UL Solutions has released the 3DMark DirectStorage feature test, allowing you to verify your system readiness for upcoming games. The benchmarks show how this new decompression technology boosts performance using the graphics card.
The DirectStorage feature test is a free update for the 3DMark Storage Benchmark DLC, allowing you to measure your machine’s ‘untapped’ speed. It puts your hardware through a series of bandwidth benchmarks that stress storage in various different ways. This way you can put real numbers on the benefits that Microsoft’s DirectStorage can bring to PC gaming.
For instance, using my Gen 4 Samsung 980 Pro plus a Ryzen 7600X / RX 7900 XT system, the available bandwidth jumped from 5.04GB/s to 13.86GB/s when switching DirectStorage on. Using GDeflate, this figure jumped to a whopping 65.56GB/s, showing how this technology can revolutionise game loading and asset streaming.
For those wondering, GDeflate is a new compression stream format that closely matches the DEFLATE framework, allowing for up to 32-way parallelism during decompression – hence the exponential speed boost. On systems running Windows 11, DirectStorage can bring further benefits with BypassIO, lowering a game’s overhead by reducing the CPU workload when transferring data.
If you want to try it, the Storage DLC is currently available at £2.49 on Steam. The test took around 15 minutes to finish on my machine, but faster hardware may need less time. Note however, that this benchmark represents a best-case scenario where other variables don’t impact asset loading, such as the game’s asset management or other tasks performed in the background.
All in all, a nice bit of kit that gives you insight into the latent performance, dormant inside your gaming rig. I can’t wait to see games take full advantage of DirectStorage to deliver a loading-free experience with massive worlds.
