Windows 11 and 1 TB SSD is Gonna be Required for DirectStorage on PC

As per the official specification, it seems that having an NVMe SSD with 1 TB or greater capacity is gonna be required as well to use DirectStorage on Windows 11.

“DirectStorage requires 1 TB or greater NVMe SSD to store and run games that use the “Standard NVM Express Controller” driver and a DirectX 12 Ultimate GPU.”

This is so much curious that the Xbox Series S features only half that capacity and supports the new API just fine. Microsoft needs to clarify more on that.

Microsoft has unveiled Windows 11, this latest version of the operating system is going to be launched later this fall.

Sarah Bond wrote in a blog post that Microsoft hopes that Windows 11 will be ‘the best Windows ever for gaming.’ She revealed some features like AutoHDR (recently available in a Windows 10 Insider preview build) and the fact that the Xbox app will appear with the preinstalled new Windows.

Meanwhile, the biggest interesting news is that the upcoming DirectStorage API will be exclusively available on Windows 11.

“Buckle Up for Gaming at Amazing Speeds

With a high-performance NVMe SSD and the proper drivers, Windows 11 can soon load new games faster than ever thanks to a breakthrough technology called DirectStorage, which we also pioneered as part of the Xbox Velocity Architecture featured in the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

With DirectStorage, which will only be available with Windows 11, games can quickly load assets to the graphics card without bogging down the CPU. This means you’ll experience incredibly detailed game worlds rendered at lightning speeds, without long load times. “DirectStorage Optimized” Windows 11 PCs are configured with the hardware and drivers needed to enable this amazing experience.”

There will be a free upgrade available in place just like for Windows 10. Though, if you want to take advantage of DirectStorage API, you have to jump onto Windows 11 straight away instead of waiting until the operating system becomes more mature.

The Senior Rendering Programmer of 4A Games, Ben Archard talked about DirectStorage and said, “Well, the keyword there is beneficial and I think it will be very much so. Faster read access doesn’t just allow for faster loading times, but also faster asset streaming.

So that not only seems to promise more content in the environment but potentially more varied content as large assets such as high-resolution textures and geometry can be paged in and out more rapidly. Hopefully, that will be boosted even more by the smart content fetching possibilities offered by tech like Sampler Feedback. So yes, I think we are seeing some very nice new technologies coming up that really open up the potential of that kind of storage.”

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