NVTuneNVTuneKenneth Hurley

NVIDIA CONFIDENTIAL

NVTuneOverview

What issues are we trying to solve?Games and applications need to have high frame rates

Answer questions for developersHow well is my code interfacing with the driver?

Is it possible to speed up the process?

Why is the hardware not doing what I expect?

Are there logic errors in my use of Direct X?

How can we solve these issues?Have the driver tell us where it is spending its time

Have the driver output any problems it may see.Example: Using a texture stage in the wrong way

Example: Locking a front buffer causing the triangle pipeline to stall.

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NVTuneOverview (continued)

How NVTune help youCaptures CPU cycles spent in NVIDIA’S driver code.

Simple and easy to use

Enhances other development tools such as VTUNE, in that it gives more of a breakdown of what is happening in the driver.

Low overhead. Display refresh is specified by the user. Logging display is at lowest priority for a thread.

Newest code and driver will allow more of an inside view of what is going on inside the GeFORCE®.

Directly tied into NVIDIA’S Direct X Driver

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NVTuneOverview (continued)

ArchitectureTime stamp counter used (RDTSC)

VXD/SYS Interface for application and driver

Logging output is directly from the driver

Hardware

D3D Driver

Statistics VXD

LogGlobal MemoryStatistics

ApplicationData

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NVTuneOverview (continued)

What it captures (examples)Draw Primitives (indexed, non-indexed, wireframe, etc.)

Blits

Flips

Render State changes

Resource Lock/UnlockTextures

Vertex buffers

Surfaces

All function calls that reach the driver

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NVTune - Toolbar

ToolbarNew - Opens three new windows, if no windows are open.Save - Saves active window in comma delimited formatCut - No action currentlyCopy - No action currentlyPaste - No action currentlyPrint - No action currently, will print current windowView D3D function windowView frames per second windowView log windowStart statistics captureStop statistics captureErase values in current windowConnect to remote statistics machineSet configuration

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NVTune - Function Split Window

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NVTune - Function Split WindowContinued

Function split windowAllows you to choose which functions are displayed during statistical capture

Functions are not persistent if “Active Only” is checked in the configuration

Data can be saved to comma delimited text file

Updates at specific time intervals

Displays function, class, number of hits, CPU clocks, % of total functions and % of CPU usage.

Sorting by column is enabled. Sorting automatically updates every refresh.

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NVTune - Frames Per Second Graph

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NVTune - Frames Per Second Graph Continued

Frames per second graphCursor allows you to look at a particular frame and what the average frame rate is.

Visual cues, on spikes/lows for 3d functions

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NVTune - Logging Window

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NVTune - Logging WindowContinued

Logging WindowVisual output for logging data.

Can be saved to comma delimited text file. This allows you to import into excel and make your own graphs.

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NVTune - Configuration

Easy ConfigurationClick on toolbar or menu

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NVTune – General Options

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NVTune – General OptionsContinued

Logging LevelDecimal/Hexadecimal display for programmers

Display only active functions

Allow automatic updating of only functions that are active

Hotkey – Sets the hotkey that turns the capture on/off. Allows full screen applications to capture data inside of game

Any key combination can be used

When setting press one key at a time then dialog will skip to next edit box

Remote AccessSmall stub on target machine

Across TCP/IP through use of IP address or machine name

Still in Development!

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NVTune - Capture Options

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NVTune - Capture OptionsContinued

Frame End SignalingSets how frames are ended

Flip, blit to front buffer or Begin/End Scene Pairing

Range Capture EnableEnable start and stop between successive frames

Enable checkmark, then set start and ending frame to capture between

Refresh interval in millisecondsHow often visual updates are made in function window

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NVTune - Logging Options

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NVTune - Logging OptionsConfiguration (continued)

Logging OptionsNone

Minimal loggingOnly logs function calls

Medium loggingLogs function calls and < 1 DWORD parameters

Maximum loggingLogs function calls, all parameters and vertices

Performance WarningsShows red highlighted performance problems reported by driver

Logging MemorySets how much memory for logging file

Doesn’t utilize Virtual Memory for performance reasons

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NVTuneAdditional Features

Context Sensitive HelpOnline FAQ built into statistics application

Highlight function and press F1.

Some function haven’t been documented yet. If you find one let us know and we will document it

Search function for log filesUse Ctrl-F to find

Use F3 to find again

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NVTuneFuture Enhancements

GeFORCE® Specific featuresAbility to track additional features such as pixels per clock, pipeline stalls and almost anything that can happen inside of the hardware.

This will be made available through performance monitor registers.

Transform and Lighting CPU usage inside of drivers

DX7/DX8 additional RenderStates

Windows 2000/Windows 9x Support

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NVTuneWhere to get it

Available to Registered Developers

http://nvdeveloper.nvidia.com

Report Bugs/Feature Requests: statdriver@nvidia.com