Introduction

Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers (Intel® GPA) is a powerful, agile developer tool suite for analyzing and optimizing games, media, and other graphics-intensive applications. The product supports applications intended for the Windows* OS platforms or Intel® Atom™ based phones running the Android* OS. The toolset is a free download from the Intel GPA Home Page.

Available now, Intel GPA 2013 R1 adds these key features:

• Significant enhancements have been made to the Geometry Viewer within the Intel GPA Frame Analyzer tool. The Geometry Viewer enables developers to view the input geometry at various shader stages (IA, HS/DS, VS, GS) for each draw call in a captured frame, and helps developers debug difficult performance bottlenecks or complex geometry rendering issues. More details on specific enhancements are included later in this article.
• A new command-line tool, gpa_console_client, is now available for analyzing Android* OS workloads. With this tool you can automate many functions and features of the Intel GPA System Analyzer that were previously only available from the GUI.
• Support has been added for new Intel® Atom™ based phones running the Android* OS, such as the Motorola RAZR I*. The full list of supported phones is available here. 
• A new tutorial, City Racer, has been added to demonstrate a "hands-on" approach to performance analysis and optimization. This tutorial presents a step-by-step guide to using Intel GPA for performance analysis, bottleneck identification, and rendering optimization of a D3D11 application. After installing Intel GPA, this tutorial with full source code can be found here: <install directory>\GPA\2013 R1\sdk\Samples\CityRacer

Additional Improvements

In addition to the key features listed above, these improvements have been added to the product since the Intel GPA 2012 R5 release:

• General:
• When using override modes, the accuracy of shader performance and metrics has been improved for game titles that use deferred contexts.

• Intel GPA System Analyzer / Intel GPA System Analyzer HUD:
• For Windows* 8 OS workloads, the product now supports desktop applications that use randomization of base addresses for system libraries. Intel GPA can now analyze a larger class of applications running on the Windows* 8 OS platform.
• When analyzing Android* OS workloads, applications can now use OpenGL ES 1.x and OpenGL ES 2.0 concurrently.
• When analyzing Android* OS workloads, non-English application names are now supported, making it easier to select the game from the list of available applications. Previously, only a blank line was displayed, making it difficult to select these games for analysis.

• Intel GPA Frame Analyzer / general features:
• When using Stretch Rect, you will now see both the Source and Destination surfaces.
• Saving a png version of the render target now includes the alpha channel.
• The Shader Tab now includes a General Assembly View.
• The total number of clocks per shader is now displayed.
• Very large shaders with many instructions are now fully supported.

• Intel GPA Frame Analyzer / Geometry Viewer:
• Geometry can now be viewed at each stage of the rendering pipeline.
• The GUI has been optimized to fully utilize available "real estate", allowing for an optimal display of stage names and metrics.
• The process for selecting draw calls has been streamlined.
• The current image within the viewer can be saved to a file.
• New culling visualization modes have been added to the tool.
• Performance metrics are now displayed for each geometry shader stage.
• An axis indicator is now displayed within the Geometry Viewer window.

The product also adds other minor enhancements and stability improvements, so we highly recommend that all users of Intel GPA download and install the latest version of the product from the Intel GPA Home Page.

Next Steps

To find out more about the Intel® GPA tool suite, check out one or more of these on-line resources:

• Intel GPA Home Page: The product's home site provides detailed information about the tool, including links to training and support resources, as well as videos on the product to help you get started quickly.
• Intel GPA On-line Help: A web-based version of the product documentation, providing details on the product tools and metrics for various platforms.
• Intel GPA Release Notes: Detailed product requirements, installation information, legal information, and version-specific technical issues and workarounds for the product.
• Intel GPA Support Forum: Browse to this page to ask questions or report issues about the product, or let us know what other features would help make the tools more useful for your work-flow.
• Intel GPA Knowledge Base Articles: A list of useful technical articles, including tips & tricks and workarounds to help you get the most out of the product.
• Intel GPA Getting Started Guide for Windows* OS: If you are new to Intel GPA, this is the place to start for analyzing Microsoft* DirectX* applications running on the Microsoft* Windows* OS platform -- we introduce you to the key concepts of the product, getting you up and running with the tools in no time at all!
• Intel GPA Getting Started Guide for Android* OS: An Android*-specific version of the Getting Started Guide -- everything you need to know to start using Intel GPA to analyze Android* OS applications running on Intel® Atom™ based phones.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.