Forspoken DirectStorage 1.1 tests reveal insignificant differences between PCIe 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0 SSDs

Forspoken is the first game to support Microsoft’s DirectStorage API, which is designed to improve loading times on any type of storage solution. Initial tests performed during the beta stages with DirectStorage 1.0 showed that even the good old HDD can still see some benefits from this technology, but the difference between SATA SSDs and NVMe SSDs did not seem significant. Now that Forspoken is finally out with updated DirectStorage 1.1 support, it looks like the performance impact is even smaller when comparing different PCIe implementations. A test performed by Compusemble suggests that a PCIe 3.0 NVMe is slightly lagging behind a PCIe 5.0 model, while the difference is minimal when comparing PCIe 4.0 with PCIe 5.0. Moreover, the in-game benchmark shows surprisingly low framerates for the PCIe 5.0 solutions in some scenes.

Overall, the PCIe 5.0 SSD with Phison E26 controller loaded all seven benchmark scenes in 10.483 seconds. Very close behind it is the Samsung 990 Pro PCIe 4.0 SSD with 10.872 seconds, while the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro with PCIe 3.0 controller slightly lags behind at 13.838 seconds. When it comes to FPS counts though, the PCIe 5.0 is rather inconsistent. It initially offers the highest framerates for the first few scenes, but then the FPS dip not only under the PCIe 4.0 solution, but under the PCIe 3.0 one as well towards the last scenes. This is most likely a software optimization problem, which can be fixed with future game updates.

Compusemble also notes that the Phison E26 PCIe 5.0 controller supports NAND memory chips with 2400 MT/s speeds, but the tested SSD only comes with 1600 MT/s chips. The faster chips should hit the market from Q2 2023 onwards, but it remains to be seen if they can provide any meaningful performance jumps. By then, a few more titles supporting DirectStorage should already be available, hopefully with better optimization.

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