System and method for dynamically load balancing multiple shader stages in a shared pool of processing units

Abstract

The present disclosure is directed to novel methods and apparatus for managing or performing the dynamic allocation or reallocation of processing resources among a vertex shader, a geometry shader, and pixel shader of a graphics processing unit. In one embodiment a method for graphics processing comprises assigning at least one execution unit to each of a plurality of shader units, the plurality of shader units comprising a vertex shader, a geometry shader, and a pixel shader, wherein an execution unit assigned to a given shader unit performs processing tasks for only that shader unit, determining that one of the plurality of shader units is bottlenecked, and reassigning at least one execution unit from a non-bottlenecked shader unit to the shader unit determined to be bottlenecked.