The AMD GPU Services (AGS) library provides software developers with the ability to query AMD GPU software and hardware state information that is not normally available through standard operating systems or graphic APIs. Version 3.1 of the library includes support for querying graphics driver version info, GPU performance, Crossfire™ (AMD's multi-GPU rendering technology) configuration info, and Eyefinity (AMD's multi-display rendering technology) configuration info. AGS also exposes the explicit Crossfire API, as well as additional functionality supported in the AMD DirectX 11 driver. In addition to the library itself, the AGS SDK includes several samples to demonstrate use of the library.

AGS now returns a lot more information from the GPU in addition to exposing the explicit Crossfire API and other extensions for DirectX 11. Highlights include the following:

• The initialization function can now return information about the GPU:
  • Whether the GPU is GCN or not
  • The adapter string and device id
  • The driver version is now rolled into this structure instead of a separate function call
  • Performance metrics such as the number of compute units and clock speeds
• New explicit Crossfire API
  • Provides the ability to control resource transfers between GPUs in Crossfire configuration in DirectX 11
  • Allows improved performance in multi-GPU configurations
• AGS provides access to some of the extensions available in the DirectX 11 driver:
  • Quad List primitive type
  • UAV overlap
  • Depth bounds test
  • Multi-draw indirect

• AMD Radeon™ GCN-based GPU (HD 7000 series or newer)
• 64-bit Windows® 7 (SP1 with the Platform Update), Windows® 8.1, or Windows® 10
• Visual Studio® 2012, Visual Studio® 2013, or Visual Studio® 2015

• It is recommended to take a look at the sample source code.
  • There are three samples: ags_sample, crossfire_sample, and eyefinity_sample.
• Visual Studio projects for VS2012, VS2013, and VS2015 can be found in each sample's build directory.
• Additional documentation, including API documentation and instructions on how to add AGS support to an existing project, can be found in the ags_lib\doc directory.

The Visual Studio projects in each sample's build directory were generated with Premake. To generate the project files yourself (for another version of Visual Studio, for example), open a command prompt in the sample's premake directory (where the premake5.lua script for that sample is located, not the top-level directory where the premake5 executable is located) and execute the following command:

• ..\..\premake\premake5.exe [action]
• For example: ..\..\premake\premake5.exe vs2010

Alternatively, to regenerate all Visual Studio files for the SDK, execute ags_update_vs_files.bat in the top-level premake directory.

This version of Premake has been modified from the stock version to use the property sheet technique for the Windows SDK from this Visual C++ Team blog post. The technique was originally described for using the Windows 8.0 SDK with Visual Studio 2010, but it applies more generally to using newer versions of the Windows SDK with older versions of Visual Studio.

The default SDK for a particular version of Visual Studio (for 2012 or higher) is installed as part of Visual Studio installation. This default (Windows 8.0 SDK for Visual Studio 2012 and Windows 8.1 SDK for Visual Studio 2013) will be used if newer SDKs do not exist on the user's machine. However, the projects generated with this version of Premake will use the next higher SDK (Windows 8.1 SDK for Visual Studio 2012 and Windows 10 SDK with Visual Studio 2013), if the newer SDKs exist on the user's machine.

For Visual Studio 2015, this version of Premake adds the WindowsTargetPlatformVersion element to the project file to specify which version of the Windows SDK will be used. To change WindowsTargetPlatformVersion for Visual Studio 2015, change the value for _AMD_WIN_SDK_VERSION in premake\amd_premake_util.lua and regenerate the Visual Studio files.

• DXUT is distributed under the terms of the MIT License. See eyefinity_sample\dxut\MIT.txt.
• Premake is distributed under the terms of the BSD License. See premake\LICENSE.txt.

• AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, Radeon, Crossfire, and combinations thereof are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.
• Microsoft, DirectX, Visual Studio, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.