Microsoft has released a new Agility Software Development Kit that provides new capabilities. Agility SDK 1.613 includes Shader Model 6.8 and Work Graphs API support. The latter is an important feature that will facilitate the use of rendering on GPU drivers, offloading the CPU. Graphics processors will be able to generate work for themselves “on the fly”. This idea was pushed by the developers of Epic, who were in favor of allowing the GPU to do more tasks on its own.

Now, in order to get the final image, part of the work is done by the CPU and part by the GPU. But sometimes the CPU takes too much time to decide what to do next for the GPU. Work Graphs is a system that helps the CPU and GPU work together more efficiently, Videokarty reports.

They allow the CPU to schedule work in advance and organize tasks for the GPU. Instead of waiting for each block, the CPU can provide a list of what needs to be done in advance, so the GPU doesn’t have to wait for the next task to arrive. The CPU and GPU, working together, can manage memory faster, keep things organized, and allow complex tasks to run smoothly.

The updated Shader Model 6.8 includes new features such as Start Vertex/Instance Location, which allows shaders to receive parameters from an API call. This can be useful for custom calculations independent of fixed function data. In addition, there is a Wave Size Range feature that allows developers to define the desired wave size in shaders. This can help reduce the number of shaders needed or even eliminate the need to use multiple shaders. Finally, there is an advanced benchmarking feature that should provide the best cross-platform shaders.

The new GPU Upload Heaps feature allows you to quickly copy data from the CPU to the GPU. This eliminates the need to use the PCI bus to transfer data from VRAM to the CPU. This feature uses ResizableBAR, which allows the CPU to write VRAM data with low latency.

You can start using the new SDK with AMD and NVIDIA, who have released the first version drivers for the new SDK. Work Graphs are supported by NVIDIA Ampere and Ada GPUs with driver 551.76 or later. AMD only confirms that Work Graphs work on RX 7000 GPUs with RDNA3 architecture (for now). Intel has not yet released new drivers.

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