PIX 1909.23 – New timing capture features, performance improvements and bug fixes

Damyan PepperSeptember 23, 2019Sep 23, 201909/23/19

Today we released PIX 1909.23* which can be downloaded here. This release contains new timing capture features, support for programmatic captures in pixtool, performance improvements and many bug fixes.
* 1909.23 is the new name for 1909.13.  Sorry for any confusion.

PIX 1908.16 – Shader debugging fixes

Damyan PepperAugust 22, 2019Aug 22, 201908/22/19

Today we released PIX 1908.16 which can be downloaded here. This is a servicing release that fixes a couple of issues that causes PIX to crash when inspecting or debugging shaders, otherwise it is identical to PIX 1908.02.

PIX CPU Tools: Introduction to New Timing Captures Videos

Steven PratschnerAugust 21, 2019Aug 21, 201908/21/19

We’ve recently posted a series of 4 new videos to the PIX for Windows YouTube channel.  These videos provide an overview of the features in New Timing Captures.

Part 1 describes the improvements we’ve made to capture duration, capture open times and to the timeline itself.

Windows 10 Servicing Release KB4505903 required for instrumented CPU captures

Steven PratschnerAugust 5, 2019Aug 5, 201908/5/19

If you’re running the 1903 build of Windows 10 (the Spring 2019) update, you must have KB4505903 installed to take Function Summary, Callgraph, and Tracked Functions captures.  Without this update, your title will hang when taking one of these captures.
To check whether you have this update,

PIX 1908.02 – Fixes for customer issues, plus DXR and New Timing Capture improvements

Austin KinrossAugust 5, 2019Aug 5, 201908/5/19

Today we released PIX 1908.02, which can be downloaded here. This release fixes miscellaneous bugs that were reported to us by customers. It also adds new CPU features to New Timing Captures, and adds some final touches to the new DirectX Raytracing (DXR) Pipeline View in GPU Captures.

GPU timing data in New Timing Captures

Cooper PartinJuly 11, 2019Jul 11, 201907/11/19

GPU timing data was added to the New Timing Captures preview feature in the PIX 1906.14 release.  This allows developers to view GPU work submission and execution, including async compute.
Getting Started
The application should be launched with the following GPU timings checkbox checked in the options to enable timing data collection.

PIX 1906.26 – Minor update fixes PIX on Insider Preview builds of Windows

Damyan PepperJune 28, 2019Jun 28, 201906/28/19

Today we released PIX 1906.26, available for download here. This release makes PIX compatible with the latest Insider Preview builds of Windows.
Highlights

PIX now works on latest Inside Preview builds of Windows.
PIX no longer pops up an error message when trying to use a plugin with an unsupported GPU configuration (eg SLI).

PIX 1906.14 – GPU Timing in New Timing Captures

Stephen HitchcockJune 17, 2019Jun 17, 201906/17/19

Today we released PIX 1906.14, available for download here.  This release adds GPU timings to the New Timing Capture preview and further improvements to DXIL shader debugging.
Highlights

New Timing Capture Improvements

Support for GPU timing data (see below)
Many other usability improvements,

PIX CPU Tools: Finding and Analyzing Context Switches

Steven PratschnerJune 3, 2019Jun 3, 201906/3/19

A context switch occurs when a CPU core switches from executing code on one thread, to executing code on a different thread, or going to idle.  When the OS switches the thread that is running on a CPU, it must save and restore state both for the thread that is being switched out,

PIX CPU Tools: Populating the Range Details view

Steven PratschnerMay 21, 2019May 21, 201905/21/19

The most common way to populate the Range Details view in the new implementation of PIX Timing Captures is to drag select a range of time in the Timeline using the mouse.  When you complete your selection, Range Details is populated with the data from all Thread and Core lanes for the range of time you selected.