DirectStorage 1.1 is already with us. With this new update to its API, Microsoft announces that you can get 200% improvement in download speed of your games. Yes, that’s an impressive number, and it reminds us of the magic that can be achieved with “simple” improvements at the software level. Of course, the high read speed of NVMe blocks is also supported.
If you don’t remember, DirectStorage is a technology included by Microsoft in their operating system; evolution of the Xbox Series X|S Velocity Architecture API. With it, the company offers a direct transfer between the storage device and the GPU, avoiding the full participation of the RAM and CPU in the process. In this way, These components have been taken off the heavy load. Today it seems that it has been improved even more, and now you can be among the first to experience its benefits.
The company has been promising us DirectStorage 1.1 for some time now. Now it has finally arrived. Due to the fact that the process largely falls on the GPU, more than significant results are achieved. As we can see in the image published by Microsoft itself, in one of the tests, the graphic load increased from 2.36 to just 0.80 seconds.
In DirectStorage 1.1, the speeds of NVMe SSDs are also used to improve loading times in video games. In addition, the processor is relieved of some of the effort, improving the overall performance of Windows games.
The DirectStorage team is pleased to announce that GPU decompression with DirectStorage 1.1 is now available. This new version of DirectStorage contains everything a developer needs to get started with GPU decompression.
microsoft
When can we use Microsoft DirectStorage 1.1 and how do we know if it is compatible with your computer
Since its announcement, Microsoft has been selling DirectStorage as a feature for Windows 11. However, it is also available for Windows 10 users. However, to take advantage of all the features of DirectStorage 1.1, first you will need to fulfill certain requirements.
According to the company, decompression in the GPU, which improves DirectStorage performance, available on computers with DirectX 12 and graphics card with Shader Model 6.0 or higher. Also, in order to get the full game from the update, you will need to save your games to an NVMe SSD.
Also look for update Intel, Nvidia and AMD drivers. These companies have already begun work on releasing their own ways to support DirectStorage. For this reason, updating to the latest version is the best way to make sure everything works as expected on your computer.
Regarding the question of when we will be able to take advantage of DirectStorage 1.1 in games from our library, let’s wait for developers. What does it mean? Well, it’s not a tool that we can download on our computer and magically improve the performance of games, but it’s up to every developer to incorporate it into their games so that users can enjoy a better experience.
Source: Hiper Textual
