Marvel Rivals is undoubtedly one of the most popular PvP games right now, and with more than 150,000 Steam players joining in the past 24 hours, it’s no surprise that the devs continue to bring meaningful changes to the game. This time around, to address performance-related issues like high memory usage on lower-end PCs, the devs plan to introduce a new “experimental feature” called Switch Shader Compilation Mode.

With this mode activated, shaders will only compile the first time you launch the game after a new version or graphics driver update. According to XOXLEAK on X, the new feature takes about 5-10 minutes to load the necessary files, and after that, you'll only need to do it once every 1-2 weeks, depending on when the next Marvel Rivals or GPU update happens.

Better performance on lower-end PCs

In the early patch notes, the developers claim that using this new experimental feature can result in significantly reduced memory usage and minimize in-game stuttering, especially on systems with 16 GB of RAM or less. This means that on lower-end systems and even high-end builds with 16 GB of RAM, the game should run much better. However, for those using a CPU with fewer threads in combination with AMD FSR3 Frame Generation, using this feature may cause issues like additional stutters, so more tweaks for this experimental feature are sure to arrive in the future.

Graphics and Settings (PC)

1. We’ve introduced an experimental feature: Switch Shader Compilation Mode. When activated, shaders will only compile the first time you launch the game after a new version or graphics driver update. This feature can significantly reduce memory usage and minimize in-game stuttering. Especially on systems with 16 GB of RAM or less.

However, if you’re using a CPU with less threads in combination with AMD FSR3 Frame Generation, you may notice occasional additional stutters with this feature enabled.

*Please note: This is an experimental feature. If you encounter any issues during use, our support team is standing by ready to assist.

2. We’ve added support for AMD FSR 4, using an AI-accelerated upscaling algorithm to deliver image quality improvements over AMD FSR 3.1. (Available exclusively on the AMD Radeon™ RX 9000 series graphics cards)

Source: Marvel Rivals

Another performance-related feature arriving in the next update is support for AMD FSR 4, an exclusive upscaling technology for RX 9000 series graphics cards. With this, RX 9070 and RX 9070 XT users will be able to boost their frame rates without compromising too much on graphical quality. That said, there's a lot more set to come, including console-specific changes, fixes, optimizations, new content, and much more when the Season 2 update for Marvel Rivals goes live on Friday, April 11.

Until then, if you're struggling to play Marvel Rivals, we'd suggest checking out our guides on fixing high CPU usage issues, launch crashes, and FPS drops. You can also try out this Marvel Rivals FPS boost mod, which claims to reduce stuttering through more advanced tweaking of your graphics settings.

About the Author

Hassam Nasir

Hassam boasts over seven years of professional experience as a dedicated PC hardware reviewer and writer.