The best SD cards for the Steam Deck

Following the debut of the Steam Deck OLED in late 2023, the $399 Steam Deck now comes with 256 GB of internal storage. That’s a lot more than the 64 GB it used to come with at this price point, but it still may not be enough storage for your gaming needs. Don’t stress, as upgrading the Deck’s storage is both easy and relatively affordable.

Like the Nintendo Switch, every Steam Deck supports microSD cards for storage expansion, and those cards come in a range of capacities — many of which are regularly discounted. A microSD card is one of a few must-have Steam Deck accessories that we recommend for most people.

Whether you want a modest upgrade to 256 GB, a bigger 512 GB card, or the ultimate 1 TB boost, we have some recommendations that’ll let you get to downloading more games from the Steam store. These options meet the Steam Deck’s speed requirements (more on that below). Once you insert your new microSD card, you’ll just need to go through a quick formatting process so you can store games on it.

Is speed important?

While some pricier microSD cards advertise faster transfer speeds than others, which should equate to faster game install times, the general consensus is that most models deliver a similar experience on the Steam Deck. Compared to running games off the $399.99 model’s SSD internal storage, using a microSD card may result in slightly slower loading speeds, but identical performance.

The console’s microSD card slot supports UHS-1 class cards, a spec that tops out at a 104 MB/s transfer rate. That’s quite a bit slower than the advertised transfer speed that many of today’s run-of-the-mill microSD cards boast. So, our recommendation is to focus on getting as much storage as you can afford instead worrying about speed.

Update (Jan. 18): This post was updated to reflect the current year, that the Steam Deck OLED is available, and that the $399 Steam Deck has a 256 GB SSD instead of 64 GB of storage.