> graphics pipelines compile shaders though? From my understanding the newer api's have built in methods to negotiate these optimizations. And the gpu driver

> graphics pipelines compile shaders though? From my understanding the newer api's have built in methods to negotiate these optimizations. And the gpu driver is free to do whatever it likes after the api calls. So the game tells the driver what to render, which they can reorder/optimize/modify/cache/compile as they like. What they can't do is hijack the game, and modify it's internal logic.