DirectStorage support for Arc A380

[NikosD]

Hello.

I have a clean installation of Windows 11 Version 22H2and latest drivers for my Intel Arc A380 v4669 with Resizable BAR enabled and the graphics card installed in PCIe v4.0 x16 slot.

The "Gaming features" of Xbox bar (Win + G) reports that the GPU is DirectStorage optimized.

But when I run the BulkLoadDemo, the benchmark of DirectStorage, I get a black window doing nothing.

I provided the link in a previous post and it marked as spam (!) so you have to find it and extract it.

Is A380 supported for DirectStorage ?

Can anyone else try?

Thank you!

[Stefan3D]

"Storage Device: DirectStorage enabled games will work on all devices (. You’ll need an NVMe SSD, where the bandwidth capabilities are much higher and the storage media itself is faster, to see the significant improvements of DirectStorage. We highly recommend ensuring your game files are saved to an NVMe to get the best gaming experience.

GPU: Any DirectX 12 capable GPU that supports Shader Model 6.0 will be able to take advantage of the new feature, we recommend a DX12 Ultimate capable card."

Source: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/directstorage-1-1-coming-soon

I see that the demo fails with black screen, if you use a USB flash drive.

And the official Microsoft link would be: https://aka.ms/directstorage

[NikosD]

Generally speaking, DirectStorage BulkLoadDemo could be run from HDDs, SSDs and NVME SSDs (M.2)

I did the test using a super fast NVME M.2 PCIe v4.0 x4 capable of reaching speeds around 7.000 MB/s and a SATA3 SSD capable of reaching ~550 MB/s.

For both tests I got the same output.

Black window.

So, something else is blocking the DirectStorage driver to work.

Did you try it with an Arc A380 or other card ?

[Jean_Intel]

Hello NikosD,

Thank you for posting on the Intel️® communities. We would be more than glad to help you.

We would like to further review this matter internally, but we want to confirm the following inforamtion:

• Share a video showing the step-by-step to replicate the issue. This can help us with issue reproduction purposes in case it is necessary.
• To gather more system information, create a system report using Intel System Support Utility:
  • Open the application and click "Scan" to see the system and device information. By default, Intel:registered: SSU will take you to the "Summary View."
  • Click on the menu where it says: "Summary" to change it to "Detailed View."
  • To save your scan, click "Next", and then "Save."

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NikosD]

Hello.

No need for all this fuss.

Two things only;

1) Make a question to the Driver's team if DirectStorage is enabled for A380.

If the answer is yes, then proceed to:

2) Test a A380 by yourselves running BulkLoadDemo with any configuration you want.

If you manage to succeed and the application is running, just inform me and I'll investigate the rest by myself..

The only thing I need from you is Info and a test, if necessary.

Thank you!

[Jean_Intel]

Hello NikosD,

Thank you for the inforamtion provided.

We would further research this matter internally. We will post back as soon as we have further details.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Hello NikosD,

We want to let you know that based on the information we have, the Intel® Arc™ A380 should support DirectStorage. However, we are willing to continue testing to see if we can replicate the issue you reported. Please allow us some time to be able to test, and we will post back as soon as we have further details.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NikosD]

Hello.

Based on my experience, a behavior of a black window doing nothing, usually hides an unsupported, disabled or blocked feature.

It's not a low performance issue or a problematic execution.

But I'm waiting for your tests.

Thank you.

[NikosD]

Hello.

It's been a week since your last post.

Any news ? Any updates ?

TY

[Jean_Intel]

Hello NikosD,

We appreciate your patience in waiting for a response. We have been able to reproduce the issue you described; however, after further investigation, this is an application issue, so the best course of action is to contact the app developer. The benchmark software points to Microsoft GitHub, and the Xbox Bar was created by them. The best course of action should be to report the issue to Microsoft Support.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NikosD]

Hello.

Interesting reply and a very unexpected one.

A few facts:

Intel has posted a very detailed page, reporting that since driver 101.3793 Intel supports GPU decompression with DirectStorage and as it is clearly seen it uses BulkLoad Demo.

Take a look here:

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/news/directstorage-on-intel-gpus.html

Also, a few very well know publications have benchmarked Arc cards using the same benchmark tool:

https://www.pcgameshardware.de/DirectX-12-Software-255525/Specials/Direct-Storage-Games-Windows-11-Benchmarks-1411071/

And in English the same results here:

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/directstorage-performance-amd-intel-nvidia

and here

https://www.techspot.com/news/97257-directstorage-benchmark-shows-massive-transfer-speed-improvements.html

A few questions:

1) Do the other Intel Arc cards, like A750 and A770, support nowadays this particular benchmark - BulkLoad Demo ?

2) Is it only A380 unsupported ?

3) If the answers above are NO which means that ALL Arc cards have the same black screen issue, then what is it that has changed since those benchmark reports ?

ONLY DRIVERS.

4) If only A380 is unsupported, then why ?

Please, be a little more specific regarding the support of this app and more verbose.

Thank you!

Nikos

[Jean_Intel]

Hello NikosD,

To properly answer your question, we would like to further look into this matter internally. We will be back as soon as possible.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Hello NikosD,

We have been looking at this matter internally, and we rested the BulkLoad Demo with an A380 card, and it worked fine. Here's the video of the test. We previously used the files you shared. About your questions, here are the answers:

• Do the other Intel Arc cards, like A750 and A770, support this particular benchmark - BulkLoad Demo?
  • Answer: All Arc GPUs support DirectStorage, and BulkLoad Demo works fine on A750, A770, and A380. We have two articles about this matter. DirectStorage 1.1 for Intel GPUs (you mentioned this in your previous post) and Faster Game Load Times on Intel® Arc™ Graphics with DirectStorage 1.1

•  Is it only A380 unsupported?
  • Answer: refer to the previous answer

• If the answers above are NO which means that ALL Arc cards have the same black screen issue, then what is it that has changed since those benchmark reports?
  • Answer: if BulkLoad Demo is not working on your system, check with the app developer for support.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NikosD]

Hello.

Another day, another weird reply.

It was you that replied above:

"We have been able to reproduce the issue you described; however, after further investigation, this is an application issue, so the best course of action is to contact the app developer"

And after my links mentioning that this app was working, at least some time ago, you made that video saying that it works eventually (!)

Well, I have good news and bad news for you.

First the good news:

Using latest 4824 drivers the app works with my A380.

(HDR off)

And the bad news:

Using latest 4824 drivers the app doesn't work with HDR ON, resulting in the black screen I've described since my initial post and you managed to reproduce.

nVidia cards and AMD cards work fine with both HDR ON and HDR OFF.

Waiting for your reply and maybe a possible fix in the next drivers ?

BR,

Nikos

[Jean_Intel]

Hello NikosD,

To provide you with the correct information, we need to double-check it internally. We will get back to you shortly with more details.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Edit: the previous comment was not intended to be posted in this thread. We are sorry for the inconvenience. We would like to let you know that we continued to look into this matter and review all details. We will post back as soon as possible.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Jean_Intel]

Hello NikosD,

Thank you for your patience in waiting for a response on this matter. We would be more than happy to let you know that our developer team has identified this as an issue in the application. Since it is an open-source project, the team suggested a change which was approved so the fix was merged.

Said that we will now proceed to close this thread. If you need any additional information, submit a new question, as this thread will no longer be monitored.

Best regards,

Jean O.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NikosD]

This is a really interesting twist of the plot so far!

I have to find a way to rebuild the source I guess, in order to test it.

Unless Intel has already done that.

In any case, thank you.

[NikosD]

Speaking of HDR, last time I tried to use Intel's screen recording tool inside drivers, it didn't work with HDR ON.

When I disabled HDR it worked like a charm.

Maybe it needs the same treatment too.

[NikosD]

It looks like my previous post triggered a new fix in latest drivers 5122.

According to the release notes:

• Support for HDR Capture and HDR to SDR streaming on HDR compatible displays.

That's good if it fixes the issue I mentioned above.

[NikosD · Accepted solution]

Hello.

I can finally confirm that newest compilation of this app works like a charm using HDR or not.

It's the latest version of DirectStorage v1.2.2 and you can find it here:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsYziax1Q91rxzNcXZ2U4fNUDb6q?e=K25IEM

Thank you.