Microsoft’s Advanced Shader Delivery, which ships precompiled shaders together with a game download so PC players can skip shader compilation, now works on graphics hardware from AMD, Intel, NVIDIA and Qualcomm. NVIDIA joined with GeForce Game Ready driver 621.01, which switches the feature on in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 and Gears of War: E-Day for GeForce RTX owners.
What shader stutter is and what changes
Shaders are small programs that tell the graphics card how to draw light, shadows and surfaces. On PC, games must translate thousands of them into code for your exact GPU and driver, a CPU heavy job. Done before you play, it becomes a long compilation screen, which NVIDIA says can last up to 30 minutes after a launch or an update. Done during play, it causes the short freezes known as shader stutter.
Advanced Shader Delivery moves that job to Microsoft’s cloud. Developers record the shaders their game uses, Microsoft compiles them for a huge range of hardware and driver combinations, and your PC downloads the matching set with the game. Microsoft says the first launch of Modern Warfare 4 now spends a few seconds on shaders instead of several minutes, and a “Precompiled shaders installed” message appears in the lower left corner when it works. NVIDIA says the cache hit rate is close to 100 percent, so games should no longer pause to compile shaders while you play. As PCWorld points out, it will not fix stutter caused by asset streaming, CPU limits or poor optimization.
Supported GPUs and minimum drivers
Every system needs Windows 11 version 24H2 or newer, plus one of these:
- AMD: RDNA 1, RDNA 2, RDNA 3, RDNA 3.5 and RDNA 4 graphics, Adrenalin 26.6.1 or newer
- Intel: Arc B570 and B580, Core Ultra Series 2 and Core Ultra Series 3, driver 32.0.101.9150 or newer
- NVIDIA: all RTX GPUs and RTX Spark, Game Ready 621.01 or newer
- Qualcomm: Snapdragon X2 Series, driver 2026.08.3 or newer
AMD support dates back to the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds in 2025, so Intel and NVIDIA are the newest additions.
How to get it in Modern Warfare 4
For now, precompiled shaders only reach supported games from the Microsoft Store, installed through the Xbox PC app. For Modern Warfare 4, Microsoft says to install the Xbox PC app before downloading the game and to keep your graphics driver current. Steam copies are not covered yet: Microsoft says Steam and the Epic Games Store come next, with no date, and Epic plans to add it to Fortnite. Developers on Unreal Engine 5.8.4 can already build the needed shader database, while Unity support is due in 2027. Modern Warfare 4 launches in full on October 23.
Watch the official PC trailer below.
What else GeForce 621.01 brings
The driver, out now through the NVIDIA app and GeForce.com, is also Game Ready for:
- Phantom Blade Zero, out October 28 with DLSS 4.5 Dynamic Multi Frame Generation and Ray Reconstruction for its path traced lighting
- Cyberpunk 2077, whose October 22 update adds DLSS 4.5 Dynamic Multi Frame Generation and moves its other DLSS features to NVIDIA’s second generation AI models
- NBA 2K27 Season 2, with a faster DLSS 5 model that NVIDIA says lifts frame rates by up to 1.4 times on RTX 50 Series GPUs
- Crimson Desert Enhanced: Charting the Unknown, arriving October 29 with DLSS 4.5
Based on the official Microsoft DirectX Developer Blog post and NVIDIA’s GeForce Game Ready 621.01 announcement, with context from PCWorld.
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