AMD is developing Smart Access Storage to enable speedier game loading.

Published 2022-05-23 10:07 by Hilbert Hagedoorn

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#6019444

Undying

2022-05-23 10:16

So transporting game objects from storage to the gpu means we'll have alot higher vram req. in the future.

#6019457

FlyBy

2022-05-23 11:10

I don't think so, it should not require more VRAM, it's just a smarter/shorter process of getting the same data from your SSD into VRAM, bypassing the CPU. It is still the same data, just a shorter path to destination to my understanding. But hey, more VRAM never hurts.

#6019458

Horus-Anhur

2022-05-23 11:14

Direct Storage does not bypass the CPU. And it does not sent data directly to the GPU. It still passes information through the CPU, memory and PCIe bus. This means it still requires bandwidth from these. DirectStorage speculations & myths

#6019461

Alessio1989

2022-05-23 11:33

Horus-Anhur:

Direct Storage does to bypass the CPU. And it does not sent data directly to the GPU. It still passes information through the CPU, memory and PCIe bus. This means it still requires bandwidth from these. DirectStorage speculations & myths

well a myth is also spectre being an issue, most of game use custom archvie formats and not a gazillion of small files. Small assets are usually in a pool of a bigger file. Same are those assets stored on the GPU in bigger buffer pools along with other assets... Usually. Plus most of spectre mitigations must be turned on on the binary when compiling, and devs can choose if adding them on a game binary or not (actually by default aren't). DirectStorage is not mean to stop using custom archives and modern compression methods on game assets, it's meant to lower the passes on loading files to lower the CPU usage and some cache misses/flushes that are done by current I/O OS pipelines. GPU decoding would be sweet but it is still missing. And to be honest it will not help everywhere (in some scenarios could make things worse).

#6019476

Astyanax

2022-05-23 12:23

Horus-Anhur:

Direct Storage does not bypass the CPU. And it does not sent data directly to the GPU. It still passes information through the CPU, memory and PCIe bus. This means it still requires bandwidth from these. DirectStorage speculations & myths

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/ifs/images/bypass-io-path.jpg

#6019494

PrMinisterGR

2022-05-23 13:10

Undying:

So transporting game objects from storage to the gpu means we'll have alot higher vram req. in the future.

"tEn giGaByTe aRe EnOUgH fOr a tOp EnD gPu" 🙄

#6019505

Kaarme

2022-05-23 14:00

I just hope they'll get it working on PC by the time Elder Scrolls VI makes it debut.

#6019541

Catspaw

2022-05-23 15:07

Kaarme:

I just hope they'll get it working on PC by the time Elder Scrolls VI makes it debut.

Or star citizen.

#6019547

Denial

2022-05-23 15:33

Catspaw:

Or star citizen.

They actually talked about this recently.. apparently they have their own system that's very similar to DirectStorage/SAS and that they don't expect much of an improvement from these technologies.

#6019653