Nvidia Driver 621.01 Adds Support for Microsoft’s Advanced Shader Delivery to Reduce Game Stuttering

Nvidia released GPU driver 621.01 on October 21, 2026, adding support for Microsoft’s Advanced Shader Delivery technology, which aims to speed up game launches and eliminate mid-game stuttering caused by shader compilation.

Advanced Shader Delivery works by offloading shader compilation to the cloud. “Using DirectX 12, Windows 11, and the Microsoft Agility SDK, developers capture shaders into a State Object Database (SODB), allowing Microsoft’s cloud network to precompile shaders for hundreds of thousands of hardware and driver combinations,” according to Nvidia’s Andrew Burnes.

The technology achieves a near-100 percent cache hit rate, which Burnes says eliminates mid-game “just-in-time” shader compilation — the process responsible for CPU spikes and frame stutters. Two titles currently support the feature: Gears of War: E-Day and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. For Call of Duty players, the technology may allow them to skip the shader compilation screen that appears before the game loads.

Access to Advanced Shader Delivery requires downloading supported games through the Xbox PC app, though the system is not limited to Xbox purchases. “This 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,” Burnes noted.

The feature is not exclusive to Nvidia hardware. Advanced Shader Delivery is also supported on AMD GPUs running Adrenalin driver version 26.6.1 or higher, and on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 series with driver version 2026.08.3 or higher.

Nvidia’s 621.01 driver is available to download now. The rollout represents a collaboration between Microsoft, Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm to address a long-standing source of performance inconsistency in PC gaming.