PC Gamers around the world rejoice! At least those who play using Windows 10 or 11 that is. Microsoft revealed that its “DirectStorage” capability is coming to both Windows 10 and 11 operating systems.
What is DirectStorage and Why Do I Care: The short answer to that second part is maybe you don’t, but we’ll come back to that. For those who haven’t been able to experience it, DirectStorage is a game-loading feature that’s currently used on the Xbox Series X|S to load games faster. It leverages NVME SSD’s higher bandwidth and frees up the CPU for other operations, including improved framerates. The feature was already known to be coming to WIndows 11 but the inclusion of Windows 10 is great for those who aren’t in a hurry to upgrade to Windows 11 or perhaps don’t have the hardware for it yet. It’s worth noting that Microsoft says it won’t be as effective on Windows 10 as it will be on Windows 11. Windows 11 was designed with DirectStorage in mind, while Windows 10 is built on legacy storage systems. Still, any improvement is a nice addition that wasn’t expected.
While there’s no timetable given for when DirectStorage will be available on Windows 10, Windows 11 launches sometime in Q4 of this year so stay tuned.
Image: Microsoft
