Abstract: A system and method for increasing rendering efficiency in pipelined graphics systems. In the disclosed embodiments, reads of pixel information during the rendering of a primitive are suspend if the pixel information has not been updated by a previous primitive. In some embodiments, reads of pixel information are also suspended periodically when a table tracking the information becomes full. In some embodiments a Read Monitor Unit 108 controlled by the graphics system's Memory Controller 106 is used to track pixels which have been affected by rendered primitives. In some embodiments, a history list is used to avoid suspension of reads for antialiased lines. In a particular embodiment, the table used to track affected pixels is two-bits, the first bit tracking whether the pixel has been touched by a primitive since the last SuspendReads command was invoked and the second bit tracking whether the pixel has been touched by the current primitive. Both bits are reset when a power on or SuspendReads command occurs.