SubgroupSize(3)

# SubgroupSize(3) Manual Page

## Name

SubgroupSize - Size of a subgroup

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## Description

`SubgroupSize`

  Decorating a variable with the `SubgroupSize` builtin decoration will make that variable contain the implementation-dependent number of invocations in a subgroup. This value must be a power-of-two integer.

  If the pipeline was created with the `VK_PIPELINE_SHADER_STAGE_CREATE_ALLOW_VARYING_SUBGROUP_SIZE_BIT` flag set, or the shader object was created with the `VK_SHADER_CREATE_ALLOW_VARYING_SUBGROUP_SIZE_BIT_EXT` flag set, or the SPIR-V `module` is at least version 1.6, the `SubgroupSize` decorated variable will contain the subgroup size for each subgroup that gets dispatched. This value must be between `minSubgroupSize` and `maxSubgroupSize` and must be uniform with subgroup scope. The value may vary across a single draw call, and for fragment shaders may vary across a single primitive. In compute dispatches, `SubgroupSize` must be uniform with command scope.

  If the pipeline was created with a chained VkPipelineShaderStageRequiredSubgroupSizeCreateInfo structure, or the shader object was created with a chained VkShaderRequiredSubgroupSizeCreateInfoEXT structure, the `SubgroupSize` decorated variable will match `requiredSubgroupSize`.

  If SPIR-V `module` is less than version 1.6 and the pipeline was not created with the `VK_PIPELINE_SHADER_STAGE_CREATE_ALLOW_VARYING_SUBGROUP_SIZE_BIT` flag set and no VkPipelineShaderStageRequiredSubgroupSizeCreateInfo structure was chained, and the shader was not created with the `VK_SHADER_CREATE_ALLOW_VARYING_SUBGROUP_SIZE_BIT_EXT` flag set and no VkShaderRequiredSubgroupSizeCreateInfoEXT structure was chained, the variable decorated with `SubgroupSize` will match `subgroupSize`.

  The maximum number of invocations that an implementation can support per subgroup is 128.

Note | The old behavior for `SubgroupSize` is considered deprecated as certain compute algorithms cannot be easily implemented without the guarantees of `VK_PIPELINE_SHADER_STAGE_CREATE_ALLOW_VARYING_SUBGROUP_SIZE_BIT` and `VK_PIPELINE_SHADER_STAGE_CREATE_REQUIRE_FULL_SUBGROUPS_BIT`.

Valid Usage

- VUID-SubgroupSize-SubgroupSize-04382
  The variable decorated with `SubgroupSize` must be declared using the `Input` `Storage` `Class`

- VUID-SubgroupSize-SubgroupSize-04383
  The variable decorated with `SubgroupSize` must be declared as a scalar 32-bit integer value

## See Also

No cross-references are available

## Document Notes

For more information, see the Vulkan Specification

This page is extracted from the Vulkan Specification. Fixes and changes should be made to the Specification, not directly.

## Copyright

Copyright 2014-2025 The Khronos Group Inc.

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0