DiskshaperHow to clear your shader cache
Shader caches are pre-built graphics data that games and your GPU driver make so they don’t stutter. They are safe to delete: they are rebuilt the next time you play, with a little stutter for the first few minutes. Diskshaper finds the Steam, NVIDIA, AMD, Intel and DirectX caches in one scan and moves them to the Recycle Bin.
Updated 11 November 2026 · Hollowbit Studio
Step by step
- Download DiskshaperFree for Windows and Mac.
- Press ScanIt takes a few seconds.
- Open Gaming, then Shader cachesYou see each cache with its size. Steam’s are listed per game.
- Move them to the Recycle BinShader caches are marked Safe and ticked for you. Press Move to Recycle Bin, then empty it when you are happy.
Where shader caches live
Steam keeps one folder per game in steamapps\shadercache. NVIDIA uses %LOCALAPPDATA%\NVIDIA\DXCache and GLCache, AMD uses %LOCALAPPDATA%\AMD\DxCache, and Windows keeps a DirectX cache in %LOCALAPPDATA%\D3DSCache. On a Mac, Steam’s caches are in ~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/shadercache.
The manual way
Windows: Settings, System, Storage, Temporary files, tick DirectX Shader Cache. That only clears the DirectX cache. AMD Adrenalin has Reset Shader Cache under Graphics, Advanced. For Steam’s per-game caches, close Steam and delete folders inside steamapps\shadercache.
When clearing helps
Clearing a cache can fix a game that started stuttering or crashing after a driver update, besides freeing space. If you only want space back, clear the caches for games you no longer play: their caches will never be used again.
Questions
Is it safe to delete the shader cache?
Yes. It is generated data, not part of the game. It is rebuilt automatically.
Will my games run worse?
Only for a few minutes, while the cache is rebuilt. After that they run exactly as before.
How big can it get?
On a PC with a large Steam library, tens of gigabytes. Each game’s cache can be a few hundred megabytes to several gigabytes.
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