Fix NVIDIA GPU Stuttering and Frame Drops - Clear Shader Cache

If your games are suddenly hitching, stuttering, or dropping frames during new effect loads, your NVIDIA shader cache is likely corrupted or overflowing. Your GPU is trying to read stale data from old driver versions or patches, and clearing that out is usually the fastest way to get your performance back to normal.

Why this happens

Nvidia saves pre-compiled game shaders to your drive so your GPU doesn't have to rebuild them every launch. When you update drivers or games, this data often goes stale, causing the GPU to hang or stutter while it tries to process broken instructions.

What you will need

You just need basic Windows access. If the manual folder clearing doesn't work, you can use the Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) tool to force a clear.

Steps

1. 01
   Right-click your desktop, select Nvidia Control Panel, and go to Manage 3D Settings.
2. 02
   Scroll to Shader Cache Size, set it to Off, and click Apply.
3. 03
   Restart your computer.
4. 04
   Press Win + R, type %userprofile%/AppData/Local, and hit Enter.
5. 05
   Open the NVIDIA folder and delete all files inside the DXCache and GLCache folders.
6. 06
   Check the NVIDIA Corporation folder for an NV_Cache folder and delete those files as well.
7. 07
   Return to the Nvidia Control Panel, set Shader Cache Size back to Driver Default or Unlimited if you play many games, and click Apply.
8. 08
   Press Win + R, type cleanmgr, select your drive, and check only the DirectX Shader Cache box to finalize the cleanup.