Graphics Performance Analyzers 2014 R4 Release Notes

Thank you for choosing the Graphics Performance Analyzers, a part of the Intel® Integrated Native Developer Experience (Intel® INDE) and Intel® System Studio.

Contents

Introduction
What's New
System Requirements and Supported Platforms
Installation Notes
Technical Support and Troubleshooting
Known Issues and Limitations
Legal Information

Introduction

Graphics Performance Analyzers are tools for graphics analysis and optimization that can help you make games and other graphics-intensive applications run even faster. The tools support the platforms based on the latest generations of Intel Core™ and Intel Atom™ processor families, for applications developed for either Windows* OS or Android*.

Graphics Performance Analyzers provide a common and integrated user interface for collecting performance data. Using them, you can quickly see performance opportunities in your application, saving your time and getting your product to market faster.

For detailed information and assistance in using the product, refer to the following online resources:

What's New

Graphics Performance Analyzers 2014 R4 offer the following new features:

New Features for Analyzing Windows* Applications

• Graphics Frame Analyzer
  • Graphics Frame Analyzer now supports Microsoft DirectX* 11.1 and 11.2.
• Platform Analyzer
  • Platform Analyzer now shows summary statistics for the selected tasks.

New Features for Analyzing Android* Applications

• Platform Analyzer
  • Platform Analyzer is now available on Ubuntu* and OS X* analysis systems.
  • Platform Analyzer now shows summary statistics for the selected tasks.

System Requirements and Supported Platforms

Minimum requirements for client systems used to analyze Windows* OS or Android* workloads are: Intel® Core™ Processor with a minimum of 2GB of memory. At least 4GB of memory is highly recommended.

• Client Processor: Intel® Core™ Processor
• Target Processor: 1.6GHz
• System Memory: 2GB RAM (4GB recommended)
• Video Memory: 512MB RAM
• Minimum display resolution for client system: 1280x1024
• Disk Space: 300MB for minimal product installation

To do frame profiling with Graphics Frame Analyzer, you need a Windows* 64-bit OS installed. The installation package will not install this application if a 32-bit Windows* OS is detected.

You can analyze an application on a 32-bit target system as follows:

1. Copy the 32-bit .msi installer distributed with the 64-bit installation from your analysis system to the target system.
2. Run the installer on the target system to install System Analyzer and Graphics Monitor.
3. Start the Graphics Monitor and the target application on the 32-bit system and connect to it from the 64-bit analysis system.

For details, see the Running Intel® GPA System Analyzer on a Windows* 32-bit System article.

The table below shows platforms and applications supported by Graphics Performance Analyzers 2014 R4.

Note that Graphics Performance Analyzers do not support the following Windows* OS configurations: all server editions, Windows* 8 RT, or Windows* 7 starter kit. 
For details about the tools availability for your client/target system configuration, please see  this article.

Supported Windows* OS Graphics Devices

Graphics Performance Analyzers support the following graphics devices as targets for analyzing Windows* OS workloads. All these targets have enhanced metric support:

• Intel HD Graphics 2000/3000 (2nd Generation Intel Core™ Processors)
• Intel HD Graphics 2500/4000 (3rd Generation Intel Core™ Processors)
• Intel HD Graphics 4200/4400/4600/5000 (4th Generation Intel Core™ Processors)
• Intel Iris™ Graphics 5100 (4th Generation Intel Core™ Processors)
• Intel Iris™ Pro Graphics 5200 (4th Generation Intel Core™ Processors)

Although the tools may appear to work with other graphics devices, these devices are unsupported. Some features and metrics may not be available on unsupported platforms. If you run into in an issue when using the tools with any supported configuration, please report this issue through the   Support Forum.

Driver Requirements for Intel HD Graphics

When running Graphics Performance Analyzers on platforms with supported Intel HD Graphics, the tools require the latest graphics drivers for proper operation. You may download and install the latest graphics drivers from  http://downloadcenter.intel.com/.

Graphics Performance Analyzers inspect your current driver version and notify you if your driver is out-of-date.

Supported Devices Based on Intel® Atom™ Processor

Graphics Performance Analyzers support the following devices based on Intel Atom processor:

Supported ARM*-Based Devices

The following devices are supported with Graphics Performance Analyzers:

Your system configuration should satisfy the following requirements:

• Your ARM*-based device is running Android* 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, or 4.4.
• Your analysis system is 64-bit and is running Windows* 7 SP1/8/8.1 OS
• Your Android* application uses OpenGL* ES 1.0, 1.1, 2.0 or 3.0

For support level details for ARM*-based devices, see  this article.

Installation Notes

Installing Graphics Performance Analyzers from the Intel INDE Site

Download and install the Intel INDE suite installer from the  Intel INDE Home Page. Then, depending upon your installation platform, select one or more of the following tools to download and install:

• System Analyzer
• Graphics Frame Analyzer
• Platform Analyzer
• Graphics Frame Debugger

NOTE: Installing some of the Graphics Performance Analyzers tools may also cause other Graphics Performance Analyzers tools to be installed, since some tools are bundled into a single binary. We recommend that you download and install as many tools as are available for your development platform.
 

Installing Graphics Performance Analyzers on Windows* OS Target and Client Platforms

To install the tools on Windows* OS, download the msi package from home page and run the installer file:

The following prerequisites should be installed before you run the installer:

• Microsoft DirectX* Runtime June 2010
• Microsoft .NET 4.0 (via redirection to an external web site for download and installation)

If you use the product in a client/target configuration, install Graphics Performance Analyzers on both systems. For more information on the client/target configuration, refer to Best Practices.

 For details on how to set up an Android* device for analysis with Graphics Performance Analyzers, see   Configuring Target and Analysis Systems.

Installing Graphics Performance Analyzers on Ubuntu* OS Client Platform

Follow the steps listed below to install the System Analyzer on a system with an Ubuntu* OS:

1. Make sure that the sharutils package is installed on your client machine.
2. For an x86 system:
   • Change file permissions by running the command chmod 755 intel-gpa_14.4_m32.deb.shar.
   • Execute the .shar file by running the command ./intel-gpa_14.4_m32.deb.shar.
3. For an x64 system:
   • Change file permissions by running the command chmod 755 intel-gpa_14.4_m64.deb.shar
   • Execute the .shar file by running the command ./intel-gpa_14.4_m64.deb.shar.
4. Read the end-user license agreement (EULA), and if you agree to the terms and conditions of the EULA, enter Y to accept the agreement.
5. Double-click the extracted .deb package to install it using the Ubuntu* OS package manager.

NOTE: You do not need to explicitly install Graphics Performance Analyzers on the Android* target device since the tools automatically install the necessary files on the target device when you run System Analyzer. For details on how to set up an Android* device for analysis with Graphics Performance Analyzers, see Configuring Target and Analysis Systems.

Installing Graphics Performance Analyzers on OS X* Client Platform

To install the tools on OS X*, download the .pkg package and run the installer.

NOTE: You do not need to explicitly install Graphics Performance Analyzers on the Android* target device since the tools automatically install the necessary files on the target device when you run the System Analyzer. For details on how to set up an Android* device for analysis with Graphics Performance Analyzers, see Configuring Target and Analysis Systems.

Updating Graphics Performance Analyzers

If you have an earlier version of Graphics Performance Analyzers installed, refer to the following update instructions:

• Graphics Performance Analyzers Updates on Windows* OS
• Graphics Performance Analyzers Updates on Ubuntu* OS
• Graphics Performance Analyzers Updates on OS* X

Technical Support and Troubleshooting

For technical support, including answers to questions not addressed in the installed product, visit the  Support Forum. 

You can find other useful support information in the Frequently Asked Questions and Knowledge Base articles.

Troubleshooting Android* Connection Problems

If the target device does not appear when the "adb devices" command is executed on the client system, do the following:

1. Disconnect the device
2. Execute "adb kill-server"
3. Reconnect the device
4. Run "adb devices"

If these steps do not help, restart the system and then run "adb devices" again. You may also need to consult product documentation for your device to see if a custom USB driver needs to be installed on devices based on Intel architecture and third-party ARM*-based devices.

Known Issues and Limitations

General

• Graphics Performance Analyzers use sophisticated techniques for analyzing graphics performance which may conflict with third-party performance analyzers. Therefore, ensure that other performance analyzers are disabled prior to running any of these tools. For third-party graphics, consult the vendor's website.
• Graphics Performance Analyzers do not support use of Remote Desktop Connection.
• Graphics Frame Analyzer runs best on systems with a minimum of 4GB of physical memory. Additionally, consider running the Graphics Frame Analyzer in a networked configuration (the server is your target graphics device, and the client running the Graphics Frame Analyzer is a 64-bit OS with at least 4GB of memory).
• On 64-bit operating systems with less than 4GB of memory, warning messages, parse errors, very long load times, or other issues may occur when loading a large or complex frame capture file.

Analyzing Android* Workloads

• Graphics Frame Analyzer does not currently support viewing all OpenGL ES* 3.0 texture formats.
• Graphics Performance Analyzers provide limited support for analyzing browser workloads on Android*. You can view metrics in the System Analyzer, but the tools do not support creating or viewing frame capture files or trace capture files for browser workloads. Attempting to create or view these files may result in incorrect results or program crashes.
• System Analyzer and Platform Analyzer are the only tools in the suite that is supported on Ubuntu* OS and OS X* systems. If you need the other tools (such as Graphics Frame Analyzer), you’ll need to install and run these tools on a Microsoft Windows client system.
• Graphics Performance Analyzers may fail to analyze OpenGL* multi-context games. 

Analyzing Windows* OS Workloads

• To ensure accurate measurements on platforms based on Intel® HD Graphics, be sure to profile your application in the full-screen mode. If windowed mode is required, make sure only your application is running. Graphics Performance Analyzers do not support profiling multiple applications simultaneously.
• For best results when analyzing frame or trace capture files on the same system where you run your game, follow these steps:
  • Run your game and capture a frame or trace file.
  • Shut down your game and other non-essential applications.
  • Launch the Graphics Performance Analyzers .
• To run Graphics Performance Analyzers on hybrid graphics solutions (a combination of Intel Processor Graphics and third-party discrete graphics), you must first disable one of the graphics solutions.
• Secure Boot, also known as Trusted Boot, is a new security feature in Windows* 8 enabled in BIOS settings which can cause unpredictable behavior when the "Auto-detect launched applications" option is enabled in Graphics Monitor Preferences. Disable Secure Boot in the BIOS to use the auto-detection feature for analyzing application performance with Graphics Performance Analyzers. The current version of the tools can now detect Secure Boot, and will warn you of this situation.
• To view the full metric set with the tools for Intel Processor Graphics on systems with one or more third-party graphics device(s) and platforms based on Intel® HD Graphics, ensure that Intel is the preferred graphics processor. You can set this in the Control Panel application for the third-party hardware. Applications running under Graphics Monitor and a third-party device show GPU metrics on DirectX* 9 as initialized to 0 and on DirectX* 10/11 as unavailable.
• When using the Graphics Performance Analyzers, be sure to disable the screen saver and power management features on the target system running the Graphics Monitor — the Screen Saver interferes with the quality of the metrics data being collected. In addition, if the target system is locked (which may happen when a Screen Saver starts), the connection from the analysis system to the target system will be terminated.
• Graphics Performance Analyzers do not support frame capture or analysis for:
  • applications that execute on the Debug D3D runtime system
  • applications that use the Reference D3D Device
• System Analyzer HUD may not operate properly when applications use copy-protection, anti-debugging mechanisms, or non-standard encrypted launching schemes.
• Graphics Performance Analyzers provide analysis functionality by inserting itself between your application and Microsoft DirectX*. Therefore, the tools may not work correctly with certain applications which themselves hook or intercept DirectX* APIs or interfaces.
• If you are linking against the dynamic version of Instrumentation and Tracing Technology (ITT) library while using an older version of Microsoft Visual Studio such as 2008 or 2005, you must have the following Microsoft Windows security hotfixes installed:
  • Visual Studio 2005: KB2538218
  • Visual Studio 2008: KB2538241

  If upgrading to a more recent Visual Studio version is not possible, and you are unable to update to use the following hotfixes, you must link against the static library (DirectTrace.lib and/or gpasdk_s.lib).

• Graphics Performance Analyzers do not support Windows* 8 OS Store Applications where the graphics API uses compositing techniques such as HTML5 or XAML interop.  Only traditional DirectX* rendering is supported.
• In some cases, the Overview tab in Graphics Frame Analyzer can present GPU Duration values higher than Frame Duration values measured during game run time. This could be a result of Graphics Frame Analyzer playing the captured frame back in off-screen mode which can be slower than on-screen rendering done in the game.

  To make playback run on-screen use this registry setting on the Target system: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Intel\GPA\14.4\ForceOnScreenPlaybackForRemoteFA = 1 and connect to the target with Graphics Frame Analyzer running on a separate host. If these requirements are met then the playback will run in off-screen mode on the target. If the frame was captured from the full-screen game, but playback renders it in a windowed mode, then try to press Alt+Enter on the target to switch playback to full-screen mode.

• Frame capture using Graphics Monitor runs best on 64-bit operating systems with a minimum of 4GB of physical memory.
  On 32-bit operating systems (or 64-bit operating systems with <4GB of memory), out of memory or capture failed messages can occur.

* Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.
** Disclaimer: Intel disclaims all liability regarding rooting of devices. Users should consult the applicable laws and regulations and proceed with caution. Rooting may or may not void any warranty applicable to your devices.