Microsoft has announced that DirectStorage 1.1, which will feature GPU decompression, will be coming to PC at the end of 2022. As Microsoft stated, GPU decompression is one of the most requested features for DirectStorage on PC.

In order to showcase the benefits of GPU decompression, Microsoft shared the following image. In this tech demo, GPU decompression improves loading by almost 1.5 seconds. This means that loading has improved by three times and the CPU is almost entirely freed up to be used for other game processes.

From what we know so far, Square Enix’s Forspoken will be the first game to take advantage of DirectStorage. Since the game will come out in 2023, we can assume that it will be using DirectStorage 1.1.

DirectStorage games will work on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. However, MS claims that there are additional optimizations in the IO stack available to Windows 11. Moreover, any DirectX 12 capable GPU that supports Shader Model 6.0 will be able to take advantage of DirectStorage.

Stay tuned for more!

John Papadopoulos

John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved - and still does - the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the "The Evolution of PC graphics cards." Contact: Email