April 1, 2009

AMD Next-generation, Platform-agnostic Tools

GDC 2009 - AMD announced the availability of GPU PerfStudio 2.0, a free, platform-agnostic, next-generation AMD graphics application development tool for game developers, obtainable through a closed beta program. GPU PerfStudio 2.0 has been designed to integrate with existing projects, and help to identify and resolve performance issues early in the development cycle.
With GPU PerfStudio 2.0, AMD is introducing a newly written GPU Performance Analysis tool and an extensive feature set including:
- Frame Debugger, allowing developers to freeze applications on a single frame for detailed inspection;
- Shader Debugger, for the live debugging of HLSL and ASM pixel shaders;
- and Frame Profiler, which quickly identifies performance bottlenecks and optimization opportunities.In internal testing of GPU PerfStudio 2.0.

AMD software engineers measured significant time savings when searching for and resolving issues within games. The new tools are immediately accessible to all game developers, requiring no modifications to existing code.

GPU PerfStudio 2.0 enables developers to quickly identify algorithm and performance issues early in the development process, avoiding the hassle of discovering problems later in the development cycle and having to re-code particular game segments to get around them.

GPU PerfStudio 2.0 offers platform flexibility with native support for 32-bit and 64-bit applications, including the ability to debug 32-bit applications on a 64-bit system. Developers also have the freedom to run GPU PerfStudio 2.0 on a different system from the application being debugged for a more flexible workflow.

No custom drivers are required in order to utilize the full feature set available on ATI Radeon graphics processors. GPU PerfStudio 2.0 works with the shipping ATI Catalyst driver.