Different Types of R4 Cards

There are many different types of R4DS card on the market.

We're going to use examples from one particular store (particularly good if you're in the U.K. since they are the fastest, most reliable supplier there and in Europe!) to illustrate the different types of R4 DS cards.

R4DS - the original R4 DS card, otherwise known as the R4v2 or simply the R4 card. This is your original R4 card. It still, after all this time, has the fastest loading time of any DS card in existence. However, it's biggest drawback is that it can only take up to 2GB worth of memory. This is still large enough to store 10 to 20 games, mind, but may not be enough for everyone, especially if you use your DS to listen to MP3s and play movies etc.

R4 SDHC - the upgraded version of the R4v2, the R4SDHC allows you to play games on your DS card and multimedia as well. The crucial difference, though, is that it accepts higher amounts of memory than the original R4 card. It can in theory hold up to 32GB worth of files, although it would be difficult to fill all of that! NDS-Gear only sell up to 16GB Micro-SDHC cards at the moment, probably because they are quite expensive. Perhaps in a year's time the affordable 32GB card will become a reality, though!

R4i-SDHC - The first R4 card to be released for the Nintendo DSi (not the first DSi card though, that honour goes to the Acekard 2i). Many compatibility issues with games have been fixed, and the card is backwards compatible with the Nintendo DS and DS Lite. That makes the new R4i card a perfect solution regardless of which version of the Nintendo DS console you have!

R4i Gold Edition - The gold edition of the R4i-SDHC is an interesting one. It is essentially the same as the R4i red, but is manufactured with a different bonding technology. What this essentially means is that if in the future, there are any modifications to the Nintendo DSi's firmware, it would be easier to be compatible with future developments. If you like, the R4i gold is a 'future-proof' version of the regular R4i card.

So, now you know all about the main types of R4 card. I hope it's been helpful - click on the links to see the different box-art etc. for the different cards. :)