Directstorage compatible with all DirectX 12 graphics cards

Microsoft’s technology to greatly increase the transfer speeds between graphics cards and NVME-based SSDs has so far been exclusive to the Xbox Series X / S but is expected on PC before the end of the year. During this year’s Game Stack Live event, Microsoft highlights additional details about how technology should work in the Windows environment.

Reddit user NEPBB was diligent during Microsoft’s presentation on the subject and took screenshots of both presentations and subsequent question time, which are compiled in a post on the site. Overall, Microsoft gives happy news when they straighten out question marks about Directstorage, where the first is that the technology becomes compatible with all DirectX 12-capable graphics cards. However, the feature should work best with DirectX 12 Ultimate-compatible products that also support Sampler Feedback.

In practice, this should mean that graphics cards from the Radeon HD 7000 series and Geforce GTX 600 series work with Directstorage. If, on the other hand feature level 12 of DirectX 12 is a requirement, it means instead GeForce GTX 900 series and some models from the Radeon 200 series. In addition to broad graphics card support, the technology should work with both PCI Express 3.0 and 4.0 devices, but of course not without limited bandwidth with the older interface.

As for launch windows, developers will have access to the feature during the summer of 2021 and a wider launch is possibly expected already in the autumn consumer update of Windows 10, called 21H2.

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