Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers User Guide

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ID 767266
Date 9/28/2023
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Document Table of Contents
Document Table of Contents x
Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers User Guide
Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers User Guide x
Introduction to Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers Game Optimization Methodology Install and Launch Intel® GPA Enable GPU Metrics Collection Launch Application for Analysis Configure Analysis Settings Analyze Desktop Graphics Applications Quick Start with Profiling Unreal Engine* Games Instrumentation and Tracing Technology API Support Intel® GPA Reference Notices and Disclaimers
Introduction to Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers x
Get Help
Launch Application for Analysis x
Start a Desktop Application with Graphics Monitor Start a Windows* Mixed Reality Application Connect to a Running Application (Windows* only) Analyze Applications in the Network Mode
Configure Analysis Settings x
Configure a Metric Set Customize Keyboard Shortcuts Set Up a Trigger Set Up Tracing Options Set Up Stream Options Set Frame Delimiters
Analyze Desktop Graphics Applications x
Manage Analysis with Graphics Monitor Monitor Real-Time Performance with System Analyzer Identify Issues in Graphics Application Execution with Trace Analyzer Analyze GPU-bound Applications with Graphics Frame Analyzer Optimize Specific Domains
Monitor Real-Time Performance with System Analyzer x
Pause and Resume a Running Application Export Metrics Data with System Analyzer
Analyze GPU-bound Applications with Graphics Frame Analyzer x
Run Render State Experiments with Frame Analyzer Use Advanced Profiling Mode Graphics Frame Analyzer Plugins
Graphics Frame Analyzer Plugins x
Create a Custom Plugin for Graphics Frame Analyzer
Optimize Specific Domains x
Optimize Shaders Analyze Textures Minimize Overdraw Optimize Graphic API States Identify Graphics Elements with Complex Geometry Visualize Color Distribution
Instrumentation and Tracing Technology API Support x
Compile and Link with ITT API Instrument Your Application Minimize ITT API Overhead Clock Domain API Counter API Domain API Marker API Metadata API Relation API String Handle API Thread Naming API Task API
Intel® GPA Reference x
Performance Metrics Reference User Interface Reference
Performance Metrics Reference x
CPU Metrics Device I/O Metrics GPU Metrics Graphics API Metrics Main Metrics DirectX* Metrics OpenGL* Metrics Memory Metrics
User Interface Reference x
Graphics Monitor UI Reference Heads-Up Display (HUD) UI Reference System Analyzer UI Reference Graphics Frame Analyzer UI Reference Graphics Trace Analyzer UI Reference
Graphics Monitor UI Reference x
Graphics Monitor Context Menu Graphics Monitor Configuration Window Graphics Monitor Control Panel Graphics Monitor Window: Desktop Applications Tab Graphics Monitor Window: Universal Windows Applications Tab (Windows* only) Graphics Monitor Window: Options Dialog Box
Graphics Frame Analyzer UI Reference x
Graphics Frame Analyzer Window: Open Frame Capture Graphics Frame Analyzer Window: Multiframe View Graphics Frame Analyzer Window: Profiling View Graphics Frame Analyzer Window: Dependency Viewer
Graphics Frame Analyzer Window: Profiling View x
Main Toolbar Visualization Pane API Log Pane Resources Pane Metrics Pane Experiments Pane
Graphics Trace Analyzer UI Reference x
Graphics Trace Analyzer Window: Open Trace Capture Graphics Trace Analyzer Window: Platform View
Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers User Guide

Graphics API Metrics

This section describes all Graphics API metrics accessible from the Intel® GPA.

Main Metrics

Metric Name

Description

Draw Calls

Represents the number of draw calls issued from your application per frame. When the Draw Calls metric is high, see if you can optimize your application's geometry to improve vertex batching into fewer draw calls.

(Windows* only) Represents the number of draws submitted to the D3D Runtime.

Frames per Second

Represents the instantaneous frame rate normalized to seconds (inverted frame time).

Frame Number

Represents the number of the current CPU frame.

Frame Time

Represents the instantaneous frame time in microseconds.

DirectX* Metrics

Metric Name

Description

RT Changes

Represents the number of calls per frame:

  • Microsoft DirectX 9: The aggregated number of IDirect3DDevice9::SetRenderTarget calls per frame.
  • Microsoft DirectX 9Ex: The aggregated number of IDirect3DDevice9Ex::SetRenderTarget calls per frame.

Shader Creations

Represents the number of calls per frame:

  • Microsoft DirectX 9: The aggregated number of IDirect3DDevice9::CreateVertexShader/CreatePixelShader calls per frame.
  • Microsoft DirectX 9Ex : The aggregated number of IDirect3DDevice9Ex::CreateVertexShader/CreatePixelShader calls per frame.
  • Microsoft DirectX 10: The aggregated number of ID3D10Device::CreateVertexShader/CreateGeometryShader/ CreateGeometryShaderWithStreamOutput/CreatePixelShader calls per frame.
  • Microsoft DirectX 11: The aggregated number of ID3D11Device::CreateVertexShader/CreateGeometryShader/ CreateGeometryShaderWithStreamOutput/CreatePixelShader/CreateHullShader/CreateDomainShader calls per frame.

State Block Applies

Represents the number of IDirect3DStateBlock9::Apply calls per frame.

State Block Captures

Represents the number of IDirect3DStateBlock9::Capture calls per frame.

State Changes

Represents the number of state changes set to the D3D Runtime.

OpenGL* Metrics

Metric Name

Description

Buffer Creations

Represents the number of OpenGL ES buffers that are allocated from your application per frame.

Improving Performance:

When the Buffer Creations metric is high, see if you can change your application to allocate required buffers once at application startup.

Indexed Draw Calls

Represents the number of indexed draw calls being issued from your application per frame.

Improving Performance:

  • When the Indexed Draw Calls metric is high, see if you can optimize your application's geometry to better batch vertices into fewer draw calls, specifically those that use glDrawElements or its modifications.
  • When the Indexed Draw Calls metric is significantly lower than the Draw Calls metric see if you can optimize your application to use indexed geometry passed to the glDrawElements API or its modifications, rather than glDrawArrays and its modifications. Additionally, check the Vertex Count and Indexed Vertex Count metrics to see how much data is being drawn without indexing to estimate the impact of such optimization.

Vertex Count

Represents the number of vertices passed by your application to OpenGL draw calls per frame. This totals the counts passed to the draw calls.

Improving Performance:

  • When the Vertex Count metric is higher than expected and fragment processing is not the bottleneck, check whether you can improve culling, or whether you can use LOD or other techniques to reduce geometric complexity.
  • When the Vertex Count metric is low, try to increase geometric complexity as an alternative to expensive operations such as Alpha Test that might slow down the pipeline.

Indexed Vertex Count

Represents the number of indexed vertices passed by your application to indexed draw calls per frame.

Improving Performance:

When the Indexed Vertex Count metric is significantly lower than the Vertex Count metric, see if you can optimize your application to use indexed geometry passed to the glDrawElements API or its modifications, rather than glDrawArrays and its modifications.

RT Clears

Represents the number of Render Target clears per frame.

Parent topic: Performance Metrics Reference
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