Essential Silverlight 3

12. GPU Acceleration

MOST COMPUTERS HAVE a modern graphics processing unit (GPU) that can render graphics faster than a CPU. In Silverlight 3, you have the option of using the GPU to improve the performance of transform operations, opacity fades, scrolling, and clip operations. For example, full-screen video runs significantly faster if you use the GPU to stretch the video.

If you use the Silverlight GPU features incorrectly, you can cause excessive use of system resources and severe performance degradations. It is important that you learn how to use these features optimally to get the most performance benefit.

This chapter describes the following:

• The Silverlight GPU acceleration principles

• How you can properly use GPU acceleration in your ...