How DirectStorage 1.1 could make Windows 11 an essential upgrade for PC gamers

Date:
Mon, 16 Jan 2023 16:45:19 +0000

Description:
This could be a transformative innovation for PC gaming, but theres just one problem: where are the DS 1.1 games?

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Microsofts DirectStorage 1.1, a feature which uses the GPU to speed loading times, has just been tested with comparisons drawn between AMD, Intel and Nvidia graphics cards with some very interesting results. In short, the feature looks set to seriously supercharge loading times with NVMe SSDs.

As Toms Hardware reports, Compusemble developed a benchmark test that German tech site PC Games Hardware (PCGH) used to produce results for AMDs RX 7900
XT pitted against Intels Arc A770 and also Nvidias RTX 4080.

All GPUs were tested in a PC with Intels Core i9-12900K (Alder Lake flagship CPU) under Windows 11 .

First off, a quick reminder on the tech to refresh your memory if needed: DirectStorage 1.1 comes with GPU decompression tech, so the GPU can handle decompression (of compressed game assets), and do so with far greater speed and efficiency than the CPU.

This ushers in faster loading times, and quicker loading of assets on-the-fly in big open world games, meaning a smoother experience when wandering about those kinds of large environments.

In testing, PCGH found that Intels A770 GPU was actually the top performer in terms of achieving speedy decompression of game assets, hitting 16.8GB/s compared to 15.3GB/s for the RTX 4080 , and 14.6GB/s for AMDs 7900 XT (for PCIe 4.0 testing though Intel also led for PCI 3.0, albeit by a slightly narrower margin).

While that was a somewhat eye-opening victory for Intel Arc, its important to note that it didnt translate to any real difference in loading times between the GPUs, with all of them ensuring blazing-fast speeds.

PCGH witnessed 5 second load times being reduced to 0.5 seconds essentially the blink of an eye in all cases for these AMD, Intel and Nvidia graphics cards, so all were fully up to scratch in terms of the actual end results. Analysis: Seriously impressive results but where are the games?

This is an exciting first glimpse at independent benchmarks indicating just how fast DirectStorage will be for PC gamers, no matter what flavor of (contemporary) GPU theyre using. Note that gamers need to have an NVMe SSD , and equally, be running Windows 11 for the best results.

While DirectStorage will work with Windows 10 PCs, there are a whole bunch of optimizations for Windows 11 on the storage front which mean that itll
provide much more of a boost. So its easy to see why, given how much of an impact DirectStorage looks to be making going by this testing, itll be a compelling argument for PC gamers to upgrade to Windows 11.

Mind you, it may not be an argument that applies in the real world for some time to come, simply because there arent any games that utilize DirectStorage yet (not on PC, anyway). The one game we know is incoming and bristles with
DS support is Forspoken , and frustratingly, this has been the victim of multiple delays now.

Forspoken was expected in May 2022, then was delayed until October 2022, before being pushed to January 24, 2023 , which is only just over a week away now. So, hopefully barring any further last-minute delays we should be able to see DirectStorage in action on the PC very soon.

Even so, one PC game is just a drop in the ocean, and its not clear when further titles that use this speedy SSD boosting tech will actually arrive. That means itll still be quite a while before PC gamers sticking with Windows 10 feel the real pull to upgrade to Windows 11, but judging from early
testing so far, it looks like that pull will be a substantial one when it
does come into play.



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/how-directstorage-11-could-make-windows-11-an-e ssential-upgrade-for-pc-gamers


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)