Graphics Programming Black Book
Graphics Programming Black Book by Michael Abrashby Michael Abrash
Shares rank 30 of 115 programming books by recommenders
People recommend it for its hands-on optimization content about 486 and Pentium processors and for how engagingly it is written, still readable today.
People recommend it for its hands-on optimization content about 486 and Pentium processors and for how engagingly it is written, still readable today.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Engaging, novel-like writing style
“the writing style itself was engaging and gripping like a novel”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “I love software rendering” “still a wonderfully readable book today”
Comment from 7 Aug 2026 in “Quake – 30th Anniversary Update”
Other programming books people recommend
The four most recommended other programming books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crafting Interpretersby Robert Nystrom | 60 | 4 | 94% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Clean Codeby Robert C. Martin | 31 | 87 | 26% | 9 | — | — |
| The Pragmatic Programmerby Hunt and Thomas | 28 | 1 | 97% | 7 | — | Approved |
| How to Design Programsby Felleisen, Findler, Flatt and Krishnamurthi | 18 | 2 | 90% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Graphics Programming Black Bookby Michael AbrashThis page | 6 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The black book has a number of them”
“the writing style itself was engaging and gripping like a novel”
“it's still a very fun read about thinking through the process of optimization”
“still one of my all time favourite. What they did back then was almost black magic.”
“still a wonderfully readable book today”
“its genius content about hand-optimizing cycle count on 486 and Pentium processors”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.