A present invention pixel processing system and method permit complicated three dimensional images to be rendered with shallow graphics pipelines including reduced gate counts and also facilitates power conservation. Pixel packet information includes pixel surface attribute values are retrieved in a single unified data fetch stage. At a data fetch pipestage a determination may be made if the pixel packet information contributes to an image display presentation (e.g., a depth comparison of Z values is performed determine if the pixel is occluded). A pixel packet status indicator (e.g., a kill bit) is set in the sideband portion of a pixel packet and the pixel packet is forwarded for processing in accordance with the pixel packet status indicator. The status indicator is a kill bit is set to prevent logic components from clocking information for a payload portion of the pixel packet if the status indicator indicates the pixel packet payload does not contribute to the image display presentation while continuing to clock pixel packet sideband information.