Optimizing Graphics-rich Web Content

You can use Intel® Graphics Performance Analyzers (Intel® GPA) to analyze CPU and GPU workloads that are enabled by the Microsoft* Internet Explorer* 9, Mozilla* Firefox* 4.0 (and later), and Google* Chrome* 12.0 (and later) browsers.

A key feature of these browsers is the support of hardware-accelerated graphics for content rendering, page composition, and desktop composition. Use Intel® GPA tools for developing graphics-rich web content and for optimizing it for your users.

Getting Started with the Microsoft* Internet Explorer* 9

  1. To enable Intel GPA profiling for the Internet Explorer* browser, you should use the browser registry setting to force all your tabs to open under the same iexplore.exe process:
    • Open the Microsoft Windows Registry for your system with a registry editor tool such as regedit.exe.
    • In the directory HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMain set the relative value TabProcGrowth=0 (string or word) to specify that tabs and frames run within the same process and that frames are not unified across MIC levels.
  2. Install Intel GPA.
  3. Launch the Intel® GPA Monitor.
  4. Click the Intel GPA Monitor icon in the taskbar notification area and select Profiles… > HUD Options tab > set Default HUD Mode to FPS+Graphics.
  5. Double-click the Intel GPA Monitor icon in the taskbar notification area, or click it and select Analyze Application….
  6. In the Command Line field, enter the path to the browser (for example, C:Program FilesInternet Exploreriexplore.exe ).
  7. Click Run.
  8. Navigate to the fish demo at http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/Performance/FishIETank/Default.html.
  9. You should see the Intel® GPA System Analyzer HUD on the left hand side showing the current FPS and GPU metrics. You can change these GPU metrics using the Preferences dialog box mentioned above.
  10. To take a frame capture, press the default Ctrl+Shift+C keyboard-shortcut combination. You will see an indicator that the capture was completed.

You can then shutdown the Internet Explorer* browser and launch the Intel® GPA Frame Analyzer from the Start menu to open and view the frame capture file.

Using Intel GPA with Mozilla* Firefox* 4 and Google* Chrome* 12 is similar to the method described for the Microsoft* Internet Explorer* 9 browser. Read further for browsers’ support information.

Google* Chrome* Support

Intel® GPA supports the Google* Chrome* browser version 12.0 (and later). See  http://www.google.com/chrome for information on the latest Google* Chrome* releases.

  1. Open Google* Chrome* options by typing “chrome://flags” in the address bar and enable “GPU compositing on all pages” and “GPU Accelerated Canvas 2D” to enable GPU rendering.
  2. To use Intel GPA with Google* Chrome* you must use the –no-sandbox command-line option when starting the browser. Without this option you may see various problems with Google* Chrome* and/or Intel® GPA System Analyzer HUD. Here is a sample command line for starting the browser:

chrome.exe –no-sandbox  http://webglsamples.googlecode.com/hg/aquarium/aquarium.html

Mozilla* Firefox* Support

Intel® GPA supports the Mozilla* Firefox* browser version 4.0 (and later). Mozilla* Firefox* works out of the box, but randomly moves the D3D device around to different canvas areas. In order to see the Intel® GPA System Analyzer HUD, you may need to press the default Ctrl+F5 keyboard-shortcut combination several times to select the correct D3D device for Intel GPA.

See Also

Launching an Application
Intel® GPA Supported Browsers

Optimizing Graphics-rich Web Content