Thanks to the data mining of the Diablo IV beta, information has been discovered that points to the direct storage support, a technology that could be present in the final version of said game. If this is confirmed, it will be good news, there is no doubt about that, and it will make the SSD a key to enjoying the new Blizzard title to the fullest.
In the attached image you can see the references to DirectStorage in Diablo IV Beta, and yes, they are quite clear. However, we must bear in mind that Blizzard has not yet confirmed the presence of said technology in this title, so we will have to wait for it to do so. As the launch of this title is scheduled for June 6, the inclusion of this technology should be confirmed before that date.
DirectStorage technology should greatly reduce load times in Diablo IV. I had a chance to play the beta this weekend, and I installed it on a PCIe Gen3 x4 SSD to see what the load times were like and what performance this title offered. The experience was seamless, and the loading screens minimal, so with that technology they should be practically non-existent.
Diablo IV could become the second PC game to feature DirectStorage support, and this should help reduce the load on the CPU and to improve performance in general, as long as it is properly optimized. I say this because Forspoken was the first to support that technology on PC, and despite everything the optimization was conspicuous by its absence.
With DirectStorage decompression of SSD data is done on the GPU and not on the CPU, which means that work is completed faster and more efficiently, freeing up valuable processor resources. This reduces loading times to a minimum, as we have said.
I remind you that Diablo IV also will support DLSS3 and ray tracing, although this latest technology will be added after launch, so we will have to wait to use it. I can also confirm that it is not a demanding game, and that we can activate ray tracing without problem if we have a graphics card at the level of a GeForce RTX 3050, Radeon RX 6600 or higher. If you need help in choosing a PC to play Diablo IV, don’t miss this guide.
