Intel Adds Experimental Mesh Shader Support in DG2 GPU Vulkan Linux Drivers

[AleksandarK]

Mesh shader is a relatively new concept of a programmable geometric shading pipeline, which promises to simplify the whole graphics rendering pipeline organization. NVIDIA introduced this concept with Turing back in 2018, and AMD joined with RDNA2. Today, thanks to the finds of Phoronix, we have gathered information that Intel's DG2 GPU will carry support for mesh shaders and bring it under Vulkan API. For starters, the difference between mesh/task and traditional graphics rendering pipeline is that the mesh edition is much simpler and offers higher scalability, bandwidth reduction, and greater flexibility in the design of mesh topology and graphics work. In Vulkan, the current mesh shader state is NVIDIA's contribution called the VK_NV_mesh_shader extension. The below docs explain it in greater detail:

This extension provides a new mechanism allowing applications to generate collections of geometric primitives via programmable mesh shading. It is an alternative to the existing programmable primitive shading pipeline, which relied on generating input primitives by a fixed function assembler as well as fixed function vertex fetch.

There are new programmable shader types—the task and mesh shader—to generate these collections to be processed by fixed-function primitive assembly and rasterization logic. When task and mesh shaders are dispatched, they replace the core pre-rasterization stages, including vertex array attribute fetching, vertex shader processing, tessellation, and geometry shader processing.

Today's discovery shows that Intel's upcoming Arc Alchemist family of graphics cards based on DG2 GPU will not lag behind NVIDIA and AMD in terms of supported technical ecosystem. To learn more about mesh shader technology and some implementations, you can check out NVIDIA's developer blog here.

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[DeathtoGnomes]

So if it works well in Linux, windows will get support later?

 

[GeorgeMan]

Another day, another Intel GPU news info, yawn... I eventually got tired. Intel, just deliver something REAL at last.

 

[bug]

So if it works well in Linux, windows will get support later?

It works in Vulkan and Vulkan is cross-platform. So yes, whenever someone gets around to updating the driver for Windows, it will work there, too.
Keep in mind DX12 also supports mesh shaders, probably Intel wants to release support for both APIs at the same time.

That said, that official definition tells me nothing about how a mesh shader is a better idea than the shaders that came before it.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

probably Intel wants to release support for both APIs at the same time.

Thats why i asked, this PR didnt read like that will actually happen, at the same time, eventually sure

 

[bug]

Thats why i asked, this PR didnt read like that will actually happen, at the same time, eventually sure

By "both APIs", I meant Vulkan and DX12 together for Windows. Not Vulkan for Linux at the same time as Vulkan for Windows.
It doesn't really matter anyway, API support is just the first step, we still need software that takes advantage of that.

 

[catulitechup]

Another day, another Intel GPU news info, yawn... I eventually got tired. Intel, just deliver something REAL at last.

Yeah intel dgpus aka arc only exist in news

 

[bug]

Yeah intel gpus only exist in news

Actually, Intel GPUs are everywhere (in IGP form). You meant dGPUs

 

[catulitechup]

Actually, Intel GPUs are everywhere (in IGP form). You meant dGPUs

corrected dgpus aka arc

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

I'm still waiting on them adding Actual stock to shelves personally.

Talk about dragging it out FFS.

 

[bug]

I'm still waiting on them adding Actual stock to shelves personally.

Dude, actual stock is so last century...

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Dude, actual stock is so last century...

Fair point.

 

[eidairaman1]

Another day, another Intel GPU news info, yawn... I eventually got tired. Intel, just deliver something REAL at last.

Larabee anyone? Aka a unicorn

I'm still waiting on them adding Actual stock to shelves personally.

Talk about dragging it out FFS.

Don't think for a moment intel will release a gpu at a lower msrp than nvidia and AMD, bet theirs will be higher and both AMD and nvidia will already have their next gen ready to go...

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Larabee anyone? Aka a unicorn



Don't think for a moment intel will release a gpu at a lower msrp than nvidia and AMD, bet theirs will be higher and both AMD and nvidia will already have their next gen ready to go...

Cheaper!, I expect parity and a bit less hopefully! , I am hoping for only a mass restock ,shit I might not even buy , I've not got fully used to the idea of sacrificing a kidney to buy a GPU yet.

I'm getting the steam deck for the price I can sell my Vega64 for , This truly is a crazy time to be alive , I could drag up some mockery of me, over it,, verses a 1080Ti but none of it's aged well in these comedy times.

 

[AlwaysHope]

Where are these cards?, I want to see them in real world action for gamers!