Microsoft expands Advanced Shader Delivery to Nvidia and Intel GPUs

Microsoft is expanding its Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) service to support additional hardware. DirectX Program Manager Wendy Ho announced in a Microsoft blog that the service will soon support Windows devices powered by Nvidia, Intel, and Qualcomm GPUs. The update is scheduled to roll out later in October.

ASD is a Microsoft-authored service that distributes compiled shaders from the cloud. This process is designed to prevent shader compilation stutter and accelerate first-boot shader burns. According to Microsoft, the technology reduces shader compilation time at launch from several minutes to just a few seconds, which represents a 95 percent reduction in burn time.

The service currently only supports AMD Radeon GPUs. One of the first major PC releases to utilize ASD is Gears of War: E-Day. Once the October update arrives, Nvidia and Intel users will be able to play the title without the extensive shader compilation steps previously required.

The effectiveness of ASD depends on implementation by game developers. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is the next title slated to receive support, with a release date of October 23rd. Because developers must manually implement the service, it may take time for a wider variety of games to adopt the technology.