AMD is exploring new approaches to rendering and animation processing for future GPU architectures. Recently, on the GPUOpen blog, the company detailed DGF (Dense Geometry Format) animation support, a technology that may be integrated at the hardware level on next-generation UDNA GPUs. For those interested in graphics and ray tracing performance, the advent of DGF signifies potential structural improvements in geometry processing and real-time rendering efficiency.

In a traditional rendering process, GPUs deal with complex triangular meshes that consume significant bandwidth and computing resources, especially during animation or ray tracing. DGF innovatively segments this large volume of geometric data into regular "chunks" and stores them in a format native to the GPU. This allows animations to be updated by quantizing and transforming local blocks frame-by-frame within compute shaders, thereby eliminating the need to continuously decompress and rebuild entire geometries. For the GPU, DGF blocks become directly recognizable and usable geometric units, substantially reducing costs associated with updates and access.

The ray tracing pipeline notably benefits from DGF. Current GPUs construct and maintain BVHs (Boundary Volume Hierarchies) during RT, a task that frequently acts as a performance bottleneck. DGF enables the GPU to generate or update BVHs directly from compressed blocks without consuming additional memory bandwidth. This doesn’t just shorten geometry preparation and update times, but also boosts RT calculation efficiency while reducing latency. AMD points out that while DGF currently operates on general-purpose compute shader units, moving it to hardware fixed-function modules in the future would further enhance speed and power efficiency.

Beyond ray tracing, DGF is advantageous for animation as well. The compressed geometry format allows more geometric data to be stored in the GPU's cache, reducing frequent memory reads and writes. For modern games and digital content creation, this means faster keyframe updates, smoother animation playback, and reduced latency. Especially in large-scale scenes or complex character animations, DGF can significantly lessen the GPU's load.

DGF isn't the only enhancement for UDNA GPUs, but it encapsulates AMD’s innovation in future graphics technology. It's a shift from merely adding more compute units or bandwidth towards architectural innovations that optimize how the GPU processes geometry and rendering data. Together with the previously disclosed 96, 40, 24, and 12 CU SKU configurations for RDNA 5/UDNA GPUs, it can be inferred that AMD plans to implement these foundational optimizations across various market segments, targeting everything from gaming and workstations to professional animation and rendering.

As ray tracing and real-time animation become more prevalent in gaming and film, minimizing resource overhead and boosting geometry processing efficiency are top priorities for GPU manufacturers. DGF's introduction and forthcoming hardware-level support underline AMD’s commitment to these goals. Though these concepts might seem abstract, they promise future products with faster rendering, higher frame rates, and more expressive visuals.