Next-gen gaming is well and truly upon us. Whether you are a proud owner of a gaming console like Xbox or PlayStation 5, or in the habit of doing your deed on a glorious gaming PC.
Microsoft is leading the charge on the latter front, with several new technologies that it has either debuted or helped develop. One such new technology is DirectStorage, which promises to be a literal gamer changer when it launches.
DirectStorage went mainstream after it was announced alongside Windows 11.
We first got hints that it will be exclusive to the new OS, but Microsoft soon had a change of heart and the company confirmed that the Windows 10 user base will also be treated to this new technology.
So, what is this DirectStorage magic?
Games may have benefited massively from the incredible leaps in performance when it comes to CPU, GPU, even RAM, but advanced storage options have been out of reach. That’s because there are a lot of systems still rocking traditional hard drives or even those (comparatively) slower handicapped SSDs.
NVMe SSDs is where it’s at, with insanely read and writer speeds an order of magnitude faster.
But while developers were forced to cater to the lowest common denominator, which in recent times have been the console crowd. But times have changed, and even the newer consoles now come with this breed of SSDs as standard.
This meant that it was time now to bring this technology to PCs so newer games can benefit from this speedy medium for faster load times and more expansive worlds.
This is where DirectStorage API makes its entry.
And to make sure you are in the know whether your system supports it, Microsoft has baked in some new options in the Game Bar feature in Windows 11. It will now show you whether your system is ready for DirectX 12 Ultimate and goodies like Auto HDR and DirectStorage.
You will need to enable Insider access on a Microsoft account to get access to the preview — don’t worry, there is no need to download and deploy a flaky preview build here.
Just download the Xbox Insider Hub from the Microsoft Store. Once it is installed, click on the Preview tab and select the Windows Gaming preview. Sign up for that, then go back to into Library page of your store and update.
Then, it’s simply a matter of pressing the Win + G keys and confirming the DirectStorage readiness of your GPU, OS, and of course, the SSDs.
