Shader Cache: Yuzu

Yuzu stores your shader caches in the following directory: C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\Roaming\yuzu\shader\

Inside, you will find folders named after the game’s title ID (e.g., 0100F2C0115B6000 for Tears of the Kingdom). Inside that is a vulkan.bin or opengl.bin file.

Do not delete this file unless you have a good reason. If you delete it, Yuzu forgets every shader it ever learned. You will experience stuttering for every single visual effect from scratch, as if you are playing the game for the first time again. shader cache yuzu

The only time you should delete a shader cache is:

Yuzu handles shaders in two distinct ways. It is important to know the difference to get the best performance. Yuzu stores your shader caches in the following

If you have ever tried to play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Super Mario Odyssey, or Pokémon Legends: Arceus on PC using the Yuzu emulator, you have likely encountered the dreaded "stutter." The game runs smoothly for a few seconds, then freezes for a split second, then resumes. This is not a problem with your CPU or GPU being too weak. It is a problem with shaders.

Understanding the Yuzu shader cache is the single most important step to transforming a choppy, unplayable mess into a buttery-smooth 60 FPS experience. This article will explain what shaders are, why Yuzu needs to cache them, how to manage your cache files, and where to find pre-compiled caches for popular games. OpenGL handles shader caching poorly on emulators

A shader cache built on an NVIDIA RTX 4090 with driver version 545.xx may not work perfectly on an AMD Radeon RX 6800. The transferable cache (.cache) has better cross-GPU compatibility. The pipeline cache is nearly always hardware-locked.

OpenGL handles shader caching poorly on emulators. Vulkan was built for this. Go to Emulation > Configure > Graphics > API and ensure Vulkan is selected.

Do not delete the stored folder – that contains other game data.

Getting your settings right is crucial for performance. Here is how to handle your cache in Yuzu.