The best microSD card for the Steam Deck overall Samsung Pro Plus specs:

PNY XLR8 microSDXC Gaming – Low prices, but US-only for now.

Kingston Canvas Go! Plus - Good speeds with a wide range of capacities.

SanDisk Ultra - The best cheap microSD card for the Steam Deck.

SanDisk Extreme Pro - The fastest microSD card for the Steam Deck.

Samsung Pro Plus - The best microSD card for the Steam Deck overall.

The best microSD cards for the Steam Deck I’d recommend at least 512GB if you can afford it, and some microSD cards even offer 1TB versions – though some smaller capacities are filthy cheap right now, even after the conclusion of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Read on for the full lowdown, including performance testing results and capacity lists for each model. There is a hardware requirement in play – microSD cards must meet the UHS-I speed standard to work with the Deck – but that’s an easily-met condition, by cheap and high-end cards alike. This should go without saying but they’re all fully compatible with the Steam Deck, as well. Better than fine, if you go for one of these: cards I’ve tested for real-life load times in Aperture Desk Job and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and have made the cut on performance. Looking for more RPS recommended hardware? Watch on YouTube Liam investigates how the Steam Deck handles Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection. Which, as Valve themselves have warned, is trickier to directly replace and upgrade than the SSD in your desktop PC. A good microSD card will provide an instant, significant boost to your Steam Deck's capacity, with a surprisingly negligible performance difference to the SSD. But if you’re taking full advantage of the Steam Deck’s power to play, ooh, let’s say, any big game released in the past four years, you’ll find yourself running low on gigabytes in short order.

The most premium version of Valve’s handheld PC comes equipped with a 512GB SSD that’s fast and reasonably spacious, and might suffice on its own if you’re primarily playing little indies and 2D games. There’s one little add-on that every owner should consider first, however, and that’s one of the best microSD cards for the Steam Deck. The waiting list is depleted, there are more Deck-ready games than ever, and the range of available accessories has grown considerably – not even counting the hiqh quality Steam Deck artwork I generously gifted to Liam.

It’s taken some months, but the Steam Deck has finally settled into its place in the PC gaming landscape.

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