Graphics Memory Usage View

Use the Graphics Memory Usage view to display the private, shared, or total graphics memory usage of processes running on a device. The graph portion of the Graphics Memory Usage view shows the amount of graphics memory used by the processes, and, if selected, the total amount of graphics memory used at the time intervals selected for the GPU sampler in PI Profiler. A list of processes appears at the bottom of the view showing the private, shared and total memory usage for each process.

Data in the Graphics Memory Usage view is layered with the shared memory usage data overlaying the private memory usage data. Private memory usage is represented by light blue color, while shared memory usage is represented by light green. You can select to view either private or shared graphics memory usage, or both of them combined, by using the view options available in the Title bar drop-down menu, shown in Figure 1, or in the Investigator > Graphics Memory Graph Menu .

Figure 1. Graphics Memory Usage Title bar drop-down menu

According to the selection, the graph displays the following (Figure 2):

Additionally, a black line indicating the total graphics memory usage is available. The line is always displayed by default, but you can choose to hide or show the line by either right-clicking on the graph and selecting Show Total Graphics Memory Usage, or by selecting Investigator -> Graphics Memory Graph -> Show Total Graphics Memory Usage.

NOTE The difference between the cumulative (combined shared and private usage) and total memory consumption (provided by the internal API) is explained by the graphic acceleration system component itself: it cannot be tracked by the GPU sampler of PI Profiler and therefore it is not visible in the cumulative graph. In addition, if some graphics memory has been reserved bypassing the graphic accelerator, for example using ARM interfaces (e.g. camera application), the difference is even bigger.

You can also move the mouse pointer on top of the graph to see the amount of graphics memory used at that time as a tooltip, as shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2. Graphics Memory Usage graph and thread list

Description of table columns (Figure 2):

Columns may be reordered, resized, and sorted by clicking or dragging column headers.

Information on the graphics memory usage is also available in a separate Graphics Memory Usage Statistics dialog. You can open the dialog from the context menu by right-clicking on the Graphics Memory Usage graph and selecting Graphics Memory Usage Statistics; or by selecting Investigator -> Graphics Memory Graph -> Graphics Memory Usage Statistics.

Related references