GPUAdapter: requestDevice() method

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The requestDevice() method of the GPUAdapter interface returns a Promise that fulfills with a GPUDevice object, which is the primary interface for communicating with the GPU.

Syntax

requestDevice()
requestDevice(descriptor)

Parameters

• descriptor Optional
  • : An object containing the following properties:
    • defaultQueue Optional
      • : An object that provides information for the device’s default GPUQueue (as returned by queue). This object has a single property — label — which provides the default queue with a label value. If no value is provided, this defaults to an empty object, and the default queue’s label will be an empty string.
    • label Optional
      • : A string providing a label that can be used to identify the GPUDevice, for example in GPUError messages or console warnings.
    • requiredFeatures Optional
      • : An array of strings representing additional functionality that you want supported by the returned GPUDevice. The requestDevice() call will fail if the GPUAdapter cannot provide these features. See GPUSupportedFeatures for a full list of possible features. This defaults to an empty array if no value is provided.
    • requiredLimits Optional
      • : An object containing properties representing the limits that you want supported by the returned GPUDevice. The requestDevice() call will fail if the GPUAdapter cannot provide these limits. Each key with a non-undefined value must be the name of a member of GPUSupportedLimits.

        [!NOTE] You can request unknown limits when requesting a GPU device without causing an error. Such limits will be undefined. This is useful because it makes WebGPU code less brittle — a codebase won’t stop working because a limit no longer exists in the adapter.

Not all features and limits will be available to WebGPU in all browsers that support it, even if they are supported by the underlying hardware. See the features and limits pages for more information.

Return value

A Promise that fulfills with a GPUDevice object instance.

If you make a duplicate call, i.e., call requestDevice() on a GPUAdapter that requestDevice() was already called on, the promise rejects with an OperationError because the associated GPUAdapter is consumed when a GPUDevice is created.

Exceptions

• OperationError DOMException
  • : The promise rejects with an OperationError if either:
    • The limits included in the requiredLimits property are not supported by the GPUAdapter, either because they are not valid limits, or because their values are higher than the adapter’s values for those limits.
    • The GPUAdapter has been consumed by having requestDevice() called on it previously.
• TypeError DOMException
  • : The promise rejects with a TypeError if the features included in the requiredFeatures property are not supported by the GPUAdapter.

Examples

Basic example

async function init() {
  if (!navigator.gpu) {
    throw Error("WebGPU not supported.");
  }

  const adapter = await navigator.gpu.requestAdapter();
  if (!adapter) {
    throw Error("Couldn't request WebGPU adapter.");
  }

  const device = await adapter.requestDevice();

  // …
}

Requesting specific features and limits

In the following code we:

1. Check whether a GPUAdapter has the texture-compression-astc feature available. If so, we push it into the array of requiredFeatures.
2. Query the GPUAdapter.limits value of maxBindGroups to see if it is equal to or greater than 6. Our theoretical example app ideally needs 6 bind groups, so if the returned value is >= 6, we add a maximum limit of 6 to the requiredLimits object.
3. Request a device with those feature and limit requirements, plus a defaultQueue label.

async function init() {
  if (!navigator.gpu) {
    throw Error("WebGPU not supported.");
  }

  const adapter = await navigator.gpu.requestAdapter();
  if (!adapter) {
    throw Error("Couldn't request WebGPU adapter.");
  }

  const requiredFeatures = [];

  if (adapter.features.has("texture-compression-astc")) {
    requiredFeatures.push("texture-compression-astc");
  }

  const requiredLimits = {};

  // App ideally needs 6 bind groups, so we'll try to request what the app needs
  if (adapter.limits.maxBindGroups >= 6) {
    requiredLimits.maxBindGroups = 6;
  }

  const device = await adapter.requestDevice({
    defaultQueue: {
      label: "my_queue",
    },
    requiredFeatures,
    requiredLimits,
  });

  // …
}

Specifications

Browser compatibility

See also

• The WebGPU API