Santa Clara — Nvidia's New GPU Driver Cuts Game-Launch Stutter

Nvidia released a new GPU driver on Oct. 21 that lets PC gamers skip the shader-compilation screen that slows down game launches and causes mid-game stutter, according to The Verge. The driver, version 621.01, adds support for Microsoft's new Advanced Shader Delivery technology.

For gamers who have sat through a loading bar that says "optimizing shaders" before a match starts, this update targets that exact wait. It also aims to stop the stutter and CPU spikes that happen when a game compiles shaders in the middle of play, a problem known as just-in-time compilation.

What does the new driver actually change?

The driver turns on Microsoft's Advanced Shader Delivery system for Nvidia graphics cards. Instead of a gamer's own PC compiling shaders the first time it runs a game, the work gets done ahead of time in the cloud and delivered to the PC before it's needed, Nvidia's Andrew Burnes wrote, as reported by The Verge.

How does Advanced Shader Delivery work?

Developers use DirectX 12, Windows 11, and Microsoft's Agility SDK to capture every shader a game needs into something called a State Object Database. Microsoft's cloud network then precompiles those shaders for hundreds of thousands of hardware and driver combinations, according to Burnes's account cited by The Verge. When a gamer launches the game, the matching precompiled shader is already waiting instead of being built on the spot.

Which games support it right now?

Two titles support Advanced Shader Delivery as of this driver release: Gears of War: E-Day and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, per The Verge's reporting.

Does a gamer have to buy from the Xbox store to get this?

No, but the Xbox PC app has to be installed. Burnes told The Verge the system is "storefront-agnostic, meaning you benefit even when playing games purchased on Steam, as long as the Xbox PC app is installed on your PC." So a Steam copy of Call of Duty still gets the speedup, as long as the Xbox app sits on the same machine.

What changes for PC gamers on Monday morning?

Anyone with an Nvidia card who updates to driver 621.01 and keeps the Xbox PC app installed should see faster launches and smoother play in the two supported titles. No extra settings or purchases are required beyond the driver update itself, based on the details Nvidia provided to The Verge.

By the numbers

• 621.01 — the Nvidia driver version released Oct. 21 that enables the feature.
• Near-100 percent — the cache hit rate Nvidia cites for the shader system, meaning precompiled shaders are available almost every time a supported game needs one, per The Verge.

Quick glossary

• Shader compilation: the process of turning game graphics code into instructions a specific GPU can run; doing this live can cause stutter.
• State Object Database (SODB): the file developers build that captures every shader combination a game might need, which Microsoft's cloud then precompiles.
• Cache hit rate: how often a precompiled shader is already on hand instead of needing to be built on the spot.

For background on how Nvidia's software choices affect other hardware categories, see HTT's earlier coverage of DAREU's new gaming peripherals.