Patent ID: 6967664

Claim:
A method for processing a primitive defined by at least one vertex in a graphics system, comprising: comparing the X coordinates for the at least one vertex with X clip values to determine an X clip code, wherein the X clip values correspond to the minimum and maximum X values for the display space scaled to include a horizontal discard clip guard band which is defined as lying within a trivial accept guard band; comparing the Y coordinates for the at least one vertex with Y clip values to determine a Y clip code, wherein the Y clip values correspond to the minimum and maximum Y values for the display space scaled to include a vertical discard clip guard band which is defined as lying within the trivial accept guard band; comparing the Z coordinates for the at least one vertex with Z clip values to determine a Z clip code, wherein the Z clip values correspond to minimum and maximum Z values for the display space; determining if the primitive can be discarded based on the X clip code, the Y clip code, and the Z clip code; when the primitive can be discarded, discarding the primitive; and when the primitive cannot be discarded, processing at least a portion of the primitive using a three-dimensional graphics pipeline.