diff --git a/layers/gpu/instrumentation/gpu_shader_instrumentor.h b/layers/gpu/instrumentation/gpu_shader_instrumentor.h
index f196dd3bb39..541c5ed2a42 100644
--- a/layers/gpu/instrumentation/gpu_shader_instrumentor.h
+++ b/layers/gpu/instrumentation/gpu_shader_instrumentor.h
@@ -180,6 +180,7 @@ class GpuShaderInstrumentor : public ValidationStateTracker {
                                          const SafeCreateInfo &modified_create_infos, bool passed_in_shader_stage_ci);
 
     // GPU-AV and DebugPrint are going to have a different way to do the actual shader instrumentation logic
+    // Returns if shader was instrumented successfully or not
     virtual bool InstrumentShader(const vvl::span<const uint32_t> &input, uint32_t unique_shader_id, const Location &loc,
                                   std::vector<uint32_t> &out_instrumented_spirv) = 0;
 
diff --git a/layers/gpu/instrumentation/gpuav_instrumentation.cpp b/layers/gpu/instrumentation/gpuav_instrumentation.cpp
index f18094dfa1d..82b5a6dd5d1 100644
--- a/layers/gpu/instrumentation/gpuav_instrumentation.cpp
+++ b/layers/gpu/instrumentation/gpuav_instrumentation.cpp
@@ -94,6 +94,11 @@ bool Validator::InstrumentShader(const vvl::span<const uint32_t> &input, uint32_
         module.RunPassRayQuery();
     }
 
+    // If nothing was instrumented, leave early to save time
+    if (!module.IsInstrumented()) {
+        return false;
+    }
+
     for (const auto info : module.link_info_) {
         module.LinkFunction(info);
     }
diff --git a/layers/gpu/spirv/module.h b/layers/gpu/spirv/module.h
index a6c9742cb20..5678572dfa2 100644
--- a/layers/gpu/spirv/module.h
+++ b/layers/gpu/spirv/module.h
@@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ class Module {
     // Order of functions that will try to be linked in
     std::vector<LinkInfo> link_info_;
     void LinkFunction(const LinkInfo& info);
+    bool IsInstrumented() const { return !link_info_.empty(); }
 
     // The class is designed to be written out to a binary file.
     void ToBinary(std::vector<uint32_t>& out);