- Intel has released a new Arc graphics driver
- Introduces a precompiled shaders feature to help supported games load faster.
- This is a situational benefit, but it will apply more often than you think.
Intel has introduced a new trick for some of its Arc GPUs, which helps compatible games load much faster (although only in certain situations, and I’ll come back to that point).
Wccftech reports (via Tech PowerUp) that Intel’s Precompiled Shaders feature is available with the latest Arc driver and can be used by Intel Battlemage desktop GPUs as well as Xe2 and Xe3 integrated graphics (on Core Ultra Series 3 and 200V chips for thin and light laptops or notebooks).
How it works is this: Typically, when you load a game for the first time, compiling the shaders can take a long time and slow things down a lot. So what Intel does is it precompiles these shaders and stores them in the cloud; Then, when your graphics application looks at the installed games and sees one that you have shaders for, they are automatically downloaded and placed.
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Effectively, all that compilation work is done beforehand, so when you start the game, it loads much more quickly. We’re talking about loading times that are typically two or three times faster, but some games can get huge improvements, like god of war ragnarok, which is 21 times faster on an Arc B580 (or 37 times faster with the B390 integrated graphics on the new Panther Lake flagship).
As mentioned above, the game must be Intel compatible to allow pre-compiled Shaders, and there are only 13 titles at the moment, but there will be more in the future. Please also note that games must be installed on Steam and the current list of supported titles is:
- Black Myth: Wukong
- Borderlands 4
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
- Cyberpunk 2077
- god of war ragnarok
- Gotham Knights
- Hogwarts Legacy
- NBA 2K26
- star field
- STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
- The Outer Worlds 2
Note that this is Intel’s implementation of a broader technology coming from Microsoft known as Advanced Shader Delivery, which was promised to Windows 11 players for later in 2026.
Intel clarified the situation for Tech PowerUp: “Intel Precompiled Shaders are custom designed and run by Intel. We are also working with Microsoft on the launch of Advanced Shader Delivery later this year. Together, both services will provide users of supported Arc GPUs with more game coverage and game stores with technologies that reduce wait times and in-game stutters due to shader compilation.”
So this won’t be limited to Steam in the future, as expected.
Analysis: a notable warning
If you’re thinking that prebuilt Shaders, which are still labeled as a beta feature right now, will just speed things up in a unique way, that’s not strictly true. Yes, the game goes through this sometimes very demanding shader compilation process when you first run it, and that’s all done and dusted from then on, well, sort of.
The problem is that the game may need to recompile the shaders in certain scenarios, such as after a new GPU driver update or a game update. And when a game has a particularly long build process, this can be a big hassle. On top of that, shader compilation can happen on the fly in the game, which can cause stuttering, something the Precompiled Shaders feature completely prevents.
So you can see why this is a very useful advancement, even if it only applies in certain scenarios (and with supported games). And it’s also very useful for some handhelds, like the MSI Claw 8 AI+, which has an Intel Lunar Lake processor, where compiling shaders can be a draining task that takes a heavy toll on the battery if you’re not near a power outlet.
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