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That "Compiling shaders" screen is one of the most annoying parts of PC gaming, and so are the small hitches that show up mid-match when a new effect loads for the first time. NVIDIA's new GeForce Game Ready 621.01 driver now supports Microsoft's Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) on every GeForce RTX GPU, which aims to fix both problems. This news comes straight from NVIDIA's driver announcement and Microsoft's DirectX Developer Blog, so it isn't a rumor: both companies announced it themselves. Digital Foundry, PCWorld, TweakTown, VideoCardz and Wccftech also covered the release.
What is Advanced Shader Delivery?
Modern games use tens of thousands of shaders, the small programs that tell your GPU how to draw lighting, materials and effects. Games ship them in a generic form, and your PC has to compile them for your exact GPU and driver version. NVIDIA explains that this is a CPU-heavy job, and that it can make players wait up to 30 minutes when a game launches or updates. Shaders that the game misses during that first pass get compiled on the fly while you play, which causes stutter.
ASD moves that work to the cloud. Developers capture their shaders into a State Object Database using DirectX 12 and Microsoft's Agility SDK. Microsoft's cloud then precompiles them for hundreds of thousands of hardware and driver combinations. When you download or update a supported game, the Xbox PC app downloads a Precompiled Shader Database made for your PC along with it.
How much faster is it?
Microsoft says that in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, shader compilation at first launch takes just a few seconds with ASD, compared to several minutes on a typical PC without it. You'll see the message "Precompiled shaders installed" in the bottom-left corner of the screen. NVIDIA says the system reaches a near-100% cache hit rate, so it should also remove most of the CPU spikes and stutters caused by mid-game compilation. TweakTown notes that Microsoft first presented ASD at GDC 2026 as able to cut shader compilation times by up to 95%. These are the companies' own numbers, so independent testing in more games will tell the full story.
Which games and GPUs support it?
For now, two big games support ASD on GeForce cards: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which fully launches on October 23, and Gears of War: E-Day. Developers have to add support to each game, so the list will grow one title at a time.
On the hardware side, Microsoft lists every NVIDIA RTX GPU and RTX Spark laptops with driver 621.01 or newer. ASD isn't NVIDIA-only. Microsoft also lists AMD Radeon GPUs with RDNA 1 to RDNA 4 architectures (Adrenalin 26.6.1 or newer), Intel Arc B570 and B580 cards plus Core Ultra Series 2 and Series 3 graphics, and Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 chips. Older GeForce GTX cards are not on the list.
What do you need to use it?
- Windows 11 version 24H2 or newer
- NVIDIA Game Ready driver 621.01 or newer, from the NVIDIA app or GeForce.com
- The Xbox PC app installed before you download the game
Digital Foundry reports that the driver didn't show up in the NVIDIA app on its test PC, so it installed it manually from NVIDIA's website. If you don't see the update in the app, that's the fix. Digital Foundry also points out that ASD works much like Valve's shader pre-caching on the Steam Deck, and that it can run alongside NVIDIA's own Automatic Shader Compilation feature.
Will it come to Steam and Epic Games Store?
Yes, according to Microsoft. The company says ASD will soon expand beyond the Microsoft Store and the Xbox PC app to the Epic Games Store and Steam. Epic also plans to add ASD to Fortnite in an upcoming update. Microsoft didn't give a date for either store.
What else is in driver 621.01?
The same driver is Game Ready for Phantom Blade Zero (October 28), Crimson Desert Enhanced (October 29) and the Cyberpunk 2077 update that adds DLSS 4.5 Dynamic Multi Frame Generation. NVIDIA has published a full list of fixes on its website.
Should you upgrade your GPU or wait?
You don't need new hardware for this one. If you already own any GeForce RTX card, from the RTX 20 series up, updating Windows 11, your driver and the Xbox PC app is enough. ASD is a software fix, not a reason to buy a new GPU.
If you're still on a GTX card or an older Windows 10 PC, though, you're left out, and that's a good moment to think about an upgrade. Browse our graphics cards for an RTX upgrade, check our ready-to-play gaming PCs that come with Windows 11, or save money with one of our refurbished PCs.
FAQ
Does Advanced Shader Delivery work on GTX cards?
No. On the NVIDIA side, Microsoft lists only RTX GPUs and RTX Spark, with driver 621.01 or newer.
Do I need to buy games from the Microsoft Store?
Not always. The Xbox PC app must be installed before you download the game, since it fetches the precompiled shaders. Microsoft says direct support for Steam and the Epic Games Store is coming soon.
Does it work on Windows 10?
No. Microsoft requires Windows 11 version 24H2 or newer.
Will it remove all stutter?
It targets stutter from shader compilation only. Other causes, like a lack of VRAM or a slow CPU, aren't fixed by ASD.
