PIX on Windows

Performance tuning and debugging for DirectX 12 games on Windows

PIX 2101.27: AMD raytracing counters, DXIL improvements, and more

January 27, 2021 Jan 27, 2021 01/27/21
Austin Kinross
Today we released PIX version 2101.27, which can be downloaded here. This release adds support for new GPUs and counters to AMD’s PIX plugin, improves the DXIL debugging experience, contains several enhancements to the CPU sampling profiler, and adds many other smaller improvements.    AMD plugin improvements  This ...

New documentation page: Analyzing CPU samples in Timing Captures

December 7, 2020 Dec 7, 2020 12/7/20
Steven Pratschner
Hi PIX users, I've added a new page to our PIX for Windows documentation set.  The new page describes how to use Timing Captures to analyze CPU samples.  Collecting CPU samples allows you to analyze how functions within your title are impacting performance.  We've been steadily adding new features to PIX's sampling profiler and will ...
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Analyzing CPU samples in Timing Captures

December 7, 2020 Dec 7, 2020 12/7/20
Steven Pratschner
PIX includes a CPU sampling profiler that can optionally be run when taking a Timing Capture. Collecting CPU samples allows you to analyze how functions within your title are impacting performance. Viewing CPU samples is useful in several scenarios. For example, CPU samples can help you determine what code is running on a thread or core for...
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Analyzing Win32 File IO performance in Timing Captures

October 28, 2020 Oct 28, 2020 10/28/20
Steven Pratschner
PIX Timing Captures include an option to collect data on your title’s use of the Win32 file IO APIs to access files. The data collected for calls to APIs such as ReadFile and WriteFile include the name of the file being accessed, and the offset, size and duration of the access itself. Full callstacks for each file access are also ...
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New documentation page: Analyzing Memory usage and performance in Timing Captures

October 28, 2020 Oct 28, 2020 10/28/20
Steven Pratschner
Hi PIX users, Over the last few releases we've been extending our memory profiling features in Timing Captures.  I've written a new documentation page that describes how to use Timing Captures to analyze memory usage and performance.  The addition of memory data to Timing Captures replaces the separate memory capture that we removed from PIX...
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Analyzing Memory usage and performance in Timing Captures

October 22, 2020 Oct 22, 2020 10/22/20
Steven Pratschner
PIX Timing Captures include options to record information on the memory allocations and frees made while the capture is running. This memory data is used to compute a set of memory-related counters that can be graphed in the Metrics View and to build an allocation stack tree and virtual memory allocations list in the Range Details view. The...
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Capturing GPU Work

September 15, 2020 Sep 15, 2020 09/15/20
Damyan Pepper
One of the most significant changes we’ve made in PIX-2008.26 has been to make the GPU capture process focus on capturing GPU work rather than API calls. This blog post will explain how PIX used to work, describe some of the drawbacks with this approach, how it works now, and the benefits we get from it. Hopefully, you’ll find this ...

Debugging D3D11 apps using D3D11On12

September 8, 2020 Sep 8, 2020 09/8/20
Jeff Noyle
PIX is designed for use with Direct3D12 applications. That said, PIX can take advantage of Windows’ ability to convert Direct3D11 API calls into Direct3D12 calls, and thereby allow you to view your Direct3D11 application as if it were Direct3D12. It’s easy to use: just click this check box here before launching your game under GPU capture...