Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, June 28 (Xinhua) Microsoft plans to add the Work Graphs function to the 3D graphics program development interface Direct3D 12, which will remove the restrictions in the current GPU program development model, so that GPU general-purpose computing can handle more workloads and be more widely used.

CTOnews.com notes that in traditional cases, the workload of GPU needs to be determined by CPU, that is, every result of the GPU operation needs to be transmitted to CPU for analysis and interpretation, and then retransmitted to GPU for the next round of work. Although this situation does not cause visible lag at present, it actually increases the bandwidth overhead between GPU and CPU, and the performance release of CPU and GPU is actually limited because of the transmission speed.

▲ source Microsoft, such as the Unreal engine 5 developed by Epic Games, has eaten up the bandwidth of collaborative transmission between GPU and CPU. For example, the virtualization geometry technology Nanite and the global lighting solution Lumen in China need a series of independent schedules issued by CPU, so although they can produce excellent picture effects, in the final analysis, they have actually reached the limit of the architecture, so it is difficult for these technologies to be essentially updated in the future, only minor fixes can be carried out.

The ▲ source illusory engine 5 demonstrates that DEMO actually had an instruction called ExecuteIndirect before Direct3D 12, which allows GPU to determine the workload to be executed based on the results of previous GPU operations without the intervention of CPU. This instruction can make the operation more efficient and maximize the utilization of GPU. Now Microsoft is "standing on the shoulders of giants" and has launched Direct3D 12.

The new Work Graphs is a shader thread for GPU to operate. Once GPU is idle, the system can bypass CPU and let GPU handle the previous operation results on its own. It is relatively easier to express the intention and structure of the algorithm designed by the developer without causing excessive burden to the developer.

▲ image source Microsoft

▲ source Microsoft mentioned that the asynchronism of this model gives the system more freedom and determines the best way to perform the work. However, the compatibility of the current work map is limited, and it is still in the early preview stage, and it is more used in commercial software, but it has not yet landed in "game entertainment", so it still needs some time to develop.

It is reported that AMD, Nvidia, Intel and Qualcomm are all involved in the design of the work chart. At present, the AMD graphics driver has taken the lead in supporting working diagrams, and they have added the relevant API to the Adrenalin version of the AMD Radeon RX 7000 series graphics card driver, and there are also corresponding files for developers to read.

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