AMD showcased its expanded version of Microsoft’s Work Graphs API at GDC 2024, demonstrating its impressive impact on gaming performance. By moving draw calls and mesh nodes from the CPU to the GPU, AMD saw a significant 64% boost in rendering time with mesh shaders using Work Graphs.
Microsoft’s Work Graphs, integrated into the Direct3D 12 API, empower the GPU to schedule and execute tasks independently, reducing bottlenecks and enhancing performance in 3D gaming and productivity applications.
The introduction of mesh nodes simplifies rendering complex shapes and scenes through mesh shaders, minimizing task switching and increasing efficiency. Separately processing draw calls, which are requests to render graphics, also contributes to performance improvements.
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According to AMD architect Matthäus Chajdas, mesh nodes in Work Graphs offer a new way to drive mesh shaders and enhance graphics processing, as discussed in the AMD GPUOpen blog post.
Early benchmarks indicate that Work Graphs with mesh nodes outperform Execute Indirect by up to 39% on an RX 7900 XTX GPU. Execute Indirect, available in DirectX 12 and Vulkan, offloads draw and dispatch commands to the GPU, reducing CPU workload.
AMD also shared a real-time demo from Coburg University showcasing the new feature in a 3D game scenario.
With Work Graphs and mesh nodes, GPUs can handle more processing in gaming scenarios, alleviating CPU bottlenecks and benefiting systems with older processors like the Ryzen 7 5800X.
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