mad function

Performs an arithmetic multiply/add operation on three values.

Syntax

numeric mad(
  in numeric mvalue,
  in numeric avalue,
  in numeric bvalue
);

Parameters

mvalue [in]

Type: numeric

The multiplication value.

avalue [in]

Type: numeric

The first addition value.

bvalue [in]

Type: numeric

The second addition value.

Return value

Type: numeric

The result of mvalue * avalue + bvalue.

Remarks

Minimum Shader Model

This function is supported in the following shader models.

Shader Model	Supported
Shader Model 5 and higher shader models	yes

 

This function is supported in the following types of shaders:

Vertex	Hull	Domain	Geometry	Pixel	Compute
x	x	x	x	x	x

 

Shader authors can use the mad instrinsic to explicitly target the mad hardware instruction in the compiled shader output, which is particularly useful with shaders that mark results with the precise keyword. The mad instruction can be implemented in hardware as either "fused," which offers higher precision than implementing a mul instruction followed by an add instruction, or as a mul + add.

If shader authors use the mad instrinsic to calculate a result that the shader marked as precise, they indicate to the hardware to use any valid implementation of the mad instruction (fused or not) as long as the implementation is consistent for all uses of that mad intrinsic in any shader on that hardware. Shaders can then take advantage of potential performance improvements by using a native mad instruction (versus mul + add) on some hardware. The result of performing a native mad hardware instruction might or might not be different than performing a mul followed by an add. However, whatever the result is, the result must be consistent for the same operation to occur in multiple shaders or different parts of a shader.

See also

Intrinsic Functions

Shader Model 5