Apple mimics Microsoft putting speedy SSDs to work in games

pcgamer.com:

Over at Apple's WWDC 2022 event, the Cupertino company announced a handful of new gaming features coming to its Apple silicon-powered Macs. One was MetalFX Upscaling(opens in new tab), its very own feature to rival AMD and Nvidia's current FSR and DLSS offerings. But the other sounds exactly like Apple's very own version of Microsoft's DirectStorage technology.

Apple announced the Fast Resource Loading API for Metal 3, the latest version of its graphics framework. Fast Resource Loading API «minimises wait time by providing a more direct path from storage to the GPU, so games can easily access high-quality textures and geometry needed to create expansive worlds for realistic and immersive gameplay.»

A lot of buzzwords at the end there, but sound familiar?

DirectStorage is a storage technology(opens in new tab) created by Microsoft and set to be utilised by Nvidia and AMD with their respective RTX IO(opens in new tab) and SmartAccess Storage(opens in new tab) technologies. It essentially reroutes assets from your speedy storage drives, bypassing the CPU and sluggish APIs, straight to the GPU for rendering in a frame. Thus reducing overall latency, maximising bandwidth from an NVMe SSD, and speeding up loading times.

DirectStorage was originally a Windows 11 only feature but it has since been announced it is also headed to Windows 10(opens in new tab). There are likely other requirements for DirectStorage: likely a supported GPU and a fairly speedy SSD. Just how fast that SSD needs to be we don't know, but likely PCIe 4.0 bandwidth or better for the full effect.

Now it would appear that Apple plans to integrate a DirectStorage alternative into its own graphics programming model. Makes sense—Apple has full control over its