Since we haven’t written about DirectStorage for a long time, it doesn’t hurt to remember what’s really going on. This is an API for working with the repository. We can compare it to what DirectX 12 brought compared to older versions in terms of processor requirements and efficiency of processing a large volume of requests.
In the gaming world with Windows, storage is still used using APIs created in the era of mechanical / magnetic hard drives. These APIs require the application to work with only one request at a time. A 64k data block request occurs, this request is overridden, processed, completed, and only then can another request occur. For older games and older systems, nothing else made sense, because the limiting element was the hard drive, both in terms of reading speed and in terms of how it worked. With the transition to SSDs and especially modern fast SSDs, these APIs generate huge overheads, so hardware resources are wasted controlling the transmissions themselves instead of being used for the transmissions themselves (or other tasks).
That’s what the Direct Storage API that Microsoft came up with in connection with the new generation of Xbox consoles is solving this. Thanks to it, the times needed to load games can be significantly reduced. There was also talk of deployment in classic Windows, but recently came a cold shower. Or actually two. The first is that Direct Storage will only be supported on Windows 11, and the second is that the kit must be equipped with at least 1TB of NVMe SSD for support. So there have been two completely unnecessary and artificial requirements that are not technologically justified.
The good news is that at least one of them fell. The request for has been removed from the Microsoft website 1TB storage capacity (that must be an NVMe SSD remains). Unfortunately, there remains a requirement for Windows 11, which is a purely marketing matter that is clearly intended to increase user interest in this operating system.
Of course, there remains a requirement for a GPU that supports DirectX 12 with Shader Model 6.0, which is justified.
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