A system and method for dividing three-dimensional patches into tasks for processing receives control points defining a three dimensional patch and determines if a number of vertices of the three dimensional patch is greater than a maximum value. When the number of vertices is not greater than the maximum value, the three dimensional patch is output as a single task. When the number of vertices is greater than the maximum value, the three dimensional patch is divided into multiple tasks that each include a number of vertices that is not greater than the maximum value and the multiple tasks are output.