What Nvidia's Shader Tech Means for Your PC Gaming

For players, this means less waiting and more gaming, bringing PC experiences closer to the plug-and-play feel of consoles. It could also push more developers to adopt ASD, making it a standard featur…

For players, this means less waiting and more gaming, bringing PC experiences closer to the plug-and-play feel of consoles. It could also push more developers to adopt ASD, making it a standard featur…

Key points - Nvidia's 621.01 drivers add Microsoft's Advanced Shader Delivery support for RTX and RTX Spark cards. - ASD reduces shader compilation by downloading precompiled shaders, cutting wait times drastically. - Only Gears of War: E-Day and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 currently support ASD. - Testing showed Gears of War: E-Day starting in under a minute with ASD, versus 10-15 minutes without.

Timeline - Today: Nvidia releases 621.01 drivers with ASD support for RTX and RTX Spark GPUs. - Previously: AMD offered similar shader technology, but Nvidia's adoption brings it to most PC gamers. - Future: More games could adopt ASD, though only two currently support it.

FAQ

Q: Which games support Advanced Shader Delivery right now? A: Only two games currently support ASD: Gears of War: E-Day and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4.

Q: Do I need an Nvidia RTX card to use ASD? A: ASD works with Nvidia RTX and RTX Spark cards, but it also supports AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm hardware to varying degrees.

Q: Will this eliminate shader compilation entirely? A: Not completely—ASD reduces compilation times by downloading precompiled shaders, but some games may still require it.