GPU Optimization for GameDev

By Author

• Emil Persson @Humus
  • Blog
  • <2013> Low-Level Thinking in High-Level Shading Languages
  • <2014> Low-Level Shader Optimization for Next-Gen and DX11
  • <2018> Rule of optimization
• Matt Pettineo @mynameismjp
  • Blog
  • <2018> Breaking Down Barriers
  • <2021> The Shader Permutation Problem
• Louis Bavoil @louisbavoil
  • <2018> The Peak-Performance-Percentage Analysis Method for Optimizing Any GPU Workload
  • <2018> Fixing the Hyperdrive: Maximizing Rendering Performance on NVIDIA GPUs (Presented by NVIDIA)
  • <2019> Optimizing DX12/DXR GPU Workloads using Nsight Graphics: GPU Trace and the Peak-Performance-Percentage (P3) Method (Presented by NVIDIA)
  • <2020> Optimizing Compute Shaders for L2 Locality using Thread-Group ID Swizzling
  • D3D11 Vendor Hacks
• Rys Sommefeldt @ryszu
  • Blog
  • <2018> Understanding GPU context rolls
• Michal Drobot @michaldrobot
  • Blog
  • <2014> Low Level Optimizations for GCN – Digital Dragons 2014
  • <2014> GCN Execution Patterns in Full Screen Passes
  • <2014> ShaderFastLibs
• Kostas Anagnostou @KostasAAA
  • Blog
  • <2018> DD2018: Kostas Anagnostou - Experiments in GPU occlusion culling
  • <2020> GPU ARCHITECTURE RESOURCES
  • <2020> GPU ARCHITECTURE RESOURCES (twitter thread)
  • <2020> WHAT IS SHADER OCCUPANCY AND WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT IT?
  • <2020> TO Z-PREPASS OR NOT TO Z-PREPASS
  • <2022> SHADER TIPS AND TRICKS
• Matthäus G. Chajdas @NIV_Anteru
  • Blog
  • <2018> Introduction to compute shaders
  • <2018> More compute shaders
  • <2018> Even more compute shaders
  • GPU database
• Matthijs De Smedt @anji_nl
  • <2016> PC GPU Performance Hot Spots
• Maurizio Cerrato @speedwago
  • <2019> GPU Architectures
• Sebastian Aaltonen @SebAaltonen
  • Blog
  • <2017> Optimizing GPU occupancy and resource usage with large thread groups
  • <2018> DD2018: Sebastian Aaltonen - GPU based clay simulation and ray tracing tech in Claybook
  • <2018> This is how I managed to port Claybook from consoles to ~4x slower handheld
• Layla Mah @MissQuickstep
  • <2013> The AMD GCN Architecture - A Crash Course
  • <2013> Powering the Next Generation of Graphics: The AMD GCN Architecture
• Sven Andersson @andsve
  • Blog
  • <2014> Real-time Rendering Blogs
• Fabian Giesen @rygorous
  • Blog
  • <2011> A trip through the Graphics Pipeline 2011
• Timothy Lottes
  • <2016> Understanding Memory Coalescing on GCN
  • <2017> ADVANCED SHADER PROGRAMMING ON GCN
  • <2018> Engine Optimization Hot Lap
• Robert Menzel @renderpipeline
  • Blog
  • <2012> Low-Level GPU Documentation
• Stephanie Hurlburt @sehurlburt
  • <2016> Casual Introduction to Low-Level Graphics Programming
• RasterGrid @rastergrid
  • Blog
  • <2021> Understanding GPU caches
• Adam Sawicki @Reg__
  • Blog
  • <2020> A Better Way to Scalarize a Shader
  • <2021> Efficient Use of GPU Memory in Modern Games
• Matías N. Goldberg @matiasgoldberg
  • Blog
  • <2020> A little clarification on modern shader compile times
  • <2022> The road to 16-bit floats GPU is paved with our blood
• Francesco Cifariello Ciardi @FCifaCiar
  • Blog
  • <2018> INTRO TO GPU SCALARIZATION
• Sébastien Lagarde @SebLagarde
  • Blog
  • <2014> Inverse trigonometric functions GPU optimization for AMD GCN architecture
• Bart Wronski @BartWronsk
  • Blog
  • <2014> GCN – two ways of latency hiding and wave occupancy

By Organization

• GDC
  • Search "Advanced Graphics" in GDC Vault or in GDC VAULT EXPLORER
  • <2014> Vertex Shader Tricks
  • <2016> Optimizing the Graphics Pipeline With Compute
  • <2016> High-Performance, Low-Overhead Rendering with OpenGL and Vulkan
  • <2016> Practical DirectX 12
  • <2017> Wave Programming in D3D12 and Vulkan
  • <2017> D3D12 and Vulkan Done Right
  • <2017> Deep Dive: Asynchronous Compute
  • <2019> DirectX 12 Optimization Techniques in Capcom’s RE ENGINE
  • <2019> A BLEND OF GCN OPTIMIZATION AND COLOR PROCESSING
  • <2019> AMD GPU Performance Revealed
• [JP] CEDEC
  • <2016> GPU最適化入門
• Siggraph
  • <2020> LOW-LEVEL OPTIMIZATIONS IN THE LAST OF US PART II
• AMD
  • GPU Open
    • Events Presentations
    • AMD GPU ISA documentation (GCN,Vega,CDNA,RDNA,RDNA2)
    • <2016> Leveraging asynchronous queues for concurrent execution
    • <2016> AMD GCN Assembly: Cross-Lane Operations
    • <2018> Optimize your engine using compute @ 4C Prague 2018 | (Youtube)
    • <2018> Optimization with Radeon GPU Profiler - A Vulkan Case Study
    • <2019> Triangles Are Precious
    • <2020> Let’s build
      • AMD Ryzen™ Processor Software Optimization
      • Optimizing for the Radeon™ RDNA Architecture
      • From Source to ISA: A Trip Down the Shader Compiler Pipeline
      • A Review of GPUOpen Effects
      • Curing Amnesia and Other GPU Maladies With AMD Developer Tools
      • Radeon™ ProRender Full Spectrum Rendering 2.0: The Universal Rendering API
    • <2020> CONCURRENCY MODEL IN EXPLICIT GRAPHICS APIS
    • <2020> All the Pipelines - Journey through the GPU
  • GCN
    • <2013> GCN3 Instruction Set Architecture
    • <2019> AMD GCN ISA: a first dive
    • GPUOpen-Drivers/pal on Github
    • AMD-FirePro/SDK on Github
  • RDNA
    • <2019> INTRODUCING RDNA ARCHITECTURE
    • <2019> RDNA Architecture
    • <2020> "RDNA 1.0" Instruction Set Architecture
    • <2020> "RDNA 2" Instruction Set Architecture
    • RDNA2 Performance Guide
  • OpenCL
    • AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing OpenCL Programming Guide
  • RADEON GPU ANALYZER
    • USING RADEON™ GPU ANALYZER WITH DIRECTX®12 GRAPHICS
    • USING RADEON™ GPU ANALYZER WITH DIRECT3D®12 COMPUTE
• Nvidia
  • Developer Blog
    • <2015> Constant Buffers without Constant Pain
    • <2016> Reading Between The Threads: Shader Intrinsics
    • <2016> DX12 Do's And Don'ts
    • <2021> Advanced API Performance
    • <2022> Best Practices for Using NVIDIA RTX Ray Tracing (Updated)
  • Pascal
    • <2016> NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Whitepaper
  • Turing
    • <2018> NVIDIA Turing Architecture In-Depth
    • <2018> NVIDIA TURING GPU ARCHITECTURE
  • CUDA
    • <2014> CUDA Pro Tip: Optimized Filtering with Warp-Aggregated Atomics
  • Talks
    • <2012> GPU Performance Analysis and Optimization
    • <2020> Optimizing Graphics Applications using Nsight Systems and Nsight Graphics
    • <2021> The Next Level of Optimization Advice with Nsight Graphics: GPU Trace
    • <2022> (GDC Paywall) Optimizing Ray Tracing GPU Workloads using Nsight Graphics: GPU Trace and Nsight Systems
• Intel
  • Gamedev
  • Intel® Processor Graphics: Architecture & Programming
• Microsoft
  • DirectX-Specs
  • <2019> New in D3D12 – background shader optimizations
• Arm
  • Mali GPU Best Practices
  • Best Practices for Mobile Game Art Assets
  • Principles of High Performance
  • Accelerating 2D Applications
  • Arm Vulkan Guides
• Khronos Group
  • Vulkan Samples
• CMU
  • <2017> Parallel Computer Architecture and Programming
• Misc
  • <2009> From Shader Code to a Teraflop: How Shader Cores Work
  • <2017> Demystifying Asynchronous Compute
  • <2019> Unity GPU culling experiments
  • <2019> What's up with my branch on GPU?

Graphics Pipeline / GPU Architecture Overview

• <2011> A trip through the Graphics Pipeline 2011
• <2015> Life of a triangle - NVIDIA's logical pipeline
• <2015> Render Hell 2.0
• <2016> How bad are small triangles on GPU and why?
• <2017> GPU Performance for Game Artists
• <2019> Understanding the anatomy of GPUs using Pokémon
• <2020> GPU ARCHITECTURE RESOURCES

Graphics Study

• Graphics Studies Compilation

For Artist

• [WIP] Unreal Art Optimization

Database

• PerfTest: GPU shader memory operation performance test tool (with results)
• GPUInfo for Vulkan, OpenGL, OpenGL ES
• [JP] GPU Spec Database by HYPERでんち

Tools

• Shader Playground
• NVIDIA Nsight Graphics
• Radeon GPU Analyzer
• Intel Graphics Performance Analyzers
• GPUView

Thanks JoseEmilio-ARM for ARM part.