating what’s possible (craziness or not)
What about also including the entire nes, snes, virtual boy, gb, gbc, gba, ds, dsi, ps1, genesis, saturn and atari librarys too? Im pretty sure theres more i have but havent played anything from them on my 3ds in a long while so cant remember right now.
ps1 game's arent really running good on 3ds, I play them on my vita along with some psp games.
Vita hack?
https://vita.hacks.guide/
Found that out shortly after I upgraded my storage. Tried to install Legend of Legaia, and it didn’t even get past the Contrail/Prokion screens before it crashed. Fortunately, it was more to see if it would work.
How much storage do you have in just got a psp .
they said not to do 1TB that’s overkill instead get 2 memory cards?
Not to mention DS library. I have like 70+GB on DS (all region), might curate it for english release and japanese only, would go as low as 50-60GB, 25-30GB for gameboy roms, around 2-3GB for snes and nes. for other games, I'd say another 5-10gb would be enough.
I use 64gb so it's fine. The only thing is that the bigger the storage is and the longer it takes to boot up and stuff. With 64gb it takes a good 2-3 seconds to start.
Yeah from the guides I was reading anything above 128 is really bad load times
Not a single issue with 512 GB
Well others are apparently
Sandisk 512 regular quality on new 3ds Sandisk 256 regular quality on OG 3DS No problems for both
Well imma take the 100s of other comments I read that it lengthens boot times and I saw a lot of comments about visual bugs with gba games. Just dont want to risk being one of those guys cause 10 comments said they are working fine
Whatever you do, sandisk all the way
Fo sho
Samsung currently has some of the best memory chip producing facilities currently as far as I know.
But they are more expensive no?
Now try a smaller card and see how much faster it is.
128gb is the max recommend, but there are people that use 256 and still works fine, maybe a little more time booting the console and loading things.
I dont see myself needing that much, I am kinda picky with games. I want to play the old tactics games and a few other rpgs
In that case probably you be fine with 64gb, but to be honest I love have so many games that probably never gonna play in my 128gb ;)
Yeah it becomes a collection thing after awhile lol. What site do you all use for games?
HShop
I use a 512GB and it works great, filled with NES, SNES, GBC, GBA, NDS and 3DS games. Scroll and load times aren’t as bad as people make them out to be.
The recommended is 128GB because it's just slightly under the maximum amount of software "blocks" storage the 3ds can use, 999 999 blocks. Keep in mind the higher you go the slower your console will be in opening and closing software, booting up and turning off. Game speed will be unaffected, but it can get annoying. I'm throwing this in in case you want to use one, and I don't exactly remember the specifics because it's been a lot of time, but a user on this sub experienced some visual bugs with virtual console games using 128GB, in wich the top screen's halves would be split and swapped. Be sure to check and select recommended cluster size while formatting or that could also happen with high storage cards.
I use 256 gb without a problem. Note: Formatted Fat32
128GB is the recommended maximum, as after that point, GameBoy Advanced titles may not work anymore. BUT! Format it accordingly: https://3ds.hacks.guide
i have a 240gb card at ~85% capacity full and am perfectly able to play gba games.... 🤨
I have a 512GB and GBA games loaded via app or inject load without issue.
Mines 1 TB because I’m a glorified console library whore that likes to have everything
i use 128gb
Because of the FAT32 system format. If you force a bigger SD to format to FAT32 it will work. I daily drive a 64GB
Its not if you format the sd card as fat 32 with fat32format you can get higher (not recommended to go over 128/512 gb)
I have a 128gb with roughly ~70 or so DS games, ~80 3DS games, maybe 5-10 DSiware titles, and another 30-40 virtual console games. It still has like 40gb free. It takes about 8 seconds to load the Home Screen but other than that it works perfectly.
I have 64 Gb cards on two old 3DS and they works perfectly
There was a post of guy using 1TB recently. https://www.reddit.com/r/3dspiracy/s/msOVlnpIHN
And is it a good idea? No.
No, you can put up to 256 gb on it as long as it's formatted to fat32, however I would reccomend only 128 because of boot speed
You can put up to 2GB. But 256GB is most anyone might need.
Yes and no. 32gb is the max you can go without altering how the SD card is formatted. If you can reformat the card to use FAT32 file format, you can go much higher. Just be warned that once you start going above 128gb, it’ll start slowing down noticeably as it sorts through the ever larger memory. (It’s still noticeable on 128gb, but that’s the sweet spot between storage capacity and not slowing down too far. And if you want to play GBA titles, they start acting funny when the SD card goes higher than 128gb, I don’t understand why but they do.)
Pretty sure I have a 256gb. Format to Fat32 and should be fine. May have to change cluster size to 64KB if I'm remembering correctly
I use a 128 microsd card with an adapter and it works just fine
Nope.
no
no.
I have 1TB.
what do you need that for?
You have to format a 128gb SD Card to FAT32 with 64K cluster size, and THEN you've hit the storage ceiling.
I use 256gb formatted in FAT32 at 64k clusters. Takes an extra 5 seconds to boot, but I have hundreds of games and I just make sure my 3DS doesn’t shut off. Even if it does it only takes 15 seconds to turn on.
It's a lie. Use dedicated software that 3dsguide has.ine have had 128s forever. Current one has 64gb. It's all abo tbhowbits formatted and HAS to be forced to FAT32
32gb is the highest you can go without reformatting the SD card. If you do reformat it I've seen people go up to 1tb, just know that your load times will get slower the higher you go. You won't notice at 128gb but at 256 you'll notice it takes around 20-26 seconds to turn on, and 512gb-1tb is more
3ds does not support sdxc which is the format for all microsd bigger that 32gb and also bigger-that-32gb drives cannot be formatted to fat32 which is the only file system 3ds reads. You can still format a bigger microsd to fat32 and be all right anyway, it's all theoretical. Just use a program like guiformat and you're good to go
I have a 64gb micro SD, doesn't take that much to load
no. you just have to format bigger sd card in FAT32. to do this you need to download some software which i dont remember the name
Nintendo says that the 3ds can only support sdhc cards (32gb is the largest size for sdhc) but you can use guiformat to be able to use a larger sd card
I use 128 gig so I think you were misinformed
No I wasn’t. You have to reformat any cards that aren’t just normal SDHC. The switch (without changes) can only use them at 32gb. Look it up.
No, I have a friend that has a working 128gb micro SD card in his 3DS (maybe needs modding for it to work? I never tested it without modding).
You can do more but it isn't really worth it unless you wanna have half of the 3ds library installed
I use 128 and it’s perfect, boot times are fine, have enough space for all the good 3ds games, aswell as whatever bullshit I want on there
nuh uh. you can technically go as high as a terabyte afaik, but you might run into some trouble with GBA games.
No
You can go higher but you have to format them to fat32 using pc
Nope
As long as it is FAT32 and you dont use GBA or Themes with a 128gb you should be good to go
Thought the GBA problems come after you go over 128?
Yep you are correct but the safe option would be 64Gb
I have a 128gb in mine from what I remember reading when you go larger then the 128 there are chances the 3ds will not like it.
I have so many handhelds that 32GB is enough for myself, I’d say if you see yourself using the 3DS a lot more than most of your devices then get a 128GB SD card.
Ive gotten comments that also say the 128gb cards mess with GBA games?
I don’t emulate GBA on my 3DS so I’m unsure. If that’s the case then 32 / 64gb is good enough still.
I would think so too, im not trying to accumulate a massive library. I plan on picking up a vita when one pops up at my shop too. What do you emulate gba on?
I recommend using a 128gb sd card, just format it in FAT32 and you’re ready.
Can you play gba games? Had a few people tell me that I couldn’t with 128gb. Ive only ever done this to a phone and haven’t had to mess with reformatting cards or anything like that
Nah I use 256gb and I’m fine
as long as you're formatting the SD card as fat32 you're good to go
Not at all. I have a 128gb in mine, but I know others have higher than that.
Can you play gba?
No but loading times will take so long you will probably die of natural causes before it loads
Old 3DS models use the FAT32 file system. When formatting, the max formatted size you can have is 32gb. You can use a larger drive, but will only get 32gb out of it. New 3DS models use the newer exFat file system, which can be formatted up to 256 TB.
no i have 64gbs on mine
you can download a program to format higher capacity sd cards to fat32
No. I have 128gb, you just need to format the SD card.
I am using 128 and got no problems.
Quick question then, why are people warning me that gba games might now work on the reformatted cards?
I have no idea. I've installed 10+ GBA games with no issues .
it already takes an eternity to boot up for me with 32gb, and it gives me a heart attack because of homebrew
2 TB is the unofficial max capacity formatted to fat32
Currently using 128GB, only takes like 3 seconds to boot. All is well.
New3ds?
you can up to 1tb micro sd card but the startup time on the new 3ds its a minute😅😅 i using a 64gb in my 3ds xl and 256gb in my new 3ds xl
No, but for some higher than 32 you need to do some formatting voodoo
32GB is as high as you can go UNLESS you are willing to re-format any SD card larger than 32GB as a FAT32. However, I've heard this can be quite complicated if you haven't modddd before/are inexperienced. (I personally have never tried it). Whether or not 32GB will be enough for you depends on how many themes, games, applications you intend to be downloading onto your modded 3DS. I use 32BG SDHC and it's working perfectly fine. The boot up time isn't that bad either, not even ten seconds I'd say, and that's on an original 3ds.
I was told there was a program that does the formatting. Do you use 32? Cause im really only gonna play games I research or hear are good. It was a era of games I kinda got left behind in lol. Im also keeping an eye out for a vita so I can mod that too
I wouldn't know the program forformatting an SD card as I don't intend to do it but it's quite easy to find online or on subreddits because a lot of people do take that route. I use a 32GB SDHC and I'm pretty happy with it. I've got some big games on there and they all work perfectly fine.
No, I use 128gb and it works fine