How to Clear OBS Studio Shader Cache to Fix Glitches

Graphical glitches, stuttering, and visual artifacts in OBS Studio are frequently caused by corrupted shader cache files. This guide provides a straightforward, step-by-step walkthrough on how to clear both the Windows DirectX shader cache and the OBS browser source cache to quickly resolve these rendering issues and restore smooth performance.

Step 1: Clear the Windows DirectX Shader Cache

Since OBS Studio relies heavily on your GPU and DirectX to render scenes, clearing the system-level shader cache is the most effective way to resolve persistent graphical glitches.

  1. Press the Windows Key, type Disk Cleanup, and press Enter.
  2. Select your main system drive (usually C:) and click OK.
  3. In the list of files to delete, check the box next to DirectX Shader Cache. You can uncheck other options if you only want to clear the shaders.
  4. Click OK, then click Delete Files to confirm.

Step 2: Clear the OBS Studio Browser Source Cache

If your graphical glitches are occurring within browser sources (such as stream alerts, overlays, or widgets), you need to clear OBS Studio’s internal browser cache.

  1. Close OBS Studio completely.
  2. Press Windows Key + R to open the Run dialog box.
  3. Type %appdata%\obs-studio\plugin_config\obs-browser and press Enter.
  4. Locate the folder named Cache.
  5. Delete the Cache folder. OBS will automatically regenerate clean cache files the next time you launch the program.

Step 3: Clear GPU-Specific Shader Cache (NVIDIA Users)

If you use an NVIDIA graphics card, clearing the dedicated driver cache can resolve deeper rendering conflicts.

  1. Press Windows Key + R, type %localappdata%\NVIDIA, and press Enter.
  2. Open the DXCache and GLCache folders.
  3. Delete the files inside these folders. (If a prompt states a file is currently in use, click Skip).

Once these steps are complete, restart your computer and open OBS Studio. The software and your graphics card will rebuild the shader cache from scratch, eliminating the corrupted files that were causing the visual glitches.