Microsoft has finally fulfilled its age-old promise to bring faster load times to PC gaming. The software giant has released its DirectStorage API that will allow PC games to load detailed worlds a lot quicker than before.
DirectStorage is able to stream a massive amount of data from your speedy NVMe SSD directly to your GPU. This eliminates the extra step of the CPU having to decompress data before it is sent to the GPU. This feature was limited to the Xbox Series X console first, but it is finally rolling out for PC games.
Microsoft’s blog post says:
Starting today, Windows games can ship with DirectStorage. This public SDK release begins a new era of fast load times and detailed worlds in PC games by allowing developers to more fully utilize the speed of the latest storage devices.
The good news is that it will not only work with Windows 11 but with Windows 10 as well. Keep in mind that this feature will only work if a compatible game is installed on your NVMe SSD. The faster the SSD, the better, so a speedy NVMe 4.0 stick drive is recommended.
It is also worth mentioning that games compatible with DirectStorage are not available just yet and it will be a while before we see developers take full advantage of it.
Increases or Decreases Game Loading times?
Shouldn’t the article topic says “decreases” game loading times?
Fixed. Thanks