Microsoft's Advanced Shader Delivery cuts load times on Forza Horizon 6 for Radeon gamers by 95%

PC gamers playing the latest titles will be more than aware of shader compilation, a process that can take a few minutes to complete, and one that's a requirement before you can jump into the action. Microsoft's Advanced Shader Delivery, part of the DirectX ecosystem, is designed to remove this requirement by creating hardware-specific profiles that download and install alongside a game, reducing initial load time by up to 95%.

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In addition, like the shader compilation process, it eliminates shader stutter for a smoother gaming experience. In partnership with AMD, Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) was first deployed and available for ROG Xbox Ally handheld gamers in preview form, and this week that partnership is expanding to Windows 11 PCs with discrete Radeon GPUs. And it's already available for Forza Horizon 6.

Microsoft notes that on compatible GPUs, it reduces initial load times by up to 95%, getting you into that first race in seconds rather than minutes. "With Advanced Shader Delivery, Forza Horizon 6 loads in 4 seconds, as compared to almost 1.5 minutes - that's an overall 95% time savings," the announcement confirms, noting that this refers to running the game on a Radeon RX 7600 GPU.

Although we don't have a full list of compatible GPUs, the announcement states that Advanced Shader Delivery works with "discrete GPUs and gaming laptop integrated GPUs from AMD," covering RDNA 3, RDNA 3.5, and RDNA 4 architectures.

In Forza Horizon 6, Radeon gamers will need to play the game on the Xbox PC app to get this feature and be part of the Xbox Insider program running the latest PC Gaming Preview. Plus, playing on a system with Windows 11 24H2 or higher and the latest AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 26.5.2. And once it's working, 'Precompiled shaders installed' will appear on screen as part of Forza's initial launch window.

Microsoft notes that this technology will expand to additional hardware in the coming months, presumably including GeForce RTX hardware. As the technology matures, it will become an integral part of Microsoft's next-gen Xbox Project Helix console, removing the need for shader compilation on the PC-console hybrid.