docs/performance/GPU_performance.md

   1 # GPU Performance
   2
   3 Doing performance work with GPUs is harder than with CPUs because of the
   4 asynchronous and massively parallel architecture.
   5
   6 ## Tools
   7
   8 [PIX](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/pix/introduction/) - Can do
   9 timing of Direct3D calls. Works reasonably well with Firefox.
  10
  11 NVIDIA PerfHUD - Last I checked required a special build to be used.
  12
  13 NVIDIA Parallel Nsight - Haven\'t tried.
  14
  15 AMD GPU ShaderAnalyzer - Will compile a shader and show the machine code
  16 and give static pipeline estimations. Not that useful for Firefox
  17 because all of our shaders are pretty simple.
  18
  19 AMD GPU PerfStudio - I had trouble getting this to work, and can\'t
  20 remember whether I actually did or not.
  21
  22 [Intel Graphics Performance Analyzers](http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-gpa/ "http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-gpa/")
  23 - Haven\'t tried.
  24
  25 [APITrace](https://github.com/apitrace/apitrace "https://github.com/apitrace/apitrace")
  26 - Open source, works OK.
  27
  28 [PVRTrace](http://www.imgtec.com/powervr/insider/pvrtrace.asp "http://www.imgtec.com/powervr/insider/pvrtrace.asp")
  29 - Doesn\'t seem to emit traces on android/Nexus S. Looks like it\'s
  30 designed for X11-based linux-ARM devices, OMAP3 is mentioned a lot in
  31 the docs \...
  32
  33 ## Guides
  34
  35 [Accurately Profiling Direct3D API Calls (Direct3D
  36 9)](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb172234%28v=vs.85%29.aspx "http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb172234(v=vs.85).aspx")
  37 Suggests avoiding normal profilers like xperf and instead measuring the
  38 time to flush the command buffer.
  39
  40 [OS X - Best Practices for Working with Texture
  41 Data](http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/GraphicsImaging/Conceptual/OpenGL-MacProgGuide/opengl_texturedata/opengl_texturedata.html "http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/GraphicsImaging/Conceptual/OpenGL-MacProgGuide/opengl_texturedata/opengl_texturedata.html")
  42 - Sort of old, but still useful.