DirectStorage is exclusive to Windows 11 on PC

DirectX 12's new DirectStorage feature will be exclusive to Windows 11 and won't be available to Windows 10 users, Microsoft confirms.

Today's big Windows 11 info blowout confirms a major tech breakthrough is exclusive to the new OS. "With DirectStorage, which will only be available with Windows 11, games can quickly load assets to the graphics card without bogging down the CPU," Microsoft said.

"This means you'll get to experience incredibly detailed game worlds rendered at lightning speeds, without long load times. "DirectStorage Optimized" Windows 11 PCs are configured with the hardware and drivers needed to enable this amazing experience."

Microsoft's new DirectStorage uses GPU power to unlock the full speeds of NVMe SSDs. Under DirectStorage, data decompression is no longer CPU bound. Microsoft uses dedicated graphics cards to decompress the data in order to supercharge speeds and unlock consistent max I/O throughput for high performance SSDs. This leads to dramatically faster load times in games and apps, and developers can now create content specifically for this new speed threshold.

Microsoft is currently working closely with chip-makers like NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel to make GPU-decompression technology compatible with new and old GPUs.

For an in-depth look at DirectStorage check out our coverage here.