I didn't know about Micro SD Express until the Nintendo Switch 2 was announced. What are the odds that it will be included in the M5 MacBook Pros and M5 Mac Studio?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Micro SD Express
- Thread starter Black_Mage
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The use of SD cards in Macs are mostly due to being useful for photographers. SD cards for storage not ideal, i.e., too slow, especially when there's a better alternatives, i.e., TB3, TB4, and now TB5
If digital cameras start embracing the Micro SD cards, maybe, but I don't think we'll see one in the next generation of macs.
SD Express is based on PCIe. The slowest version, based on PCIe 3.1 x1, is capable of ~1000 MB/s.
TB3/TB4: 5,000 MB/s
TB5: 10,000 MB/s (but it seems 6,000 MB/s is the real world capability)
From what I googled, the theoretical high end of MicroSD Express is 985 MB/s I'll be the first to admit my ignorance on this standard, but a quick google shows that maybe at the moment 1000 MB/s is not realistic.
Links; Reddit Sandisk Wired
Now for the reasons and logic of putting a slower port on the Mac when TB3 -> TB5 are superior in every way?
Again, my lack of knowledge, is such, that there may be many reasons too, but from my perspective, I'm not seeing it.
985 MB/s is ~1000 MBps
I probably misread your point. I thought you meant MicroSD is too slow for photographers or videographers.
No there's two points, first, do photographers use this standard? I don't think its been embraced yet. So from that perspective there's little reason for apple to use it. Secondly, its slower then TB3 by a wide margin, so its definitely a step back as a storage medium for the. mac.
To your first point: no and probably will not. CF Express has already been widely adopted by professional photography and videography.
To your second point: I actually think Micro SD express is too fast for Apple to support it, especially on portable devices. 1000 MB/s is fast enough for media storage, and it will hurt Apple's ability to sell exorbitant storage upgrade options.
To your second point: I actually think Micro SD express is too fast for Apple to support it, especially on portable devices. 1000 MB/s is fast enough for media storage, and it will hurt Apple's ability to sell exorbitant storage upgrade options.
Yep, the only real benefit of SD Express in photography/videography is moving photos/recordings from card to computer. I guess if you really need your file copy to be significantly faster, it may help; but the higher-end cameras all support CF Express, which is cheaper and faster.
Nobody wants to be going around with a thunderbolt drive dangling off the side of their laptop. Vendors make SD cards that fit flush with the side of a MacBook for just this reason. The speed of SD Express is plenty fast enough for many uses including running programs off of, which is why it is a requirement of the Switch 2.
Given Apple is still offers every new MBP and Mac Studio with SD card slots and it does not offer any devices with CF slots and given that the SD slot has only recently in the last 4 years returned to the MBP line up, I wouldn't say Apple is exactly catering exclusively to photographers. Seems more like they are catering to the average consumer and what storage cards most people have in their homes.
If the SD Express format does not come to new Macs in the next couple years, but those Macs retain SD slots, it is likely they haven't upgraded to Express because they don't want the storage competition hurting their sales of units with upgraded storage specs.
Express is no where near as fast as the onboard storage on a Mac, but it is certainly useful for most things you can do on a Mac. I wouldn't want to boot the whole system off it, but booting games, documents, videos, programs, ETC is fine.. and that is where most storage is used.