Does DirectStorage need a PCIe 4.0 SSD?
(Windows Phone Central)

Best answer: No, DirectStorage works with all NVMe drives including the slower PCIe 3.0 spec, though naturally performance will be better with PCIe 4.0 and Windows 11. What is DirectStorage? DirectStorage is an API that is part of DirectX. Microsoft has already implemented it into the Xbox Velocity Architecture found on the new Xbox Series X and Series S consoles and has since brought it to the PC, at first with Windows 11. On a DirectStorage-compatible machine playing an enabled title, players will experience dramatically reduced load times thanks to the new API. Described by Microsoft: Unfortunately, current storage APIs were not optimized for this high number of IO requests, preventing them from scaling up to these higher NVMe bandwidths creating bottlenecks that limit what games can do. Even with super-fast PC hardware and an NVMe drive, games using the existing APIs will be unable to fully saturate the IO pipeline leaving precious bandwidth on the table. That`s where...