According to Microsoft, DirectStorage API is available now for Windows 11 and 10 PCs to load games faster. On the Develop Blog from Microsoft, an SDK package is offered to download. Read this post from MiniTool to know a lot of information about this good news.

Now Available: DirectStorage API Windows 11/10

DirectStorage is a game technology used to load up games instantly. That is, you can play games with better frame rates since this feature helps to free up the CPU to handle other tasks to increase performance. 

On March 14, 2022, Microsoft announced that Windows games can ship with DirectStorage via its Developer Blog. The new DirectStorage API (Application Programming Interface) for Windows 11/10 PCs is available.

The public DirectStorage for Windows API SDK package allows developers to use this feature so that the games can more fully utilize the speed of the SSDs or internal storage devices. This brings a new era for PC games with fast load times. This DirectStoreage API offers a new IO model for developers, optimizing the speed, bandwidth, and latency issues that NVMe and even older SATA SSDs bring.

DirectStorage SDK Download – For Developers

How to get DirectStorage SDK for Windows 11 or 10? Follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to the DirectStorage API Downloads page on the Developer Blog. This list many resources for getting started about this new API.

Step 2: Go to the Latest DirectStorage SDK section, click the given link.

DirectStorage API download

Step 3: In the open website, click the Download package link to get a .nupkg file. Open it with a Microsoft Store app. Then, follow the on-screen prompts to finish some operations.

According to Microsoft, it will give an introduction to DirectStorage at GDC, as well as some tips and tricks to get started on March 22, 2022.

A Suggestion for Game Players

Microsoft also gives a suggestion for game players. Although DirectStorage is compatible with Windows 10, Windows 11 is recommended to use for the best results since this new operating system offers storage optimizations and other gaming features. Installing games on NVMe SSD can maximize the IO performance and help more fully experience DirectStorage’s benefits.

Tip: If you are also a gamer and are using Windows 10, you can choose to upgrade to Windows 11. How to do this work? Here is a related article - How to Upgrade Windows 10 to Windows 11? See a Detailed Guide.

Windows 11 DirectStorage Requirements

According to Microsoft, your PC should meet some requirements to use DirectStorage:

  1. A 1TB or greater NVMe SSD is necessary to store and run games.
  2. The Standard NVM Express Controller driver is required.
  3. DirectStorage works with a minimum PCIe 3.0 interface. To get the maximum performance, PCIe 4.0 is recommended.
  4. For GPU, it is compatible with DirectX 12 Ultimate, for example, NVIDIA RTX 2000 and RTX 3000, and AMD’s line of RDNA 2

For Windows 10, another requirement is the system should be Windows 10 version 1909 and above to support DirectStorage.

Tip: Some of you may ask: how to enable DirectStorage Windows 11/10. Remember – DirectStorage is an API that is implemented by developers to make use of it. You won’t need to enable or turn on it. By default, it is enabled if your game is using it and the PC supports it.

Currently, Microsoft hasn’t revealed the names of any games that will use DirectStorage. Besides, in the future, this giant company will bring support for decompression tasks and GPU file compression in DirectStorage.

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About The Author

Vera
Vera

Position: Columnist

Vera is an editor of the MiniTool Team since 2016 who has more than 5 years’ writing experiences in the field of technical articles. Her articles mainly focus on disk & partition management, PC data recovery, video conversion, as well as PC backup & restore, helping users to solve some errors and issues when using their computers. In her spare times, she likes shopping, playing games and reading some articles.

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