DirectX-Specs

D3D12 Increased 1D Dispatch Dimensions

This document specifies a new D3D12 feature that relaxes the maximum 1D dispatch size for compute shaders, allowing hardware to expose larger X-dimension dispatch capabilities beyond the traditional 65,535 thread group limit.

Version 1.1

Contents

Introduction

Modern GPU architectures can support significantly larger dispatch dimensions than the D3D12 specification’s current maximum of 65,535 thread groups per dimension (as defined by D3D12_CS_DISPATCH_MAX_THREAD_GROUPS_PER_DIMENSION). This limitation constrains workloads that would benefit from expressing large 1D parallelism directly, forcing developers to implement workarounds using multi-dimensional dispatches or multiple dispatch calls.

This feature allows hardware to expose increased maximum dispatch dimensions specifically for 1D dispatches, where the X dimension can exceed the traditional limit while Y and Z dimensions remain 1. Separate limits are provided for Compute Shader dispatches and Mesh Shader dispatches.

Overall Design

The Increased 1D Dispatch Dimensions feature introduces a device capability query that returns the maximum supported X dimension for 1D dispatches. Key design principles:

  1. Capability Query: Applications query Max1DDispatchSize and Max1DDispatchMeshSize to determine the maximum X dimension supported by the device
  2. 1D Dispatch Restriction: The increased limit applies only when Y = 1 and Z = 1
  3. Guaranteed Minimum: All devices must support at least the original limit of 65,535
  4. Validation: Runtime validates that dispatches exceeding 65,535 in X have Y = 1 and Z = 1
  5. Compatibility: Existing dispatches within traditional limits work unchanged

API

D3D12_FEATURE

Add new feature enumeration value for querying increased dispatch dimensions:

typedef enum D3D12_FEATURE
{
    // ... existing values ...
    D3D12_FEATURE_D3D12_OPTIONS25 = 68,
} D3D12_FEATURE;

D3D12_FEATURE_DATA_D3D12_OPTIONS25

New feature data structure containing the maximum 1D dispatch dimension:

typedef struct D3D12_FEATURE_DATA_D3D12_OPTIONS25
{
    UINT Max1DDispatchSize;
    UINT Max1DDispatchMeshSize;
} D3D12_FEATURE_DATA_D3D12_OPTIONS25;

Members:

Capability Query

Applications query for the maximum 1D dispatch size using the standard CheckFeatureSupport API:

D3D12_FEATURE_DATA_D3D12_OPTIONS25 options = {};
HRESULT hr = device->CheckFeatureSupport(
    D3D12_FEATURE_D3D12_OPTIONS25,
    &options,
    sizeof(options));

if (SUCCEEDED(hr))
{
    printf("Maximum 1D dispatch size (Compute): %u thread groups\n", 
           options.Max1DDispatchSize);
    printf("Maximum 1D dispatch size (Mesh): %u thread groups\n", 
           options.Max1DDispatchMeshSize);
    
    if (options.Max1DDispatchSize > D3D12_CS_DISPATCH_MAX_THREAD_GROUPS_PER_DIMENSION)
    {
        // Device supports increased 1D dispatch dimensions for Compute
    }
    if (options.Max1DDispatchMeshSize > D3D12_CS_DISPATCH_MAX_THREAD_GROUPS_PER_DIMENSION)
    {
        // Device supports increased 1D dispatch dimensions for Mesh
    }
}

Guaranteed Minimum:

All D3D12 devices must report:

Maximum Constraints:

Runtime Behavior

Dispatch Validation

The D3D12 debug layer performs the following checks for compute dispatches (see the Runtime enforcement note below for how violations are handled):

For Direct Compute Dispatches (Dispatch) and Dispatch Graph (CPU_INPUT):

For Mesh Shader Dispatches (DispatchMesh):

Runtime enforcement

The runtime does not drop, clamp, or otherwise modify an oversized dispatch. When the conditions above are not met, the debug layer reports an error, but the dispatch is still passed to the driver unchanged — issuing a debug-layer error does not, by itself, alter runtime behaviour. This is intentional: dropping the dispatch would be a compatibility risk for existing applications.

In addition, when a command list is recorded through the runtime-bypass path, the debug layer validation above does not run at all, so no error is produced and the driver receives the dispatch regardless. Drivers must therefore not rely on the runtime to reject dispatches that exceed the reported Max1DDispatchSize / Max1DDispatchMeshSize — validating and correctly handling such dispatches is the driver’s responsibility.

Backwards Compatibility

When queried on an existing driver which doesn’t support OPTIONS25 the D3D runtime will automatically return 65535 for both Max1DDispatchSize and Max1DDispatchMeshSize as defined by D3D12_CS_DISPATCH_MAX_THREAD_GROUPS_PER_DIMENSION

DDI

DDI Capability Structure

The DDI exposes the new capability field to drivers:

typedef struct D3D12DDI_D3D12_OPTIONS_DATA_0XXX
{
    // ... existing fields ...
    
    UINT Max1DDispatchSize;
    UINT Max1DDispatchMeshSize;
} D3D12DDI_D3D12_OPTIONS_DATA_0XXX;

Driver Requirements

Capability Reporting:

Dispatch Handling:

Test Plan

Conformance Tests

  1. Capability Query:
    • Verify minimum values are met (>= 65,535 for both fields)
    • Validate fallback behavior for devices not supporting OPTIONS25
  2. Compute Dispatch Validation (Also Work Graphs with CPU Node Input):
    • Successful dispatch with X = 65,535, Y = 1, Z = 1 (baseline)
    • Successful dispatch with X = Max1DDispatchSize, Y = 1, Z = 1 (if supported)
    • The following each produce a debug-layer error (the dispatch is still executed, not dropped):
      • X > 65,535, Y > 1, Z = 1
      • X > 65,535, Y = 1, Z > 1
      • X > Max1DDispatchSize, Y = 1, Z = 1
      • (Work Graphs) X > D3D12_WORK_GRAPHS_DISPATCH_MAX_THREAD_GROUPS_PER_GRID, if Max1DDispatchSize greater
  3. Mesh Dispatch Validation:
    • Successful DispatchMesh with X = 65,535, Y = 1, Z = 1 (baseline)
    • Successful DispatchMesh with X = Max1DDispatchMeshSize, Y = 1, Z = 1 (if supported)
    • The following each produce a debug-layer error (the dispatch is still executed, not dropped):
      • X > 65,535, Y > 1, Z = 1
      • X > 65,535, Y = 1, Z > 1
      • X > Max1DDispatchMeshSize, Y = 1, Z = 1
  4. Indirect Dispatch:
    • Valid indirect dispatch arguments with extended X dimension for Compute
    • Valid indirect dispatch arguments with extended X dimension for Mesh
    • Invalid indirect dispatch arguments with Y or Z > 1 for both dispatch types

    • Multiple indirect dispatches with varying dimensions

Change Log

Version Date Description
1.0 November 2025 Initial specification for increased 1D dispatch dimensions
1.1 July 2026 Clarified runtime enforcement: oversized 1D dispatches produce a debug-layer error but are still passed to the driver unchanged (not dropped); noted that the runtime-bypass path skips this validation entirely
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