Shader Performance Measurement - Shader Graph Basics - Episode 21

In this shader tutorial, I explain 3 reasons why instruction count is an unreliable method of judging the performance of a shader. In order to explain this, I also show how the shader graph gets translated into HLSL code, the code gets compiled to assembly language instructions, and then the graphics driver translates the assembly language into commands that can be executed on the specific graphics hardware. I also show an web-based tool called Shader Playground, which allows you to see how HLSL gets compiled to both ASM and low-level graphics commands for AMD graphics cards. Shader Playground: Here’s the document I created with a list of common functions and the number of cycles required for each on Radeon hardware: Here’s last week’s video on the Power nodes: And here’s the playlist for the whole series: