nvidia-smi
command-line utility for monitoring and managing NVIDIA GPU devices
TLDR
Show GPU status
SYNOPSIS
nvidia-smi [options]
DESCRIPTION
nvidia-smi (NVIDIA System Management Interface) is a command-line utility for monitoring and managing NVIDIA GPU devices. It provides information about GPU utilization, memory usage, temperature, power consumption, and running processes.
The tool can display real-time statistics, query specific GPU attributes, configure power and clock settings, and manage compute processes. It's essential for GPU monitoring in machine learning, rendering, and scientific computing environments.
nvidia-smi is included with the NVIDIA driver package and works with Tesla, Quadro, and GeForce GPUs (feature availability varies).
PARAMETERS
-l sec, --loop= sec
Continuously update every sec seconds.-i id
Target specific GPU by index.-q, --query
Display detailed information.-d type
Display specific info type (MEMORY, UTILIZATION, TEMPERATURE, POWER, CLOCK).--query-gpu= attrs
Query specific attributes.--format= format
Output format (csv, noheader, nounits).-pm mode
Set persistence mode (0 or 1).-pl watts
Set power limit.-r, --gpu-reset
Reset GPU.pmon
Process monitoring mode.topo
Show GPU topology.nvlink
Show NVLink status.
QUERY ATTRIBUTES
name: GPU name
memory.total: Total memory
memory.used: Used memory
memory.free: Free memory
utilization.gpu: GPU utilization %
utilization.memory: Memory utilization %
temperature.gpu: GPU temperature
power.draw: Power consumption
CAVEATS
Requires NVIDIA proprietary drivers. Some features limited on consumer GPUs. Power management requires root. Persistence mode recommended for servers to avoid initialization delays.
HISTORY
nvidia-smi has been part of the NVIDIA driver package since the early 2000s. It evolved alongside NVIDIA's GPU computing platforms (CUDA), gaining features for monitoring compute workloads. The tool became essential with the rise of GPU computing for machine learning and scientific applications.
SEE ALSO
nvtop(1), gpustat(1), nvidia-settings(1)