Forza Horizon 6 Could Load In 4 Seconds On AMD GPUs With Microsoft’s New Shader Tech

Microsoft is trying to kill one of PC gaming’s most annoying waits: that first-launch shader compilation screen.

The company is expanding Advanced Shader Delivery, or ASD, beyond Xbox ROG Ally handhelds and into wider Windows 11 PC support. The headline example is a big one: Forza Horizon 6 reportedly went from around 90 seconds on first boot to just 4 seconds using the new system.

That is not a tiny quality-of-life tweak. That is the difference between “jap, wait for shaders” and actually getting into the game before your Discord squad starts flaming you.

What Advanced Shader Delivery actually does

On PC, games often need to compile shaders when you install them, update them, or change your GPU driver. This is why some games pause before launch, stutter on first run, or spend ages building a fresh shader cache.

The annoying part is that PC hardware is messy. Different GPUs, different drivers, different configurations — so shader work usually has to happen on your own machine.

Microsoft’s idea is to move a lot of that work earlier. With ASD, shaders are stored in a cloud-based Precompiled Shader Database. When you download a supported game from the Microsoft Store or Xbox PC app, the system checks your setup — including the game, GPU, and driver — then downloads the matching precompiled shaders before you launch.

So when you finally hit play, the game does not need to spend ages preparing everything from scratch.

The Forza Horizon 6 result is wild

According to Microsoft’s example, Forza Horizon 6 running on an AMD Radeon RX 7600 GPU with a Ryzen 7 5800 CPU saw first-launch load time drop by 95% with ASD enabled.

Without ASD, the game took close to a minute and a half to start. With ASD, it reached launch in about four seconds.

For Malaysian and SEA PC gamers, this is especially nice if you jump between multiple games, update drivers often, or play through the Xbox PC app. A lot of us are already juggling limited gaming time after work, class, or late-night mamak sessions — wasting minutes on shader compilation feels extra painful when you only have one or two hours to play.

The catch: Xbox app only, and AMD RDNA 3 or newer for now

Before you get too excited, there are some limits.

Right now, ASD only works with games downloaded through the Xbox PC app or Microsoft Store. If you bought the same game on another PC storefront, this specific Microsoft system will not help you yet.

For AMD users, support is currently tied to RDNA 3, RDNA 3.5, and RDNA 4 GPUs. That means newer Radeon cards are in, but older hardware is not part of this rollout for now.

Microsoft is also treating ASD as a preview feature. To enable it, users need to be in the Xbox Insiders program and use the Xbox Insiders Hub app.

There is no extra RM cost mentioned here, but the real cost is compatibility: you need Windows 11, the right app ecosystem, and supported hardware.

Nvidia and Intel have their own versions too

AMD joining ASD does not mean Nvidia and Intel users are left out completely.

Nvidia already has Auto Shader Compilation inside the Nvidia app, with controls for shader cache size. Intel has Precompiled Shader Distribution in the Intel Graphics app, and Intel has suggested it is using its own cloud database for now before adopting the broader ASD standard later.

That is actually the bigger story here. PC gaming is slowly moving closer to the console-style experience, where shader prep is handled before the player even notices. Consoles have always had an easier time with this because the hardware is fixed. PC has more flexibility, but that flexibility creates friction.

If Microsoft, AMD, Nvidia, and Intel can smooth this out properly, first launches could become way less painful across Windows gaming. For players in Malaysia and SEA, especially those using gaming laptops, handheld PCs, or midrange desktops, faster startup times mean less waiting and more actual game time.

Forza Horizon 6 is the flashy example, but if the 34 other games from the earlier Xbox ROG Ally announcement support ASD quickly, this could become one of those background upgrades that quietly makes PC gaming feel much better.

Source: Tom's Hardware