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DDU - why is it important?
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 6:50 am
by Parisien_entraide
What Nvidia advises is to empty the shaders' cache:
- During a graphics card change (same brand but different model) (1)
- During a major pilot version (branch) version or in case of problems (crash games) during a conventional update (2)
(1)But if we change brand (NVIDIA ---> AMD or Intel and vice versa) you must use DDU
(2) And, even if this does not pose any problems "in general", in the documentation of Nvidia for the pilots it is indicated clearly that one should never use a restoration point to put the old pilots for example...
Re: DDU - why is it important?
Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2025 6:05 am
by masonparker
What specific issues or problems might arise if one does not empty the shaders' cache during a graphics card change or a major driver update, as advised by Nvidia?
Re: DDU - why is it important?
Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 5:52 am
by Theyetion1968
I had a game crash after updating NVIDIA drivers, but didn't think to clear the shader cache. I'm not sure where exactly this cache is located on Windows 10? Is there a quick tool other than DDU that can help?
Re: DDU - why is it important?
Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 5:54 am
by Wagnard
Theyetion1968 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 10, 2025 5:52 am
I had a game crash after updating NVIDIA drivers, but didn't think to clear the shader cache. I'm not sure where exactly this cache is located on Windows 10? Is there a quick tool other than DDU that can help?
If you are on recent drivers, you can go into safe mode and remove theses :
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\NVIDIA\DXCache
%USERPROFILE%\AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\DXCache
Btw, DDU will add a button in the next version to specifically clean the caches without actually wiping the drivers.
Re: DDU - why is it important?
Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2025 5:18 am
by Aureliojin
In your opinion, in case of changing drivers many times to test performance (for example, for benchmarking purposes), is it necessary to clear the shader cache after each update? Or should it only be done when encountering errors or major hardware changes?
Re: DDU - why is it important?
Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2025 4:51 am
by Parisien_entraide
Theyetion1968 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 10, 2025 5:52 am
I had a game crash after updating NVIDIA drivers, but didn't think to clear the shader cache. I'm not sure where exactly this cache is located on Windows 10? Is there a quick tool other than DDU that can help?
It is mainly related to the version of the pilots
There have been changes from the Nvidia 571.96 pilots
Wagnard has worked well because the function is independent of the pilot cleaning program and operates on old pilot versions (prior to 571.96) and new locations
Code: Select all
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\PerDriverVersion\DXCache\...(.bin and .toc)
C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\PerDriverVersion
C:\Users\user\AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\PerDriverVersion\DXCache\...(.bin and .toc)
C:\Users\user\AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\PerDriverVersion\DXCache
C:\Users\user\AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\PerDriverVersion
C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\NVIDIA\GLCache\ ...(.bin and .toc)
C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\NVIDIA\DXCache\
C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\NVIDIA\ComputeCache
C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\D3DSCache\...(.bin and .toc)
Clean Shaders can be launched independently, so without launching the cleaning of the drivers
You can see everything that has been cleaned in the Ddu log
If you want details on cleaning shaders etc
https://forum.malekal.com/viewtopic.php?p=564752