We finally have games taking full advantage of the speed of a solid state drive and, bam! Shader compilation. Games require a whole lot of custom code, in the form of shaders, in order to look as good as they do these days. This code needs to be available at short notice, and often compiled ahead of time, in order to keep up with the demands of real-time rendering. That's why it takes time to compile on first boot. Unless, of course, you already have the compiled code ready to go.
Intel is now offering precompiled shaders in the cloud for selected games (listed below), which can be retrieved when you install the game, saving time compiling shaders on your own system.
It's called the Intel Precompiled Shaders Distribution Service, or Intel Graphics Shader Distribution Service, depending on where you look. It will "help improve first load times up to 2x on Intel Arc B-series GPUs, Intel Core Ultra Series 3, and Series 2 with built-in Intel Arc GPUs."
Here's how it works, according to Intel:
- Pre-Compilation: Shader files are compiled and pre-loaded in Intel’s cloud infrastructure
- Automatic Detection: When you install a supported game, the Intel Graphics Software automatically checks for matching pre-compiled shader files
- Cloud Delivery: Optimized files for your specific hardware and drive configuration are downloaded from Intel’s servers and cached locally on your system
- Seamless Integration: Supported games will automatically use the shaders cached locally when launched from a supported platform
Here's the list of supported games in the latest driver package (32.0.101.8626 WHQL):
- Black Myth: Wukong
- Borderlands 4
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
- Cyberpunk 2077
- God of War Ragnarök
- Gotham Knights
- Hogwarts Legacy
- NBA 2K26
- Starfield
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
- The Outer Worlds 2
So, if you're booting for the first time or building a fresh PC with Arc, you'll be spared precious minutes of your life before your game boots. Okay, sure, it's a small change, but it makes sense, considering shader compilation is not going anywhere in a hurry. Bundling pre-compiled shaders can also reduce compilation-related stuttering issues during gameplay.
There's no file size increase with the latest drivers for the inclusion, either, as they're stored in the cloud until required. Though you will need an internet connection for access and at least 1 GB or more of space, depending on the size of the game library.
Just remember to enable the feature to take advantage. You need to head into the Intel Graphics Software and toggle the feature to on within the 3D rendering section under graphics.
If you're thinking, 'hey, that sounds good, but I'm using—insert AMD or Nvidia—graphics card', I've good news for you.
There is a wider push by Microsoft to achieve a similar goal, with what it calls Advanced Shader Delivery. The timing of Intel's precompiled shader service feature and the company recently announcing support for Advanced Shader Delivery causing me to foolish assume they were one and the same in the original edit of this story—my bad!
Alongside Intel, Nvidia has also announced it will be supporting the feature for "GeForce RTX users" later this year. Advanced Shader Delivery was also rolled out to help the Xbox ROG Ally device—powered by an AMD chip—so we're expecting a full rollout across the board.
"New APIs and tools from Microsoft allow game developers to package a collection of Pipeline State Objects into a State Object Database (SODB)," Intel explains of its support for Advanced Shader Delivery. "Subsequently, Intel’s offline compiler compiles those SODBs into a Precompiled Shader Database (PSDB). Using PSDBs at runtime greatly accelerates loading times and reduces stuttering."
Some games won't be supported, or only partially supported by the feature, due to the complexity of precompiling them for a range of PC configurations. However, pre-compiled shaders could be a decent way to save time and banish stutters, especially as, through driver packages, they could arrive just in time for the latest games on release.
