Patent ID: 7420568

Claim:
A method of utilizing a tiled graphics memory in a graphics system, comprising: providing at least two different tile formats for storing pixel data in regions of a tiled memory, each tile format being structured for efficient access or storage of graphics data having selected attributes; and detecting via driver software that monitors graphics program execution whether a graphical surface is of a graphical surface type requiring stencil data based on the stencil data requirements of the graphical surface and in response selecting on a frame-by-frame basis a tile format to improve at least one of memory access efficiency and packing efficiency; for the detected graphical surface type being a first type of graphics surface not requiring stencil data, a memory controller packing z data for a plurality of pixels into a first tile format, said first tile format having a plurality of fields for z data but having no fields reserved for stencil data; and for the detected graphical surface type being a second type of graphics surface requiring stencil data, the memory controller packing z data and stencil data for a plurality of pixels into a second tile format having a plurality of fields for z data and associated stencil data wherein z data and stencil data are stored in different independently addressable portions of said second tile format; the memory controller storing data for said graphical surface in the selected tile format in a graphics memory; wherein the selecting on a frame-by-frame basis a tile format includes the driver software generating one or more control bits that are forwarded to the memory controller to select the tile format.