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Is your PC ready to play games with DirectStorage?

How DirectStorage improves games

DirectStorage is a technology that we can find in the latest generation consoles, such as PS5 or Xbox Series S / X. This is designed to reduce loading times and eliminate graphic defects of some games ensuring that the graph receives the necessary information in the shortest possible time to avoid these problems.

To do this, DirectStorage eliminates the need for the CPU to decompress the data sent by the RAM to the GPU in order to process it, delegating this task directly to the graphics card. In this way, the graphics can almost directly access the game files, saved on the SSD, render the game images much faster and load the content. And this translates to less loading time and fewer graphics glitches for games.

What do I need to be able to use this technology?

At first, one of the essential requirements to be able to use this API was to update to Windows 11. However, Microsoft has decided that it will reach all users who have their computer updated to the Windows 10 version 1909 or higher.

In this way, the first thing to do is check the version of Windows that we have on the computer. If we have it updated, we can enjoy this new API as soon as it is available. Of course, if we meet the other two requirements.

Winver

The second of the requirements is that our PC has a NVME type SSD with PCIe 3.0 or PCIe 4.0 connection. These are the new solid storage units that offer us a speed much higher than that of hard drives or SATA-type SSDs.

And lastly, we need to have a DirectX 12 compatible graphics card. If our computer has an old GPU, not compatible with this technology, we will not be able to use the DirectStorage APIs. We can check the version of DirectX that we have installed on the PC by executing the command “dxdiag”.

Windows 10 PC Components

If we comply with all this, we will be able to use DirectStorage on our computer. But meeting the minimum requirements guarantees the best performance of this technology.

How to Get the Most Out of the DirectStorage API

Although we have said that DirectStorage is going to come to Windows 10, Microsoft has already made it clear from the beginning that where it will work best is going to be in Windows 11, since the new operating system will be much better prepared to take advantage of this technology. Therefore, if we really want to notice the improvement in the games, it will be necessary to update to this operating system.

In addition, it is recommended that our NVMe SSD is PICe 4.0 type, since the speed improvement compared to the PCIe 3.0 version will allow a much faster communication between the RAM and the GPU, and can greatly improve the performance of the games.

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