SD cards

[skellitor666]

good morning, im new to harddrives and stuff like enough space to download a game so i basically have a decntish laptop with 4gb ram and ok graphics card to run quite a few games but my issue is i only have 32g of harddrive to download to so im constantly uninstalling a game to get another, my question is rather than upgrade to a better harddrive can sd cards of 100+ gig be used to save games to? so i wont use my harddrive space all the time? tia

[ReBoot]

Entirely possible. Performance will be bad, but possible. You can do some performance tweaking in the device manager.

[skellitor666]

Originally posted by ReBoot:

Entirely possible. Performance will be bad, but possible. You can do some performance tweaking in the device manager.

thanks for commenting reboot, so will there be an option to save to sd card when downloading a game or will it automatically do it? and what exactly do you mean performance tweaking? like in game graphics i could lower the quality to run certain games smoother? i currently have dirty bomb which runs great on medium graphics but i have like 4gb space left after getting this game :/

[ReBoot]

Steam can create a library folder on another volume. You have to tell it to do that. SD cards have no impact on in-game performance, I am talking about the performance that suffers: Loading times.

[Khooni Billa]

ok thanks

[Gishank]

Steam allows you to choose where to install games when downloading (see Steam > Settings > Downloads > Steam Library Folders).

SD cards are not really designed for the purpose which you're intending to use them, so it could effect the lifespan significantly. Depending on what you buy, they can be significantly slower (reading/writing) than a traditional HDD (advertised speeds are not always accurate, as it depends on the SD card reader / firmware too). Performance aspect would be load times, and potentially high degrees of pop-in in certain games.

It would be cheaper to just get a new HDD (or even an external HDD), and offer you both more space + reliability.

[ReBoot]

Sadly, external HDDs are not only impractical for frequent use, Steam will forget the game library of you start it without the external drive attached. My point is, sometimes, the convenience weighs more, than loading times.

[skellitor666]

ok your confusing me :/ so you mean because the game will be installed on to the sd card then it will load slower than if it was on the HD? but the performance of the game will remain the same once loaded? i thought about an external hdd but if a 500g sd card can do the job and free up my HD then i will go for that for convenience.

[Muppet among Puppets]

SD cards can be slow or fast.
Read about it.

Also read what size of sd card your computer can handle.

How can a computer being able to play games but gets a drive with 32gb?

[skellitor666]

does it matter between a sandisk or cheaper version sd card?

[MancSoulja]

Originally posted by skellitor666:

does it matter between a sandisk or cheaper version sd card?

If you're not using a class 10+ SD Card don't bother.

Here's a nice graph to teach you about SD Card speeds - https://www.sdcard.org/consumers/choices/speed_class/img/video_speed%20class_01.jpg

[Muppet among Puppets]

And if you missed it, check what size your computer supports.

[skellitor666]

Originally posted by Muppet among Puppets:

SD cards can be slow or fast.
Read about it.

Also read what size of sd card your computer can handle.

How can a computer being able to play games but gets a drive with 32gb?

i have a hp 14 stream which was to replace my girlfriends laptop which died

[skellitor666]

Originally posted by Muppet among Puppets:

And if you missed it, check what size your computer supports.

ok where can i find out this please?

[Muppet among Puppets]

The manual or such things.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by skellitor666:

ok your confusing me :/ so you mean because the game will be installed on to the sd card then it will load slower than if it was on the HD? but the performance of the game will remain the same once loaded? i thought about an external hdd but if a 500g sd card can do the job and free up my HD then i will go for that for convenience.

To make this clear, yes, the game will load slower, but run fine otherwise. Depending on the game though, you may see streamimg artifacts.