This new shader combines the functions of vertex and geometry shader and, as AMD told it to me, “with the right knowledge” you can discard game based primitives at an incredible rate. This right knowledge though is the crucial component – it is something that has to be coded for directly and isn’t something that AMD or Vega will be able to do behind the scenes. This primitive shader type could be implemented by developers by simply wrapping current vertex shader code that would speed up throughput (to that 2x rate) through recognition of the Vega 10 driver packages. Another way this could be utilized is with extensions to current APIs (Vulkan seems like an obvious choice) and the hope is that this kind of shader will be adopted and implemented officially by upcoming API revisions including the next DirectX. AMD views the primitive shader as the natural progression of the geometry engine and the end of standard vertex and geometry shaders. In the end, that will be the complication with this new feature (as well as others) – its benefit to consumers and game developers will be dependent on the integration and adoption rates from developers themselves.