Windows 11 & DirectStorage; possible on external portable NVMe drive

[kiddingguy]

Does an external M.2 drive - like Delock Thunderbolt™ 3 External Portable 480 GB SSD M.2 PCIe NVMe - also supports the new DirectStorage in gaming (on Windows 11)? Connected via USB-C (and more specifically in my case a compatible USB-C hub; the Satechi Type-C Multi-Port Adapter 4K with ethernet V2)

 

Or does DirectStorage only fully work when it's directly connected & plugged in into NVMe to the motherboard?

[adrynalyne]

Windows 11 hasn’t even implemented DirectStorage yet. 🤨
 

But according to someone else on this forum, it’s done. 🤣

[Ixion]

On 01/09/2021 at 07:02, kiddingguy said:

Does an external M.2 drive - like Delock Thunderbolt™ 3 External Portable 480 GB SSD M.2 PCIe NVMe - also supports the new DirectStorage in gaming (on Windows 11)? Connected via USB-C (and more specifically in my case a compatible USB-C hub; the Satechi Type-C Multi-Port Adapter 4K with ethernet V2)

 

Or does DirectStorage only fully work when it's directly connected & plugged in into NVMe to the motherboard?

Based on nothing but conjecture you'd want fast streaming speeds to see a benefit with directstorage so I would think you'd want it on the PCIe bus alongside the graphics card, I would also expect the minimum speed requirements to be at the top end of PCIe3 (if it's even supported) to be vaguely comparable with the Xbox Series S/X (2.4Gbps before compression, 4.8Gbps after). So in summary if it's even supported I wouldn't expect it to perform well over USB3.

[George P Global Moderator]

That's a interesting question, I'm just guessing here and say that it probably will work with externals as long as the minimum speeds are there.  

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

I have not seen any mention of using an externally-interfaced drive, so I think it may be likely be a feature that requires directly-attached storage.  If the drive were accidentally disconnected during use that could cause problems (game crashing at the very least, I would think), plus there may be some security (anti-cheat) implications as well if drives were externally attached via Thunderbolt.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[spaceelf]

If it's connected through Thunderbolt yes, it should work fine.  If it's through USB probably not.

 

But until the tech is actually released I'm not making any promises, obviously.

[spaceelf]

and that edit is proof I am not always awake when I respond :p