Your NVIDIA RTX GPU Is Getting Microsoft's Shader Stutter Fix This Month

by Aaron Leong — Monday, October 05, 2026, 11:20 AM EDT

Games like Gears of War: E-Day will get a major render boost from ASD — Games like Gears of War: E-Day will get a major boost from ASD - Image: Xbox

Microsoft is eliminating PC gaming's shader compilation stutter and endless first-boot load screens by expanding Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) to all NVIDIA RTX GPUs later this month. Originally meant to deliver pre-compiled Shader Object Data Blocks for Xbox PC game installs, ASD's launch was initially restricted to AMD’s RDNA-based hardware. Microsoft has now confirmed that support is broadening across Windows 11 24H2 and newer versions, and with that, ASD support is also coming for RTX 20-series and newer GPUs, as well as upcoming RTX Spark-powered laptops.

Currently, DirectX 12 games heavily rely on Pipeline State Object and custom shaders that require a user's CPU to compile graphics instructions locally upon launching a game for the first time. Depending on the PC configuration, this step often can leave players with lengthy loading bars that can sometimes take many minutes, or worse suffer through mid-game micro-stutters whenever new visual assets are needed to render on screen. ASD differs in that it hosts hardware-specific, pre-compiled shader packages in the Xbox App. When a game is downloaded, the exact shader files matched to the user’s specific graphics card and driver combo are delivered simultaneously. According to Microsoft, ASD can cut first-launch shader prep times by up to 95%.

An diagram showing how precompiled shaders (PSDBs) are delivered to the user on an ROG Xbox Ally or ROG Xbox Ally X — Diagram showing how precompiled shaders are delivered to the user on a supported device - Image: Microsoft

The poster child for this rollout is Gears of War: E-Day that boasts massive high-res environmental destruction and dense asset streaming. Players accessing the early release on Windows 11 machines (equipped with supported hardware) report initial shader compilation dropping from 15 minutes to roughly 20 seconds.

While AMD users with recent Adrenalin drivers were the first to take advantage of these optimizations, it's great to see Microsoft adding support for other vendors as well. Alongside said updates for GeForce RTX cards, Microsoft is bringing ASD to Intel’s discrete Arc B-Series cards (Battlemage B570 and B580), integrated graphics on Core Ultra Series 2 and Series 3 chips, and Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Series mobile processors.

Standardizing matched shader packages through the OS and game client, rather than requiring developers to build custom caching solutions is a positive move on Microsoft's part. Future major releases, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, are already lined up to integrate ASD out of the box as support rolls out globally over the coming weeks.