SD Card max size?

When perusing the Garmin site a few weeks ago I stumbled on a page that said 2GB and 4GB where maximums for Nuvis.

Recently I found that had changed to unlimited. Perhaps one of those software upgrades had a useful morsel for this thread.

I can use 8GB sdhc card now.

At this time, and things change with updates the NUVI maximum size is 4 Giga Bytes. You can get the best performance from the speed of the card however.

The post below is my post from another forum.

SD (secure digital) cards are becoming increasingly popular for digital storage. They’re tiny, convenient, and getting affordable in sizes from 1GB up to 8GB. But they come in a bewildering array of different speeds and prices, even within one manufacturer’s line. What’s with the different card speeds, and which one do you need for your device? This article gives you the details.

Understanding SD Card Speeds

While the first SD cards were very similar between brands, each brand now offers cards in several different speeds for each capacity. To make things more confusing, SD card speeds are measured in two different ways: in kilobytes or megabytes per second (KB/s or MB/s) and in an “x” rating similar to that of CD-ROMS. The “x” is the minimum CD-ROM speed of 150KB/s, so here’s a table of equivalent speeds:

* 4x: 600 KB/s
* 16x: 2.4 MB/s
* 40x: 6.0 MB/s
* 66x: 10MB/s
* 133x: 20MB/s

Understanding available options

While this varies between manufacturers, most offer two or three categories of speed. At this writing, here’s a summary of what each category means:

* Basic SD cards (Sandisk, Lexar, etc.) are the cheapest models. They generally have a speed of 1x to 16x, but often don’t guarantee a particular speed, so you won’t find anything about speed listed on the package.
* “Pro” SD cards (Sandisk Ultra, Lexar High Speed, etc.) list a speed of 32X or higher. Some have speeds up to 66x (10Mbps).
* High-end SD cards (Sandisk Extreme, Lexar Professional, etc.) have a speed of at least 66x. The latest models (i.e. Sandisk Extreme III) have a speed of 133x.

Since these categories are vague, and not always meaningful—for example, Sandisk’s “Ultra II” and “Extreme” cards are the same speed, but “Extreme III” is a higher speed—you should always compare based on the actual speed listed on the package. If it isn’t listed, assume you’re looking at one of the slowest cards.
Which one do you need?

Which speed you need depends on your device. While even the fastest device can make do with a slow SD card, they’ll be at their best with a card that keeps up with the device.

One more tip: definitely choose one of the good name-brand cards over the cheaper generics. You don’t want to take chances With your data. Sandisk, Lexar, Viking, Verbatim, and Crucial are good brands.

Bob

Unless people are using the GPS device as a storage or having many many audio book files or many high resolution picture files, I don't see the advantage of having a SD card bigger than 4GB.

I have a Nuvi 360 which has a SD card with 2GB. I put over 1,000 mp3 files on it, actually they are the audio Bible files. There is a problem of Nuvi reads upto 999 files. It's not the size of files but it's the programming design flaw/bug. The 360 is not able to read/list all the files. There is no error, it just simply won't read all and I can't figure out the logic how it reads the files when there is more than 1,000 files.

Here is the PDF link for the official rebate. Make sure that you purchase from one of the camera store listed in it. I would recommend Adorama and also pay attention to the models that are applicable. I picked SDSDRX3-4096, which is Extreme3 SDHC 4GB with USB micro reader, 3 for $110 rebate. I got less than $42 each ($125.xx total before rebate and $15.xx for all 3 after rebate ) from them with free shipping and no tax except NY. They are one of the largest camera store in US:

http://66.223.110.241/rebates/SandiskQ2VisaRebateExp062908.p...

Note that this deal ends June 29, 2008. Those are class 6 cards and fastest in the market. It comes with a nice zipped porch for the reader and card, as well as free image recovery software and lifetime warranty.

You can check the real life SD card performance (tested by professional photographer with identical condition):

http://robgalbraith.com/bins/camera_multi_page.asp?cid=6007-...

Jeff

Well written on the SD.

More info and clarification on SD v SDHC

Current SD cards are limited to 2.0GB and are compliant with SDA Standard Version 1.01 and Version 1.10 and use either the FAT12 or FAT16 file system, whereas SDHC is for 4GB and up under the SDA Version 2.00 standard and supports FAT32.

SDHC write speeds are rated in classes 2/4/6 and are in speeds of Mb/Sec; ex. class 4 = 4Mb/sec

Anything that says 4GB without the SDHC logo is non-compliant according to the standard.

http://www.sdcard.org/home

Garmin's latest info on the FAQ site (revised 6/3/08) says that SDHC cards are supported with the latest firmware update and are unlimited. I use an 8GB class 6 card with no problems.

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/14205

Below is copy and paste from Garmin Support site:

Question: What is the largest SD (Secure Digital) card that my nüvi can accept?

Answer:
As long as your nüvi has the most recent version of system software your nüvi will be SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) compatible. This means that there is no limitation to the size of SD card that your nüvi will accept.

To ensure that your unit has the most up to date system software please use our WebUpdater program.

Last modified on: 06/03/2008

any idea what the max size on a c550 is?

I have that same card (8gb SDHC from Microcenter) and cannot get it to work with my 760. (My Garmin system software is up to date.)

Can you tell me if you had to do anything special? The 760 will not recognize my card. When I plug it into the 760 and then connect the 760 to my computer, I get a message that I have to format the card/drive. I tried that and it took hours to format and then format failed.

My computer will recognize the card if I plug it in an SD reader, but the 760 just will not recognize.

Any thoughts on the steps you went through would be great!

Thanks!

Does anyone know where Garmin keeps the specs on the max size SD card?

My computer would not recognize it when attached to a reader,either desk or laptop,and my laptop wouldn’t recognize it when put in it’s SD slot, but the nuvi 760 did when attached to either. I purchased a new reader and it solved the problem with the computer. Obviously there is something different about different SD card manufacturers. All my sandisk cards functioned normally with both computers previously…. You may have found one that Garmins doesn’t like…..

Link to Garmin FAQ regarding SD cards.

http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/us/lang/en/searchsuppo...

Question: What is the largest SD (Secure Digital) card that my nuvi can accept?

Answer:
As long as your nuvi has the most recent version of system software your nuvi will be SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) compatible. This means that there is no limitation to the size of SD card that your nuvi will accept.
To ensure that your unit has the most up to date system software please use our WebUpdater program.

Last modified on: 06/10/2008

I think your question has been answered - 4GB, What I have not seen is is the reference to perofrmance. Lots depends on what you actualy put on the card. If a global traveler and you are adding maps, the size will have little impact (assuming you have updated to accept teh SDHC cards). If you plan to fill it with MP3 files, Garmin will index all files before it will draw the maps (at least on the Zumo 550) so if you have a 2G card you are fine, if a 4G, it can take 5-10 minutes before the unit starts to draw the roads. In this case you are best to have two 2G cards and change to the other when you tire of the music on the first.

I have a 4GB card on my 750 with no issues. Its great for saving POI's and MP3's for when I don't have access to my satellite radio!

All right, I use a 16gb SDHC card in my Zumo 550. I know that Garmin can only read 1000 songs. And to make matters worse if you put them all in one directory it will take forever for it to load. So here is a solution to that. I have 3 folders on my card. One says COUNTRY, the other ROCK and the third BOOKS. Now in the Country and Rock folders are my mp3's. To which I have a folder for every album. I have about 2,000 songs stored right now, and keep adding new ones. Right now only the first 1,000 are read. The rest is ignored. Being in separate folders and not more than 20 mp3's in a folder, the Zumo loads pretty fast. I hope someday Garmin will be updated to read above the first 1,000. But I guess when I hear all 1,000 songs, I'll add a 1- 2- 3- to the second bunch and listen to that 1,000. Hopefully by them the Garmins will be able to read 9,999 songs.

Just bought an 8 gig SDHC for $40 at Fry's and it works fine in my 200W

I'm using a 2GB SanDisk SD card in my Nuvi 350 and it works great! I'm thinking of upgrading it to a 4GB soon so I can fit more music. =D

Go for it. I use a 4GB SDHC on my Nuvi 350 with no problems at all.

Well, no problems on the Nuvi, anyway. My card reader on the PC would not recognize it even though my card reader was SDHC compatible. I downloaded a small Hotfix from Microsoft Support site and then my computer reader recognized it as well.

Downloading MP3's is MANY times faster using a card reader versus downloading to the card while it's installed in the Nuvi. The Nuvi USB interface is obviously not USB HIGH SPEED.

thanks for the info guys

I didn't have to do anything special - it recognized it immediately. Later, I used a reader to transfer MP3s to it, but there was no problem with it in the unit.

I have noticed that with a bit over 6g of MP3s on the card, it does take a while for the 750 to initially draw the map or start providing verbal directions, even though it will immediately display coordinates and "written" directions at the top.

I have used a 4GB SDHC card in my Nuvi 350 with no troubles. I have over 3GB of MP3's on it.

I picked up a SD-1GB for $6.99 and a SD-2GB for $9.99 from office depot last week.

I just bought a couple of 4GB cards at newegg.com for $14.50 each. Work great in my Nuvi 350 and 760.

Neither my laptop nor my desktop computer would recognize a 4GB SDHC card in my reader on the PC but the Nuvi 350 recognized it just fine. The reader was quite new and rated for SDHC cards. I searched for "SDHC" on the Microsoft support site and was pointed to a Hotfix that enabled both the laptop and desktop to recognize it.

Lots of voodoo with these memory cards! Your reader or must be compatible, your operating system must be current, the firmware and hardware in your device must support it, and the card itself must conform to the specs. When something doesn't work, it's hard to narrow it down to the actual problem.

For those old readers, you need the latest manufacture firmware update to read SDHC, if they still support those reader at all.

Jeff

Hey I just bought the nuvi 360 and i am in love, but there is one feature i really would like to use but don't know how. i pick up a 2 GB sd card for music and i don't know how to get the nuvi to find the music on the card......PLEASE HELP

The nuvi will see the songs automatically.

The songs MUST be in MP3 format. Other formats are NOT compatible.

help, i have the nuvi 360

Did you read my answer?

Are you saying that when you hit the BROWSE button and look under ALL of the categories, that none of the mp3's show up at all? If so, that would probably mean that you have none of the ID3 tags filled in. The player sorts on the data in these fields. Usually, they won't all be blank and you will find them under one of the categories.

i finally found it and yes i did thanks, but i am not sure i guess then how to put the music in mp3 format

Try a search for "MP3 convert" and you will get a bundle of suggestions.

What do you mean by, "yes I did"?

oh...lol, "motorcycle mama" asked if i had read her answer. thanks for all the help

I've put in my 8GB SD card, and it worked for picture viewing.

It worked for my nuvi660.

I am new to the forum and my wife's Nuvi 260 so I hope that I am not asking a silly question. I would like to load Red Light Stop Signs POIs to the Nuvi 260 and was wondering how to do this and if a 2 Gb SD card would work.
Thank you.....Jerry

I have a c550 with 2GB SD card. Between the c550 itself and the card, there are 647 songs.

The C550 sees only 500. If it tries to play track 499 or track 500, it locks up.

most poi file are only about 100K or less. I don't have ther red light one, but I would be shocked if it were over 2MB. That means you could store it 1,000 times over on a 2GB card.

I have a Nuvi 770.
The following cards work well:
Sandisk 2 gig
Lexar 2 gig
PNY 2 gig
PNY 4 gig

am up to 4 gig works good for all update u barely need 2 gig thought for north america map

I use a 4GB Sndisk HS in my 750 and 755T without a problem.

I use a 4GB card and it contains 20 musical CDs, 40 Old Time Radio programs CDs for a total of slightly more than 2 GB used. All are MP3 of course. Thats a total of 60 CDs.

I'm running a 16GB in my 760, it works great but I did bump up against the max number of songs limit. Don't ask me what it is, all I know is that I ran out of the most songs I could add to my playlists.

I believe i have a 8gig micro sd in my 885t and it's fine.

Im using an 8GB(SDHC)in my 680 with no problems to report.

In the FAQ for SD cards the link to the official answer is broken. I get an access denied error.

John

My gps is garmin 670 and I use a 8gb card with no problem. plenty of space for music, e-books and photos also.

This doesn't really answer the size question but with the talk about card brands, I thought I would post this. I recently purchased the Canada maps on SD/MicroSD card for my Nuvi 205. It came on a regular SanDisk brand 1GB MicroSD card with full size SD card adapter.
I thought it was interesting that Garmin uses the SanDisk brand and not some 3rd party no-name brand or something where they put their own brand name on it so you don't really know who made the card.

That said, I don't have any trouble with 1GB or 2GB cards. I haven't tried anything larger (yet).

Using a Patriot 8gb SDHC Class 6 card in my Nuvi 760