Advanced Shader Delivery for all RDNA Radeon GPUs, NVIDIA users will have to wait

Microsoft has announced significant news regarding Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD), the technology designed to drastically reduce the time needed to compile shaders in PC video games. After an initial phase limited to a selection of devices and Insider users, the feature is now out of beta and reaches all AMD graphics cards based on the RDNA architecture.

This update concerns all AMD Radeon GPUs based on this architecture, from RDNA 1 to RDNA 4, effectively including every model released starting from the Radeon RX 5000 series in 2019. To access the feature, users need to install AMD Adrenalin 26.6.1 drivers or later.

The functionality of Advanced Shader Delivery modifies the traditional shader compilation process. Instead of generating these components directly on the user's PC during the initial game launch or after a driver update, Microsoft preps them in advance and distributes them via cloud. The shaders are then downloaded along with the game or during graphics software updates.

This approach eliminates much of the waiting time that many PC titles experience during their first launch and also reduces stuttering issues that can occur during initial sessions before the shaders are compiled. According to Microsoft, in some cases, the benefits are particularly evident: the company claims that the initial loading time of Forza Horizon 6 can decrease by up to 95% thanks to the use of ASD.

The technology debuted last year on ASUS ROG Xbox Ally devices, where it already supports numerous games. Compatible titles include Avowed, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Control, Farming Simulator 25, Forza Horizon 5, Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and Silent Hill f.

With the latest update, Microsoft has extended support to a list of games directly published in the official post, which we provide below:

007 First Light
Ark Survival Ascended
Avowed
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Control Standard Edition
Crimson Desert
Dead Island 2
Deep Rock Galactic
Farming Simulator 25
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
Final Fantasy XVI
Forspoken
Forza Horizon 5
Forza Horizon 6
Forza Motorsport
Gears of War: Reloaded
Gears Tactics
Grand Theft Auto V Enhanced
Grounded 2
Hades 2
High On Life 2
Hogwarts Legacy
Keeper
Lies of P
Metro Exodus
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
Monster Hunter Rise
NBA 2k26
Ninja Gaiden 4
Persona 3 Reload
Resident Evil 2 (2019)
Resident Evil 3
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Sea of Thieves
Silent Hill f
Sniper Elite: Resistance
South of Midnight
Starfield
Subnautica 2
The Callisto Protocol
The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Remaster
The Outer Worlds 2
Where Winds Meet

Currently, availability is limited to games running through the Xbox ecosystem on Windows, and no precise indications have emerged regarding potential extensions to other distribution platforms. It remains to be clarified whether this technology will reach other digital delivery platforms like Steam or Epic Games Store in the future.

Regarding hardware support, Microsoft has confirmed that NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics card compatibility is expected by the end of the year. Intel has also expressed intentions to integrate the system into its graphic solutions.

While waiting for the expansion to other manufacturers, NVIDIA users can rely on a different feature included in the beta version of the NVIDIA app. This technology, called Auto Shader Compilation, allows the conservation of compiled shaders after driver updates, although it does not eliminate the need for initial compilation at game startup.