Summary

Microsoft’s DirectStorage API is said to lower CPU overhead for tens of thousands of I/O operations that modern gaming systems perform, eliminate unnecessary data transformations steps, and give game developers a finer control of the storage. Everything in a bid to shrink load times and allow GPUs to consume data from SSDs faster and make virtual worlds richer.


Bringing data closer to the processor is an industrial trend and Microsoft’s DirectStorage follows it. Servers can use hierarchical storage to maximize their performance and capabilities, but game consoles and PCs usually do not accommodate NVDIMMs, high-end PCIe SSDs for frequently used data, and slower devices for cold storage. Client devices cannot do that, so making default storage devices faster and more efficient is something that is required to improve capabilities of PCs.

Microsoft yet has to disclose all the peculiarities of its DirectStorage API and how it can achieve its goals, but game developers will get the new interface in 2021 and this is the secret sauce behind the Xbox Velocity Engine will be revealed. What will be particularly interesting to see is whether DirectStorage can improve performance of applications beyond gaming.

Microsoft claims that its DirectStorage API uses NVMe SSDs, but it does not automatically mean that all Windows PCs with an NVMe SSD will automatically support DirectStorage. The company is working with its hardware partners to finish designing the API and components that will support it.

Since DirectStorage is already used for games aimed at the Xbox Series X, it is reasonable to assume that at least some cross-platform titles will also take advantage of the API on the PC starting from late 2021 (or rather from 2022) and onwards.