Jump to content
  • Advertisement


  • Advertisement


  • Advertisement


  • Uncrowned Guard
    Uncrowned Guard

    Microsoft's DirectStorage 1.2: Breathing New Life into Slower Hard Drives

    Do you hear that? It's the sound of old hard drives getting a much-needed speed boost. Microsoft has rolled out version 1.2 of its DirectStorage SDK, surprising developers and gamers alike with improved support for legacy hard drives.

    Originally, DirectStorage aimed to enhance data streaming from high-speed NVMe SSDs to GPUs, bypassing CPU bottlenecks. However, Microsoft listened to developers who expressed a desire for better support for older hard drives that still have a place in many PC gamers' rigs.

    DirectStorage 1.2 now allows developers to use the same code for both SSDs and HDDs. It supports a buffered mode for legacy HDDs, masking long seek times and enabling games installed on slower drives to take advantage of OS file buffering features and speed enhancements.

    In addition to catering to HDDs, Microsoft has also improved GPU decompression of textures in DirectStorage 1.2. This enhancement, initially introduced in version 1.1, lightens the load on CPUs by offloading asset decompression work to graphics cards.

    While these updates to DirectStorage are undoubtedly exciting, widespread game adoption is still in its early stages. Forspoken is currently the only game with DirectStorage support, boasting load time improvements of around 30 percent or more. With Nvidia, AMD, and Intel geared up to support the latest GPU decompression techniques, it's only a matter of time before more game developers jump on the DirectStorage bandwagon to breathe new life into slower hard drives.


    Image Credit: Midjourney

    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments

    One thing is for the developers to make a recommendation or suggestion and the next thing is for Microsoft to listen and adopt it. It's a good thing they had to listen to this one about having a DirectStorage with better support for older hard drives. 

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites



    Join the conversation

    You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

    Guest
    Add a comment...

    ×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

      Only 75 emoji are allowed.

    ×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

    ×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

    ×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.