Thursday, March 26, 2009

Wii system update 4.0 brings 32GB SDHC support


Yesterday the Wii got the most important system update since it was released in 2006. The ability to store games on a 16-32 GB SDHC card and making the process of transferring games over easier, and even better giving us the option to play off the SD card and save downloads directly to the SD card. For once we can say "thank you" to Nintendo for finally giving us this, or we can say "its about time!". Either way we got it now, and here are some SDHC card solutions for you to consider:




Head over to Fry's electronics to see more.

I'll be getting one myself, I'm just not sure if I will even need the 32 GB card yet. However with the rumored Netflix support coming to the Wii, it is uncertain if we will be able to download movies in full from them or if it's only streaming content.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

so 2 HCSD cards =64gig more than ps3 wii have the option to have as much space as we want

Anonymous said...

like cubeboy101/wiiboy101 has stated a 1000 times over,, THERE IS NO Wii HARD-DRIVE AND WILL NOT BE ONE ETHER.. full direct support no doubt a wii HDi may have a internal 32 to 64gb flash drive and also keep the sd card slot...HARD DRIVES ARE OLD SLOW HEAVY HOT AND EASY TO CURRUPT/BREAK SD CARDS AND FLASH DRIVES ARE FAST AND STRONG......

Travis Hendricks said...

Considering the Wii has 512Mb currently and can hold multiple VC games and a few WiiWare games getting a 32G card may be a bit much. I think for most people, unless you download a game a week, a 2-4G card should be plenty.

Either way, I can start buying WiiWare games again. Here I come World of Goo.

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't worry about all that extra space you think you might need for Netflix, since the SD card channel actually sends the data to the Wii system memory, temporarily, in order to launch the selected channel, be it a game or whatnot. So basically, all downloadable content is still limited to the Wii's system memory capacity. I don't think it's a big deal, but some people are already complaining that the update is half-assed. But seriously, I was impressed that Nintendo went live with the update during GDC and allowed for immediate download from that point on. I've never heard of such efficiency!

Thank you Nintendo for this Storage Solution!

Metaldave said...

Well my guess is that their will be another update for the Wii that will allow for games to be played off the SD card.

The reason? Why have the option for a 32GB SDHC card if you aren't going to use all that space?

Nintendo could update the Wii to "trick" it into thinking that the SD card is the Wii menu and just up the amount of flash storage to whatever your SD card limit is. This way you can download movies, load temporary data from the internet and use apps like Windows Media Player (probably something else) to make watching videos less of a problem on the Opera Browser.

Anonymous said...

I was wondering...could programmers /engineers now utilize the memory from the SDHC/"drive" similar to how a regular hard drive is used to improve hardware performance during gameplay? The technique of streaming texture data from the hard drive as its needed, is not new. Wouldn't this allow a larger amount of textures without having to load them all in at once?
Theoritically, couldn't "future" game engines / programs be designed to utilize this "extra" memory? In other words, larger worlds, improved or additional textures, less loading times, etc. 32 Gigabytes is plenty of memory.

Anonymous said...

off course it can ACT AS VIRTUAL RAM that's what ur asking

wii can allready do this with internal flash so in theory you could have 88mb main ram

and 512mb of virtual ram or to use a gamecube term ACCESS RAM /AUXILERY RAM....

I DOUT ANYONES USED FLASH LIKE THIS IN WII how much flash is there for developers with out asking the player to tap into there share i dont no but yes it can be done

BUT DONT EXPECT MAIN RAM PERFORMANCE.............

SAME GOES DSi it can tap its flash drive or card as virtual ram it would work very well on a dsi as theres less data to send and dsi has no disc so its fast anyway..

better ram performance less loading pop up and better frame rates is the result but extra power like adding more real ram THAT WOULD BE VERY MINIMAL

HOPE THAT HELPS

Gregory Weagle said...

I was also one of those who said that there will be no external hard drive for Wii simply because Nintendo sees them as too unstable for the expanded audience. SD is more stable albeit more expensive than hard drives.

Right now; the temp transfer to the internal memory when the game or channel is loaded from the SD Card is only a big deal if you have less than 500 blocks of space (and that's only for the biggest Wii Ware titles; I'm sure that I over counted to compenistate; so it probably is a lot less if you play VC games.); and the system doesn't multi-task so it wouldn't be a problem. Nintendo Channel does the same thing with their videos. I just wish Nintendo would improve their servers to stop the lag stall problem on some videos.

Right now; the biggest problem for me is not space as I still have 388 blocks left to work with on internal storage and haven't touched my SD Cards yet. The biggest problem for me is finding Wii Points Cards to buy since it seems no one in Nova Scotia sells the 2000 point Wii cards. I was cheering Nintendo when they announced the 1000 and 3000 point cards were coming to North America because they keep selling out easily.

All these updates are evidence that the expanded audience is buying into the Wii Ware/Virtual Console downloads and the space/cards are now becoming an issue Nintendo needed to solve. It's certainly not due to the hardcore whining about cleaning the fridge; that's for sure.

Anonymous said...

next wii will be big internal fast flash drive, or even holograph tech same goes discs or carts if used thell be holograph..........

im in a bad mood Argentina just got humiliated 6-1 by Bolivia im sooooo angry its no big deal this can happen at altitude its bolivias only hope of glory is a big win at home to Argentina or Brazil put that's for another blog LOL..

Elliander said...

Now we just have to hope they let us to 128 GB SDXC Cards. They physical structure is the same as SDHC so would really just require the software to recognize it.

They are a bit pricey, but coming down fast. A 64 GB already costs around 80.00 whereas a Class 10 32 GB SDHC costs 42.00. The SDXC Standard will also allow up to 2 TB SD Cards in the future so as long as the device software can recognize the larger size it will work.