Microsoft's Advanced Shader Delivery technology has now arrived on AMD RDNA 3 GPUs. In testing with a Radeon RX 7600, Forza Horizon 6 now loads in just 4 seconds instead of the previous 90 seconds. The feature precompiles shaders during game downloads and installation, bypassing the need for in-game shader compilation. This cuts load times by up to 95% and virtually eliminates shader stutter for much smoother gameplay in supported titles. Co-developed with AMD, ASD is enabled through the latest Adrenalin 26.5.2 drivers for RDNA 3, RDNA 3.5, and RDNA 4 GPUs. It requires Windows 11 24H2 and updated Xbox services.

AMD and Microsoft have expanded Advanced Shader Delivery (ASD) support to all Radeon RDNA graphics cards, from the RX 5000 series to the latest RDNA 4 GPUs. ASD helps games load faster by downloading prebuilt shaders instead of making your PC compile them during startup. This can reduce long “Compiling Shaders” screens and help cut down on stuttering. In Microsoft’s tests, Forza Horizon 6 loaded in just 4 seconds with ASD enabled, compared to about 90 seconds without it. Actual improvements will vary depending on the game and system configuration. For now, ASD only works in supported games and is mainly available through the Xbox app and Microsoft Store.

Good news for Radeon GPU owners AMD has officially expanded FSR 4.1 support beyond its initial RDNA 4 focus >RX 7000 series (RDNA 3) → July 2026 >RX 6000 series (RDNA 2) → early 2027 FSR 4.1 delivers sharper, clearer AI machine learning-based upscaling (powered by INT8 instructions on RDNA 3’s AI accelerator). It also brings major improvements to Ultra Performance mode and Dynamic Resolution Scaling. Over 300 games will support it at launch, nice upgrade for older Radeon cards

Valve’s upcoming Steam Machine just showed up on Geekbench again, and this time it’s running SteamOS. The new results from yesterday list the device under its codename “Fremont.” It has a custom 6-core AMD Zen 4 processor and appears to be paired with a Radeon RX 7600-class graphics card that has its own dedicated memory. - Codename: Fremont - Type: Compact living room / TV SteamOS console (not a handheld) - CPU: Custom AMD 6-core / 12-thread Zen 4 - GPU: Radeon RX 7600-class discrete graphics (32 Compute Units, RDNA 3, 8GB GDDR6) - RAM: 16GB DDR5 - Operating System: SteamOS (native) - Performance level: Solid mid-range (noticeably stronger than Steam Deck)