Guide
Shader cache: what it is, why the first run stutters, and should you clear it
Shaders are small pieces of code that tell the graphics card how to draw light, shadow and surfaces. The first time a game meets a shader, the card has to translate it, and that moment hitches a little. The shader cache keeps translated shaders, so next time the game picks them up without the hitch.
Why it sometimes stutters again
This settles by itself after a while of playing. If it stutters all the time and never goes away, it is something else: see the guide on high FPS that still stutters.
- A new graphics driver: the old cache no longer fits and is built again.
- A game update, or a new FiveM server with cars or maps you never loaded.
- You just cleared the shader cache.
- The cache is full, so the driver drops old entries.
Set NVIDIA's cache size
Open NVIDIA Control Panel, Manage 3D settings, and find Shader Cache Size. With lots of space on C: you can set it bigger, so games hitch less after you have played them. The cache files keep growing on C: though. With less than 40 GB free on C:, keep the driver's default.
AMD cards
In AMD Software keep Shader Cache on, don't turn it off. Once shaders are built, games hitch less.
When to clear it
- The game crashes in nvgpucomp64.dll, the part of NVIDIA's driver that builds shaders.
- A broken picture or crashes after a driver update that a clean install did not fix.
- C: is really almost full.
Don't clear it every day to make the PC smoother. Every clear makes games build shaders again and stutter at first.
Let Savenz Optimizer help
Cleaner in Savenz Optimizer clears the DirectX shader cache and the NVIDIA, AMD and Intel driver shader caches, but they are not ticked for you: you pick them yourself, with the downside shown. The GPU page (NVIDIA) has Shader cache size to pick a size, and Savenz's profiles set a 100 GB shader cache, each value with a backup. Questions? Ask in the Discord.