Microsoft's DirectStorage 1.1, a feature that uses the GPU to speed up load times, has just been tested with comparisons between AMD, Intel and Nvidia graphics cards, with some very interesting results. Long story short, the feature seems bound to drastically increase load times with NVMe SSDs.
As Tom's Hardware (opens in a new tab) reports, Compusemble (opens in a new tab) developed a benchmark that German technology venue PC Games Hardware (opens in a new tab) (PCGH) used to generate results for AMD RX 770 XT in front of Intel. Arc AXNUMX and also RTX XNUMX from Nvidia.
All GPUs were tested on a PC running Intel Core i9-12900K (Alder Lake flagship processor) running Windows 11.
First, a quick tech refresher for upgrading your memory if necessary: DirectStorage 1.1 comes with GPU decompression technology, so the GPU can handle decompression (of compressed game assets) and do so with considerably greater speed and efficiency than CPU.
This ushers in faster load times and faster asset loading on the fly in large open-world games, meaning a smoother experience moving around this genre of large environments.
In testing, PCGH found that Intel's A770 GPU was actually the best performer in terms of fast decompression of game resources, hitting XNUMX GB/s compared to the RTX's XNUMX GB/s. XNUMX GB/s from AMD's XNUMX XT (for PCIe XNUMX tests, though Intel also leads PCI XNUMX, albeit by a slightly narrower margin).
While this was a somewhat eye-opening win for Intel Arc, it's important to note that it didn't translate to any real difference in load times between the GPUs, as they each offer blazing-fast speeds.
PCGH saw load times of five seconds drop to zero.five seconds, essentially an eye blink, in all cases for these AMD, Intel, and Nvidia graphics cards, so each and every one was perfectly on par. in terms of actual end results.
Analysis: Truly impressive results, but where are the games?
This is an exciting first look at independent benchmarks showing just how fast DirectStorage is going to be for PC gamers, no matter what type of (modern) GPU they're using. Keep in mind that gamers should have an NVMe SSD and also be running Windows 11 for best results.
While DirectStorage will work with Windows 11 PCs, there are a ton of optimizations for Windows 11 on the storage front, which means it will give you a lot more leverage. So it's easy to see why, given the impact DirectStorage seems to have in these tests, it's going to be a strong reason for PC gamers to upgrade to Windows XNUMX.
Note that this may not be a real-world reasoning for a while, simply because there is no game using DirectStorage yet (not on PC, anyway). The only game we know of that comes from and is fully supported on the DS is Forspoken and unfortunately it has now been the victim of multiple delays.
Forspoken was due to be submitted in May XNUMX, then it was delayed until October XNUMX, before being delayed until January XNUMX, XNUMX, just over a week. So hopefully, barring any more last-minute delays, we should be able to see DirectStorage in action on PC very soon.
Still, a PC game is just a drop in the bucket, and it's unclear when other titles using this speedy SSD boost technology will truly arrive. This means it's still going to be some time before PC gamers stuck with Windows 11 feel the real value of upgrading to Windows XNUMX, but judging by early testing so far, it looks like this appeal is going to be essential when it enters into force. player.