The SQL Server 2019 query optimizer has a new trick available to improve the performance of large aggregations. The new exploration abilities are encoded in two new closely-related optimizer rules:
GbAggSplitToRangesSelOnGbAggSplitToRanges
The extended event query_optimizer_batch_mode_agg_split is provided to track when this new optimization is considered. The description of this event is:
Occurs when the query optimizer detects batch mode aggregation is likely to spill and tries to split it into multiple smaller aggregations.
Other than that, this new feature hasn’t been documented yet. This article is intended to help fill that gap.