ABSTRACT
GPUs have continuously evolved. The evolution can be traced in terms of the shader models of Direct3D. A shader model corresponds to a particular GPU architecture with distinct capabilities. Shader Model 1 started with Direct3D 8 and included assembly level and C-like instructions. In 2002, Direct3D 9 was released with Shader Model 2. Since then Direct3D 9 has been updated, and Shader Model 3 was introduced in Direct3D 9.0c released in 2004. Shader Model 4 came with Direct3D 10 in late 2006. In 2008, Shader Model 5 was announced with Direct3D 11.
