SmartAccess Storage: AMD doesn’t want long loading times either

Almost two years ago, Nvidia introduced its GPU-based data decompression “RTX IO” for the DirectStorage API, along with the graphics cards Geforce RTX 3070, 3080 and 3090. Now it’s AMD’s turn. SmartAccess Storage is the name of the new technology of the competition from Santa Clara, as rumored beforehand, and should bring the user out of the loading screen into his gameplay faster than ever, as AMD’s chief architect Frank Azor assures. But it also improves texture streaming.

Shorter loading times thanks to GPU-based data decompression

According to AMD, SmartAccess Storage harnesses the power of the GPU to handle all asset compression and decompression tasks. “Traditional game loading requires a significant amount of processing power to decompress the game’s data,” explains Frank Azor, “this requires the CPU to do the decompression and data transfer, which introduces latency, and this consumes significant system resources.”

AMD’s SmartAccess Storage based on Microsoft’s DirectStorage API is said to relieve the CPU considerably while at the same time being able to exploit the full performance of modern NVMe storage. Nvidia also presented the already discussed RTX IO in a similar way, which is said to offer a hundred times the throughput and a 20 times lower CPU load compared to conventional CPU compression.

Matching: Ryzen 7000: AMD with details on cores, cache, RDNA 2 and release

No games have yet been released using the DirectStorage API, which would be required for SmartAccess Storage. One of the first PC games to take advantage of Microsoft’s interface is Forspoken, which was originally scheduled for release at the current time, May 24th. However, the release was postponed to October 11, 2022. Nothing is known about other PC games that will support DirectStorage.

Source: AMD via PC Gamers