1. An apparatus to manage a graphics processing unit (GPU) pipeline comprising: a graphics processing unit (GPU) interconnect to receive a compiled shader; and a shader patcher to determine whether one or more portions of the compiled shader can be patched, to generate one or more patched portions based on an optimization goal, and to replace the one or more portions of the compiled shader with the one or more patched portions based on the determination that the one or more portions of the shader can be patched.