AMD RX 9070 GRE and Advanced Shader Delivery Bring Major Gaming Upgrades

AMD is continually adding new GPUs and features to its lineup to address common PC gaming problems like long load times and shader stutter. Recent updates focus on adding new hardware options and improving software, which could affect how well games run and how quickly the system responds.

AMD is rolling out a GPU that is not widely known before launch, as the card is targeted at a niche market. Here, the emphasis is on the 9070 GRE, and it seems AMD is finally expanding it to a wider customer base, with various retailers listing the packaging for more regions.

There were also several listings posted on Amazon that were promptly deleted, creating even more buzz about the possibility. There have also been reports that the GPU will be launched on a wider scale.

For those unfamiliar with the card, it comes with 372 cores, compared to 248 in the 9060 XT and 3584 in the regular 9070. For the boost, it has a 2.79 GHz clock, which is below the 9070 XT but higher than the regular 9070.

12 GB Memory Configuration

The greatest differences are in memory. The model comes with 12GB of GDDR6 memory instead of 8 GB or 16 GB on a 128 or 256-bit bus, which might be why AMD took this path with this model. Memory prices are still high, and when it comes to buying GPUs with 8GB of memory, gamers remain wary. For this reason, the 12GB might be a compromise. The GPU also comes with a TDP of 220W.

With its limited release, some performance data is already available, and it also aligns with where many people thought it would finish, between the 9060 XT and 9070. The larger issue is the price. We've seen the 9070 and 9070 XT begin to sink at a few locations, but there may still be room for further declines. However, cost may determine whether this becomes an attractive choice for mid-range GPUs.

AMD GPUs now have a feature that alters how shaders are compiled in supported titles. Advanced Shader Delivery is now in public preview support for AMD desktop GPUs, and is available in over 30 games. It has been an age-old problem in PC gaming.

Long shader optimization screens and stutter during shader compilation are longstanding problems in PC gaming that Advanced Shader Delivery aims to fix. There are many combinations of GPUs and graphics drivers in PCs, so developers can't include all possible shaders in the program during installation. This causes the games to compile shaders when they start up, or while they are in use.

Precompiled Shader Downloads Save Waiting Times

The longer games take to precompile shaders at startup, the longer it will take to load. Stutter may occur on-screen while shaders are compiling during gameplay. Advanced Shader Delivery reverses this by downloading precompiled shaders from a database depending on your hardware configuration.

Currently, support is available on the Xbox Store for PC; support from other stores is anticipated. The current architecture support is for RDNA3, RDNA3.4, and RDNA4; hardware support is likely to follow later, and Intel and Nvidia will follow their own support.

Preliminary results of game load times are much improved.

The results indicate significant differences in game loading times with shader precompilation. Forza Horizon 6 is said to have dropped from 48 seconds to 2 seconds, a 96% increase in speed. The Outer Worlds 2 went from 2:52 to just 9 seconds.

Even in games that don't use precompiled shaders, there seem to be gains: There are fewer stutters, and the use of stronger 1% lows and average frame rates, such as in Ninja Gaiden 4, helps to make those games more enjoyable. This feature could alter the loading and gameplay of supported AMD hardware. If compiling shaders or stuttering has been an issue for you in the past, it may still be.