Many’s the time I’ve downloaded a big, fancy new game, just waiting for the moment I get to flex my graphics card on the latest graphics… only to have to wait another ten minutes for the shaders to load up. (Horizon: Zero Dawn, I’m looking at you.) But if you have a recent Radeon card, you might have a much shorter wait next time thanks to some new tech.
Announced on the official DirectX Developer Blog from Microsoft, AMD’s Advanced Shader Delivery is graduating from the ROG Xbox Ally handhelds to all RDNA-supporting devices, across handhelds, laptops, and desktops. ASD is a service that drastically cuts the load time of shaders, which are parts of the game engine that affect lighting and other effects. And they can take a long time to load before a game starts. The more complex and graphically enhanced the game, the longer it takes to load.
For example, Microsoft claims that the shaders in Forza Horizon 6 take 90 seconds to load up on a Ryzen 7 5800X/Radeon RX 7600 PC. But with the ASD tech applied, they take four seconds, a reduction of over 95 percent. It means a lot less time staring at loading screens, even on high-powered systems.
Unfortunately, you’ll need an AMD graphics setup to take advantage of this — RDNA-equipped, either discrete or integrated. That means no one with a GPU from Nvidia, Intel, or a non-AMD integrated setup can take advantage of it. (Which means I can’t test it on my main desktop, rats.) You’ll also need Windows, the Xbox Gaming Service, and the latest version of AMD’s Adrenalin driver. (Which means not on my Legion Go that’s currently running SteamOS — double rats!)
It’s also title-dependent. When Microsoft released the list of initial games that support ASD tech, there were some big names included, such as Black Ops 6, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, GTAV Enhanced, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and the Oblivion remaster. But It’s still mostly big, recent games, so if you’re a regular player of something that’s been around a while, don’t expect the developers to be onboard right away.
