Microsoft has been betting on the PC as the default gaming platform for a long time. Thanks to this, it is possible to find in Windows APIs and functions that, until recently, were exclusive to consoles, such as automatic HDR for games, or one of the functions that has caused the greatest expectation within the PC gaming sector, the known as “DirectStorage”.
DirectStorage is a technology developed by Microsoft whose purpose is to significantly improve the performance of games on any computer that meets a series of requirements. The first of these is that it has an NVMe type SSD unit, and the second is that it is capable of communicating directly with the graphics card. Thus, this technology eliminates the need for the CPU to act as an intermediary in the data transfer between both components, and, therefore, both the CPU load level is reduced (which helps to improve performance and get a few more FPS) and, above all, it decreases the loading times of the games.
The main advantages of DirectStorage technology are, on the one hand, a faster loading of textures, game models and animations, resulting in shorter waiting times and a much smoother experience. On the other hand, thanks to faster and more efficient access to game data, developers can create bigger games and infinitely more detailed worlds without sacrificing performance or load times.
There are still few games that support this technology, although little by little more are being added to the list. If we want to try this technology, some of the titles that support it are Forza Horizon 5, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Crysis Remastered Trilogy and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.
Check if your PC is compatible
As we have already said, in order to take advantage of DirectStorage it is necessary for our computer to meet certain specific requirements. The first of them is have Windows 11 installed, although Windows 10 also supports a more limited version of this API. We must also have mounted on the computer a PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD along with a graphics card that supports DirectX 12 Ultimate. The SSD used to have to be at least 1TB, although luckily Microsoft has recently removed this requirement.
To check if our computer is compatible (or, if it is not, why it is not), what we must do is open the game bar, or Game Bar, using the Windows + G keyboard shortcut. Once we have the game bar in sight, what we will do is open the Settings panel, and go to the “Game Features” section.
Here we can see a section dedicated entirely to DirectStorage. We will be able to see if the graphics card, or GPU, is compatible with the technology, if the operating system supports it, and if the units also support this function. In the event that any of these components does not support it, it will tell us that it is not compatible so that we can take the measures that we consider appropriate.
If our PC is compatible, we don’t have to do anything else. Just find a compatible game and start playing to see load times almost a thing of the past.
