18.5.4 Balancing Polygon Size and Pixel Operations

The optimum size of polygons depends on the other operations going on in the pipeline:

• If the polygons are too large for the fill-rate to keep up with the rest of the pipeline, the application is fill-rate limited. Smaller polygons balance the pipeline and increase the polygon rate, allowing finer looking details and better lighting without changing the overall time to draw the object.

• If the polygons are too small for the rest of the pipeline to keep up with filling, then the application is transform limited. Larger and fewer polygons, or fewer vertices, balance the pipeline and increase the fill rate allowing the object to be drawn faster.