PS2 Micro SD card recommendations and questions for MMCE/SMB

D

DTR

Member
Hello

Do A2 rated Micro SD cards offer any advantages when it comes to performance in MMCE or SMB?

Secondly, do any of you guys have recommendations for good performing and compatible (are there compatibility issues at all?) micro SD cards? 128GB preferably, 256 if i need to.


That's the gist of the information i needed, but to make a short story long: I decided to at least for now buy a MMCE device since for the life of me i could not find a way to bun a DVD to install homebrew that way. I was originally going to buy a 128 GB PNY Elite one because they are cheap but then i learned about the App performance rating and that it may have an effect when used for this purpose, so i decided to instead get the Pro Elite version of the card. Problem is that when i look at images of the 128 version it is suspiciously missing the A2 rating in the label, whereas the 256 version has it. To me this looks like they didn't print it on the label because they can't advertise it as being certified for those speeds (but can still use the Pro Elite label for sales), while the 256 version is actually certified. This would mean they are doing false advertising on the European official site specifically as the US one took the care of not putting the 128 card on the same product page using the same marketing as the 256 and above ones, but i digress.

Thank you.
 
Speed doesn't matter as long it read speed is above 1.3MiB/s. But IOPS have, latency have. That's why top tier cards are need to use on MMCEs. However, many games will run just fine with "slower" cards.

Not all microSD cards will be seen, so it is quite a roulette.
 
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Berion said:
Speed doesn't matter as long it read speed is above 1.3MiB/s. But IOPS have, latency have. That's why top tier cards are need to use on MMCEs. However, many games will run just fine with "slower" cards.

Not all microSD cards will be seen, so it is quite a roulette.
Click to expand...

Goddamn it...that last line is troubling. I don't want to just throw 30 euros or more down the toilet.
Could you please give me an example of what a top tier card is?

I know the A rating has to do with IOPS, but does it have to do with latency too?

I could get a Sandisk 128GB that is rated for A2 right now at a discount, but i heard SanDisk SD cards have lots of problems. Any truth to that?

Edit: I can find posts on Rebbit saying their SanDisk cards don't work for MX4ISO. Don't know what to make of it...
 
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The one from here is fine (it not need to be 2TB card, but from that product series): https://www.psx-place.com/threads/e...-know-about-sd2psx-and-psxmemcard-gen2.47550/ It is... extremely costly so I'm not sure if it is not worth to just risk with different A2 class card.

By latency I have in mind how fast card report (registering? I dunno which is best translation from: zgłaszać się) to the controller. And I/Ops determine how fast is block access, in our case most important in 32KiB chunks because that's best cluster size for current BDM drivers. Why this matter, why it is so important? I have no idea. Why not all cards are recognizing? I have no idea either. It is question kind for people who have knowledge about SPI and writing firmwares. That stuff is over my head.
 
Berion said:
The one from here is fine (it not need to be 2TB card, but from that product series): https://www.psx-place.com/threads/e...-know-about-sd2psx-and-psxmemcard-gen2.47550/ It is... extremely costly so I'm not sure if it is not worth to just risk with different A2 class card.

By latency I have in mind how fast card report (registering? I dunno which is best translation from: zgłaszać się) to the controller. And I/Ops determine how fast is block access, in our case most important in 32KiB chunks because that's best cluster size for current BDM drivers. Why this matter, why it is so important? I have no idea. Why not all cards are recognizing? I have no idea either. It is question kind for people who have knowledge about SPI and writing firmwares. That stuff is over my head.
Click to expand...

lol that's funny, I'm pretty sure that is the card i can find on discount now
umzbsJ0.jpeg

Is 128GB good enough for a decent library plus saves you think?
Capacity aside, this would be an ideal card for playing games through MMCE then?

With my luck I'll miss out on the sale anyway but good to have as reference since i expect things to go on discount in the coming month.

I read a post on this forum saying MX4ISO had problems with SanDisk cards because the card expected one of it's pins to have a higher voltage or something, so probably something supported by common devices firmware but not these ones. I assume that's not an issue for this card or this device if you say it works.

Edit: Actually, two more questions if i may:
Does filling up the card entirely affect performance in any way? I know things still can get fragmented but it should not affect performance seeing as it's flash memory, right?
Is the process of deleting and adding new games just as straight forward as dragging an ISO into the card once everything is set up? So i should be able to just add and remove games any time i want, right?
 
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Should works fine.
Comparing MX4SIO and MMCE is not a good idea, both are different designs.

I never filled whole card but I never made raw partition for internal sd card operations; actually I never use it and never experienced problems.

Yes, on MMCEs you doing the same like on every BDM devices (USB/i.Link/MX4SIO/internal HDD with exFAT).

- - -

I asked author of sd2psXtd fw about potential source of stuttering problems and he said that those are main issues:
  • transfer speed of MMCE not being quick enough because it delayed caused by game itself (game loader issue - B.)
  • SD card is to slow on SPI (so it is hw unsolvable issue type by the user - B.)
  • files fragmentation (try to keep zero fragmenting of VMCs and disc images - B.)
  • worn out card which remapped lot of blocks
 
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Berion said:
Should works fine.
Comparing MX4SIO and MMCE is not a good idea, both are different designs.

I never filled whole card but I never made raw partition for internal sd card operations; actually I never use it and never experienced problems.

Yes, on MMCEs you doing the same like on every BDM devices (USB/i.Link/MX4SIO/internal HDD with exFAT).

- - -

I asked author of sd2psXtd fw about potential source of stuttering problems and he said that those are main issues:
  • transfer speed of MMCE not being quick enough because it delayed caused by game itself (game loader issue - B.)
  • SD card is to slow on SPI (so it is hw unsolvable issue type by the user - B.)
  • files fragmentation (try to keep zero fragmenting of VMCs and disc images - B.)
  • worn out card which remapped lot of blocks
Click to expand...
That's very kind of you to take the trouble. Thank you.

Yeah, it turns out i severely underestimated how big PS2 ISOs get. I don't think 128gb will do for what i was looking for, so it will have to be 256 minimum so I'll keep my eyes peeled for deals on that.
 
Yes, 256GB is the "sweet spot".
It's round about 90-100 games (average) including VMCs, ART, CHT, etc. for a decent GB/€ rate.

Some games are really big, but you can still fit at least 60 games on a 256GB card.
 
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