New Release of Intel Graphics Performance Analyzers Supports Windows and Android

Intel has released the latest version (Release 1 2015) of its Graphics Performance Analyzers (GPA) which offers an analysis and optimization tool for Windows targets - including Intel Atom processors - from a Windows host. It also supports the latest generations of Intel Core and Intel Atom processors for applications developed for Windows or Android.

Intel GPA provides developers the opportunity to analyze, optimize and debug games and media applications as a feature of Intel Integrated Native Developer Experience (INDE) and Intel System Studio. Developers can explore workload performance with live metric analysis, dynamic frame analysis and debug, static trace analysis, and more.

The Intel GPA now includes an expanded Frame Analyzer for OpenGL ES that includes performance optimization functionality. Developers can also run the System Analyzer and Platform Analyzer applications to analyze Android targets (Intel or ARM architecture) running OpenGL ES v1.0-3.1 from Windows 7/ 8.1 hosts as well as from Apple OS X 10.7, 10.8 or Ubuntu 12.04 or 14.04 host systems.

Applications in the free release of the GPA include:

View and analyze metrics in real time during an application run, and perform optimization experiments with OpenGL ES (up to 3.1);or Microsoft DirectX overrides to identify potential bottlenecks without recompiling code. Capture frame/trace files for further in-depth analysis from CPU, Graphic API and GPU performance/power metrics. Developers can also analyze Android targets from Windows or Ubuntu or Mac OSX hosts, plus analyze Windows Store Apps and Windows DT apps running on the latest hardware targets including the Intel Atom processor based 'Baytrail' systems.

Previously available only with purchase of the Pro versions of Intel INDE and Intel System Studio, Platform Analyzer is now available as part of the free Intel GPA suite. This tool automatically aligns clocks across the entire target system, providing the opportunity to see CPU and GPU usage as well as application and system-level performance data, including thread activity, context switches, OpenGL ES or Direct X calls, and more. For 2015, the Platform Analyzer has added summary statistics for the selected tasks for both Windows and Android targets. Supported host OSs are Windows 7 and above (Android and Windows targets), plus Ubuntu and Apple OS X for Android targets.

Offering a developer friendly GUI and wide range of options, the now exclusively Direct X frame analyzer is available for development on Windows 7 and later systems, from Intel Atom through Intel core. The DirectX FA now focuses solely on DirectX, including version 11.1 and 11.2 and can be used to explore the performance impact of specific draw calls in the frame at different stages of the rendering pipeline.

This expanded version of the Frame Debugger now provides OpenGL ES debug and optimization functionality. Developers can use a Windows, Ubuntu, or OS X host to explore the performance impact of specific draw calls in the frame at different stages of the rendering pipeline as well as view and edit uniform blocks with support for uniform structure arrays and program pipelines as well as uniform block support for pipeline objects. There's now a shader and uniform editor for program pipelines and a shader storage buffer viewer. 

And in this release the OpenGL version provides a new, streamlined GUI which includes the bar chart (where render targets are also grouped) as well as other views and includes an improved UI for the Resource Viewer and support for low resolution screen. And geometry, evaluation and control shader code is included. Previously only available as part of Pro versions of Intel INDE and Intel System Studio, the new Graphics Frame Analyzer for OpenGL is now available as part of the entirely free Intel GPA suite.

Intel GPA 15 R1 is currently only available stand-alone from the GPA website and will be included in the next release of Intel INDE (2015 R2) and Intel System Studio.