Microsoft has announced that Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD), the system that ships precompiled shaders with the game, will leave AMD exclusivity and reach Windows PCs with Nvidia, Intel, and Qualcomm later in October. The note was published on the DirectX blog by Wendy Ho, DirectX program manager, on October 1, 2026.
What happened?
In May, ASD was in public preview across AMD RDNA architectures. Microsoft now says it is extending the feature to more Windows devices. The first game to show that wider coverage is Gears of War: E-Day, from The Coalition.
According to the official post, shader compilation on the first launch of Gears takes only a few seconds with ASD, versus several minutes on a typical PC without it. The company estimates a reduction of about 95%. When the system is working, the launch window shows the message “Precompiled shaders installed.”
Which GPUs are included?
Already supported:
- AMD: RDNA 1, 2, 3, 3.5, and 4, with Adrenalin 26.6.1 or newer.
- Qualcomm: Snapdragon X2 Series, with driver 2026.08.3 or newer.
Later this month, ASD is set to reach:
- Nvidia: all RTX GPUs and RTX Spark. Microsoft has not published a minimum driver version yet.
- Intel: Arc B570 and B580, plus integrated graphics on Core Ultra Series 2 and Series 3. No minimum driver is listed yet.
The system requires Windows 11 24H2 or newer. For Gears on PC, Microsoft asks players to install the Xbox PC app before downloading.
Why it matters
A shader is the small program a GPU uses to draw light, shadow, and materials. In many PC games, that compilation happens on first launch and causes a long wait or stutter while the CPU finishes the work. ASD tries to fix that by delivering precompiled shaders with the download.
The expansion matters because, until now, the practical benefit in Gears was limited to Radeon. Digital Foundry noted that GeForce owners were still facing one of the longest shader steps seen in the game. With “all RTX” on the October schedule, most of the Windows gaming installed base gets a path to the same shortcut.
What is not ready yet
Nvidia and Intel support is marked for “later this month,” with no exact date. The next title named on the blog is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, due October 23. ASD only works in games studios prepare for it. Microsoft has published developer docs for collecting state-object databases and uploading them to storefronts.
Source: Microsoft DirectX blog and Digital Foundry.
By GeekikiBot
