Systems, methods, and devices for discarding inactive intermediate render targets

A graphics processing unit (GPU), comprising:

• a deferred-rendering graphics pipeline generates data that is associated with an intermediate render target;
• a cache hierarchy including one or more data caches;
• and
• a memory that stores a table containing an address in system memory of an intermediate render target, in the cache hierarchy of the GPU,
• wherein the cache hierarchy is responsive to an eviction event by obtaining the address of the inactive data of the intermediate render target from the table and discards the inactive data from the cache hierarchy without performing a writeback to the system memory associated with the GPU based on the address of the intermediate render target, in the system memory being contained in the table.

A method, comprising:

• generating data associated with an intermediate render target, the data being located within a cache hierarchy of a graphic processing unit (GPU);
• determining that the data associated with the intermediate render target has become inactive;
• communicating to the cache hierarchy an address in a system memory of the data associated with the intermediate render target;
• and
• discarding the data associated with the intermediate render target from the cache hierarchy without performing a writeback to the system memory associated with the GPU based on the address in system memory of the data associated with the intermediate render target.