Graphics with early stencil test

A graphics apparatus comprising:

• a coarse depth tester to perform a coarse depth test on a block of pixels;
• and
• a stencil tester communicatively coupled to the coarse depth tester to perform a stencil test on the block of pixels,
• wherein the stencil tester is further to determine if stencil data is fixed, and to retire a cache line corresponding to the fixed stencil data,
• wherein the coarse depth tester is further to identify an ambiguity in the coarse depth test, and wherein the stencil tester is further to defer the stencil test to a pre-shader depth tester for one or more pixels in the block of pixels based on the identified ambiguity, and
• wherein the ambiguity is based on inaccurate coarse depth data.

A method of testing a block of pixels, comprising:

• performing a coarse depth test on a block of pixels;
• performing a stencil test on the block of pixels;
• determining if stencil data is fixed;
• retiring a cache line corresponding to the fixed stencil data,
• identifying an ambiguity in the coarse depth test;
• and
• deferring the stencil test to a pre-shader depth tester for one or more pixels in the block of pixels based on the identified ambiguity,
• wherein the ambiguity is based on inaccurate coarse depth data.

At least one non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising a set of instructions, which when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

• perform a coarse depth test on a block of pixels;
• perform a stencil test on the block of pixels;
• determine if stencil data is fixed;
• retire a cache line corresponding to the fixed stencil data,
• identify an ambiguity in the coarse depth test;
• and
• defer the stencil test to a pre-shader depth tester for one or more pixels in the block of pixels based on the identified ambiguity,
• wherein the ambiguity is based on inaccurate coarse depth data.