Abstract: A method and apparatus provide for preserving hardware resources in connection with a display of complex scenes. Polygons which make up portions of the display can be culled prior to use of the hardware resources. An occlusion parameter for use in the culling operation can be determined in accordance with a monitoring of a plurality of tiles which constitute a display. In particular, a maximum depth value associated with a given tile can be utilized to indicate whether a subsequently received polygon or primitive would otherwise be occluded and should therefore be discarded or ignored rather than rasterized.