Fine-grain gpu power management and scheduling for virtual reality applications

Abstract

Systems, apparatuses, and methods for implementing fine-grain power management for virtual reality (VR) systems are disclosed. A VR compositor monitors workload tasks while rendering and displaying content of a VR application. The VR compositor determines the priorities of different tasks of a given VR frame and cause power states to be assigned to processing units to match the priorities of the tasks being performed. For example, if a first task within a first frame period is assigned a high priority, a processing unit executing the task operates at a relatively high power performance state when performing the first task. If a second task within the first frame period is assigned a low priority, the processing unit operates at a relatively low power performance state when performing the second task. By implementing fine-grain power management in a VR environment, the likelihood of the processing unit suffering a thermal event or impaired performance is reduced.