With the DirectX 11 Tessellation GPU accelerated polygons are divided so that the developers can use more detailed models. Tessellation splits already existing triangles - almost every 3D model is made of triangles - up into smaller and finer pieces. An example is a barrel viewed from the top: A barrel is often made of a one-digit number of polygons and therefore it looks rather angled. If a game developer writes an appropriate shader program the DirectX 11 Tessellation makes the barrel almost look round as the graphics chip now adds triangles to the former basic object.

What seems to be easy with a simple barrel becomes a challenge with complex scenarios: Despite a high hardware capacity Tessellation requires a considerable amount of computing power. Therefore Tessellation is only used if it makes sense for the player: At silhouette edges and the close environment of the player's view.