Windows 11's DirectStorage tech will also come to Windows 10

Shawn Knight

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Why it matters: DirectStorage is one of several attractive features destined for Windows 11. Up until this point, we’d been led to believe that the tech, which was originally created for the Xbox Series X/S, would be a Windows 11 exclusive. As it turns out, that isn’t the case at all. It might not be as speedy as the Windows 11 implementation, but at least Microsoft is catering to its existing user base and developer partners.

Microsoft program manager Hassan Uraizee said the company is committed to ensuring that when developers adopt a new API, they can reach as many gamers as possible with it. As such, games built to utilize the DirectStorage SDK will also be compatible with Windows 10, version 1901 and newer, just like with the DirectX 12 Agility SDK.

Microsoft’s DirectStorage tech is all about maximizing the performance of local storage by providing an enhanced link between storage and the GPU. Specifically, it provides a batched-style submission / completion calling pattern, “relieving apps from the need to individually manage thousands of IO requests/completion notifications per second.” A later preview will also enable GPU decompression to improve load times.

One notable difference between the implementation on Windows 10 and Windows 11 has to do with the storage stack. With Windows 11, DirectStorage will have access to an upgraded OS storage stack to unlock the tech’s full potential but on Windows 10, it’ll have to make use of the legacy OS storage stack.

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I still think modern games are just lazy: Call of Duty games chew over 120gb of data and Skyrim modders still manage better looking textures at a tiny fraction of the size and decent performance even on limited VRAM. It just takes a lot more effort to optimize assets well than to say "Yeah, this games need all of your SSD, more VRAM than whatever Nvidia gives you on their latest and yeah, you still need to make transfer speeds on the OS level substantially faster anyway"
 
I still think modern games are just lazy: Call of Duty games chew over 120gb of data and Skyrim modders still manage better looking textures at a tiny fraction of the size and decent performance even on limited VRAM. It just takes a lot more effort to optimize assets well than to say "Yeah, this games need all of your SSD, more VRAM than whatever Nvidia gives you on their latest and yeah, you still need to make transfer speeds on the OS level substantially faster anyway"
9 times out of 10 I'm the first to load in with Warzone installed on a 1TB SATA SSD, so I don't even see a place for direct storage in that game.

I don't see it being a game changer with online games, but we'll see. RTXMU is a little more interesting to me right now.
 
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That’s good news, Am really looking forward to the first reviews / deep dive.

I do wonder if it makes a difference whether storage is attached to the CPU directly and if it‘s worth getting a larger nvme drive for.
 
I'm glad they changed the requirement for the size of the ssd that can be used. I have 2 pcie 4.0 drives that are both 500gb, one for os and one for games, along with 2 tb of ssd space for anything else. I was ticked when they said a 1 tb drive was minimum when they announced it with windows 11.
 
I'm glad they changed the requirement for the size of the ssd that can be used. I have 2 pcie 4.0 drives that are both 500gb, one for os and one for games, along with 2 tb of ssd space for anything else. I was ticked when they said a 1 tb drive was minimum when they announced it with windows 11.
I need a source for that because I don't remember any discussion/article about 1TB drives related to windows 11.
 
I need a source for that because I don't remember any discussion/article about 1TB drives related to windows 11.
It was for directstorage, I'm sure if you Google directstorage and 1tb ssd you will see the stories about it and Microsoft changing the requirement.
 
It was for directstorage, I'm sure if you Google directstorage and 1tb ssd you will see the stories about it and Microsoft changing the requirement.
Yeah, it seems like they changed it fairly quickly. It might have just been a mistake or some internal testing requirements.
 
Currently, I use my only NVMe SSD as my primary drive (boot drive). I have three SATA SSD as my game drives. Is this an optimal setup? I have wondered if I need to switch boot drive (NVMe SSD) for one of my gaming SATA SSD?
 
Currently, I use my only NVMe SSD as my primary drive (boot drive). I have three SATA SSD as my game drives. Is this an optimal setup? I have wondered if I need to switch boot drive (NVMe SSD) for one of my gaming SATA SSD?
It's how I would do it. You'd want your OS to run as fast and as efficient as possible. The SATA game drives are just data, serial loading into memory. Not too harsh of a load. Now if you were video editing, that might be a different story. Lots of random reading and writing in addition to the calculating crunch.
 
It's how I would do it. You'd want your OS to run as fast and as efficient as possible. The SATA game drives are just data, serial loading into memory. Not too harsh of a load. Now if you were video editing, that might be a different story. Lots of random reading and writing in addition to the calculating crunch.
OK, thanks for the response. I hope MS feels the same. LOL
 
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