HyperX, Kingston's renowned gaming division, has just launched a new line of gaming microSD cards that promises high levels of performance and reliability for demanding gamers.
Nowadays, it's pretty common to find the gaming monicker on every type of computer product, whether it be components, like motherboards or memory, or peripherals, such as mice, keyboards and headsets. There are even routers and network switches out there labeled and marketed as gaming-grade devices. HyperX's latest gaming-oriented microSD cards aren't a novelty by any means since SanDisk released its own microSD cards for gamers not so long ago. However, what really surprised us was that HyperX was so late to the game considering it's one of the major players in the gaming market and owned by parent company Kingston.
The Class 10 UHS-I HyperX Gaming microSD cards feature A1 and U3 speed class performance with read speeds of 100MB/s and write speeds of 80MB/s. HyperX will offer the microSD cards in capacities of 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. HyperX emphasized that its gaming microSD cards are compatible with a wide selection of devices, which include the Nintendo Switch console, mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, and basically any other portable gaming devices with a microSD slot.
Consumers in the United States and Canada can purchase the new HyperX Gaming microSD cards through Amazon, HyperX said in its announcement. The 64GB (HXSDC/64GB) model goes for $49.99, while the 256GB (HXSDC/256GB) will set you back $199.99. At the time of writing, HyperX hasn't revealed the price tag for the 128GB (HXSDC/128GB). As is custom, all HyperX Gaming microSD cards are backed by a lifetime warranty and technical support.
HyperX Gaming microSD Card Specifications
- Capacity: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB
- Performance: 100MB/s read and 80MB/s write, UHS-I, CL10, Speed Class (U3), A1 App
- Dimensions: 11 x 15 x 1mm
- Format: exFAT (SDXC 64GB-256GB)
- Operating Temperatures: -25°C to 85°C
- Storage Temperatures: -40°C to 85°C
- Voltage: 3.3V
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
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yourhighness Really? Is there any need for this in gaming? I use some high end microSD card for cameras to keep up when trying to quickly write high rez and high frame rate videos to the card. Most games are only going to be reading from disk...Reply -
AlistairAB Main problem is Switch cards are limited by the UHS-I compatibility. Would be nice for a Switch revision to support faster cards.Reply -
jimmysmitty Reply21231735 said:Main problem is Switch cards are limited by the UHS-I compatibility. Would be nice for a Switch revision to support faster cards.
It supports UHS-I up to 95MB/s transfer rates so this would work.
What I don't get is the big deal on this particular microSD card. It has 100/80MB/s. So I can buy a 256GB Samsung Evo+ on Amazon for $95 bucks and it is 95/90MB/s. Or for the same price I can buy 2 256GB Evo+ cards.
Patriot has a 256GB with 95/85MB/s on Newegg for $80 bucks.
So you can drop performance slightly, so slightly that you may never notice since the majority of files will be photos and music files, and cut the price in half or even less? Who is going to pay double the price for a product that is not superior? I would go with Samsung over this easily.