DirectX Advanced Shader Delivery Expands to AMD, Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm GPUs

This announcement follows up the October 1 post, which named Gears of War: E-Day as the first title to use ASD across all four vendors. At the time, Intel and Nvidia support was still listed as "later this month." That support has now arrived, though "broadly available" comes with a list of conditions.

What Advanced Shader Delivery actually does​

Modern DirectX 12 games ship with a huge number of shaders. Each one has to be compiled into instructions for your specific GPU and driver. Usually your PC does that work itself, either behind a progress bar at first launch or "just in time" during play. Just-in-time compilation causes the familiar hitch when you round a corner and the frame rate briefly drops.

ASD moves that work off your PC. As VideoCardz explains it, Microsoft prepares shaders in the cloud for specific GPU and driver combinations, and the resulting files are downloaded with supported games, reducing CPU work during startup and gameplay. Microsoft lists three benefits: shorter loading, less shader stutter during play, and lower power use because your device isn't spending energy compiling.

For Modern Warfare 4, Microsoft says first-launch shader compilation now takes "just a few seconds," compared with several minutes on a typical PC without ASD. Microsoft gave no test hardware or method, so treat that as the company's own figure, not an independent benchmark. Earlier showcase results have been similar. TweakTown reported in June that Forza Horizon 6 loads in around 4 seconds compared to nearly 1.5 minutes without the feature, a reduction of roughly 95%.

Section summary: ASD sends precompiled shaders matched to your hardware along with the game download, so your CPU doesn't have to compile them at launch or mid-match.

System requirements: check before you celebrate​

"Broadly available" doesn't mean every Windows PC qualifies. Microsoft's October 21 requirements are:

Some points that are easy to miss:

• Windows 10 isn't supported, and neither are Windows 11 versions older than 24H2.
• Intel support is limited to specific products. The list names the Arc B570 and B580 plus Core Ultra Series 2 and Series 3. Other Intel GPUs, including Arc A-Series cards, aren't listed.
• Nvidia support means RTX. GTX-era cards aren't included.
• On Qualcomm, only Snapdragon X2 Series qualifies. First-generation Snapdragon X devices aren't on the list.
• On AMD, RDNA 1 is the oldest supported architecture. Earlier reporting describes that as every Radeon GPU since the RX 5000 series in 2019.

Nvidia's driver release backs up the Nvidia row. Its October 21 GeForce Game Ready driver, version 621.01 WHQL, adds ASD support for Modern Warfare 4, and Nvidia says all GeForce RTX users will get the feature after installing it.

One older requirement may still apply. When ASD reached general availability in the Xbox PC app in June, Microsoft's device requirements also called for Xbox Gaming Services: 37.113.11003.0 or higher (Microsoft Store > Library > Update Gaming Services). The October post doesn't repeat that line. Updating Gaming Services is still a sensible step, but the new announcement doesn't say whether that exact version is still required.

Section summary: You need Windows 11 24H2 or later, a GPU on the list, and a current driver. Older Intel, GTX-class Nvidia and first-generation Snapdragon X hardware are not included.

How to get ASD in Modern Warfare 4​

Microsoft's instructions are short, and the order matters:

• Confirm your PC meets the requirements in the table above.
• Update your graphics driver to at least the listed minimum. For Nvidia that's 621.01.
• Install the Xbox PC app before downloading the game. Microsoft names this as the prerequisite for ASD in Modern Warfare 4.
• Download the game.
• Launch the game and look for confirmation. Microsoft says the message "Precompiled shaders installed" appears in the bottom-left corner when ASD is working.

What if you bought the game on Steam? Nvidia says ASD is storefront-agnostic: games purchased through Steam can also benefit, provided the Xbox PC app is installed. In practice, the Xbox PC app currently acts as the delivery agent even for some games bought elsewhere. Microsoft's "coming soon" promise for Steam and Epic refers to support built into those storefronts themselves, which hasn't launched yet.

If you don't see the confirmation message, the likely causes based on Microsoft's requirements are:

• Your driver is below the minimum.
• Windows 11 is older than 24H2.
• Your GPU isn't on the list.
• The Xbox PC app wasn't installed before the download started.

Microsoft also says up-to-date drivers give the best ASD experience across all supported games.

Section summary: Install the Xbox PC app first, update your driver, then download the game. The "Precompiled shaders installed" message confirms ASD is working.

Steam and Epic: what's coming​

The storefront news matters a lot. Until now, ASD's biggest limit was where your games came from. A few months ago, reporting at the time noted that Advanced Shader Delivery only worked through the Xbox PC app, and games purchased through Steam, the Epic Games Store, or any other launcher were not supported, which left out the majority of PC gamers.

Microsoft now says ASD will expand beyond the Microsoft Store and Xbox PC app to Epic Games Store and Steam. Epic will also add ASD to Fortnite in an upcoming update. No dates were given for either.

Native storefront support takes real infrastructure. As this site noted in September, a storefront must operate the server-side compilation service, maintain compiler integrations from GPU vendors, select an appropriate package for the player's driver, distribute updates as drivers change, and handle failed or incomplete shader-cache coverage. That alone helps explain why Microsoft didn't attach a date.

There's also a competitive side. Some analysts had argued that tying ASD to Microsoft's own store gave the Xbox PC app an edge over Valve. Native Steam and Epic support would mostly erase that edge. That's better for players, even if it's less convenient for Microsoft's store strategy.

Section summary: Steam and Epic support, plus Fortnite, has been announced but not dated. For now, the Xbox PC app is still how ASD reaches players.

For developers: SODBs, Unreal and the Agility SDK​

A compatible PC alone isn't enough. A game has to be built for ASD. VideoCardz puts it plainly: the feature does not automatically eliminate shader compilation in existing games without ASD integration.

Microsoft Learn describes the developer side in three stages:

• Create a State Object Database (SODB), either generated in code or captured manually.
• Test it by compiling it into a Precompiled Shader Database (PSDB), registering it locally and checking its quality.
• Deploy the SODB to a storefront.

The October 21 announcement adds:

• Unreal Engine 5.8.4: SODB integration is available today.
• Unity: SODB integration is planned for 2027, with no specific release given.
• Upcoming October Agility SDK: includes improvements such as partial programs. Microsoft says these will compile complex state objects in different configurations more efficiently. The SDK release is upcoming, not shipped.

The Unity timing matters. A large share of PC games use Unity, so ASD coverage for those games will lag behind Unreal titles until 2027.

Section summary: Unreal developers can start now, and Unity developers will have to wait until 2027. Partial programs should make building ASD data less painful once the October Agility SDK ships.

The bigger picture​

ASD started on the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds. It expanded to AMD desktops and laptops in a May preview, reached general availability in the Xbox PC app in June, and now covers all four major Windows GPU vendors. Microsoft has taken a long-standing PC gaming problem that nobody solved for everyone and turned it into a platform service.

Some caveats still apply:

• Benefits depend on how much of a game's delay comes from shader compilation. Not every loading screen is caused by shaders.
• Microsoft's performance figures come from Microsoft and haven't been independently measured here.
• Delivering precompiled shaders depends on the cloud, so a GPU driver update may require a fresh shader package. That's a reasonable trade, but it shows how much ASD relies on storefronts working closely with GPU vendors.

Bottom line: If your PC runs Windows 11 24H2 or later, has a listed GPU and a current driver, install the Xbox PC app before downloading Modern Warfare 4 and check for the confirmation message. Steam and Epic players will have to wait for those stores to add native support. Feedback on ASD goes to Microsoft through the DirectX Discord.

Correction (October 21, 2026): NVIDIA's GeForce Game Ready driver 621.01 was released October 21, 2026, not October 20 as originally stated.

Update: Club386 reports seconds-long shader preparation on RTX 4080 (October 22, 2026)​

Independent hands-on testing now offers evidence beyond Microsoft’s launch claims: according to Club386’s October 22 report, Gears of War: E-Day completed its shader-compilation stage within seconds on a GeForce RTX 4080 using Advanced Shader Delivery. Reviewer Samuel Willetts reported that his Steam copy could previously take upwards of 10 minutes to compile shaders on the same system.

According to Club386, the successful test used the Game Pass version launched through the Xbox app, with the “precompiled shaders installed” message confirming ASD was active. This is a reported experience on one system, rather than a controlled benchmark establishing typical performance across supported Nvidia hardware. It also measures the shader-preparation stage, not necessarily the game’s entire loading time.

The storefront distinction remains important: Club386’s result does not establish whether the Steam edition of E-Day benefits simply from having the Xbox app installed, so it should not be read as extending the earlier Modern Warfare 4 instructions to every supported game. Nor does the test establish smoother gameplay: Willetts explicitly reserved judgment on reduced shader-related stuttering pending more detailed testing.

Update: Epic documentation targets early 2027 for storefront support (October 23, 2026)​

Epic Games’ Unreal Engine documentation now puts a timeframe on Advanced Shader Delivery support in the Epic Games Store: early 2027, as highlighted by Wccftech’s October 23 report. That narrows the previously undated “coming soon” announcement, but remains a planned window rather than a confirmed launch date. It does not establish a timetable for Steam.

Epic’s documentation also details the developer workflow behind the Unreal integration. A dedicated ASD Tool generates a State Object Database from a cooked Windows Direct3D12 build, gathering compute shaders from shader archives and graphics and compute pipeline states from bundled pipeline caches. Developers can then submit that database for storefront-side compilation and delivery.

Importantly, Epic says ASD does not replace Unreal’s existing pipeline-state precaching and recommends leaving it enabled. Graphics pipeline states still need to be captured in pipeline caches; missing combinations may therefore require compilation during gameplay. Ray-tracing pipeline states are currently unsupported.

For Windows players, those limitations mean an ASD-enabled Unreal game should not automatically be treated as stutter-free. The newly documented tooling gives developers a clearer integration path, but coverage still depends on the shader data they collect and distribute.