Understanding nvidia-smi and lspci | grep -i nvidia Output

To understand the output of nvidia-smi and lspci | grep -i nvidia, it’s essential to know what these commands do and how their outputs provide insights into the NVIDIA GPU and its status on your system.

nvidia-smi

nvidia-smi (NVIDIA System Management Interface) is a command-line utility that provides monitoring and management capabilities for NVIDIA GPU devices. It is commonly used to check GPU utilization, memory usage, temperature, and other parameters. Here’s a breakdown of typical output fields:

1. GPU: Identifier for the GPU. If multiple GPUs are present, they will be listed as GPU 0, GPU 1, etc.
2. Name: The model name of the GPU.
3. Persistence-M: Indicates whether Persistence Mode is enabled, which keeps the GPU driver loaded even when no processes are using the GPU.
4. Bus-Id: The PCI bus ID of the GPU, useful for identifying which physical slot the GPU is using.
5. Disp.A: Display active status.
6. Temp: The temperature of the GPU in degrees Celsius.
7. Pwr:Usage/Cap: Power usage and power cap in watts.
8. Memory-Usage: Indicates the memory usage out of the total available GPU memory.
9. Volatile Uncorr. ECC: Number of volatile uncorrectable ECC errors.
10. Compute M.: Compute mode (default, exclusive process, etc.).
11. Processes: Lists the processes using the GPU and their memory usage.

Sample Output of nvidia-smi:

Wed Jun 19 12:34:56 2024
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 460.32.03    Driver Version: 460.32.03    CUDA Version: 11.2     |
|-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name        Persistence-M| Bus-Id        Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp  Perf  Pwr:Usage/Cap|         Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                               |                      |               MIG M. |
|===============================+======================+======================|
|   0  GeForce RTX 3080    Off  | 00000000:01:00.0 Off |                  N/A |
| 30%   50C    P2    70W / 320W |    100MiB / 10240MiB |     0%      Default  |
|                               |                      |                  N/A |
+-------------------------------+----------------------+----------------------+
| Processes:                                                       GPU Memory |
|  GPU       PID   Type   Process name                             Usage      |
|=============================================================================|
|    0      1234      C   python                                       95MiB |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Interpretation:

• Driver Version and CUDA Version: These indicate the installed driver and CUDA versions.
• GPU: Identifier and model name of the GPU.
• Persistence-M: Shows if persistence mode is enabled or disabled.
• Bus-Id: PCI bus identifier, used for pinpointing the physical slot.
• Temp: Current temperature of the GPU.
• Pwr:Usage/Cap: Current power usage and the maximum power capacity.
• Memory-Usage: Amount of memory currently used out of the total available.
• GPU-Util: Percentage of GPU utilization.
• Processes: Lists processes using the GPU along with their memory usage.

lspci | grep -i nvidia

lspci is a utility that lists all PCI devices. Using grep -i nvidia filters the list to show only entries related to NVIDIA. This command helps identify the NVIDIA GPU(s) present in the system by listing their PCI identifiers and device descriptions.

Sample Output of lspci | grep -i nvidia:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GA102 [GeForce RTX 3080] (rev a1)
01:00.1 Audio device: NVIDIA Corporation GA102 High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)

Interpretation:

• 01:00.0: PCI bus address, indicating the physical location of the device on the motherboard.
• VGA compatible controller: Indicates this is the GPU.
• NVIDIA Corporation GA102 [GeForce RTX 3080]: Model name and code of the GPU.
• (rev a1): Revision version of the hardware.
• 01:00.1: Separate listing for the audio component of the GPU, showing that the NVIDIA card also has an audio controller.

Combining Information:

By analyzing both outputs together, you can:

• Identify the physical location and model of the NVIDIA GPU(s) installed in your system.
• Check the current operational status, utilization, and configuration of the GPU(s).
• Determine if there are any performance or configuration issues that need addressing (like high temperatures, high memory usage, or unrecognized devices).

Conclusion

nvidia-smi and lspci | grep -i nvidia are the most essential tools that monitor and manage the capabilities of GPU devices on the best GPU dedicated server. nvidia-smi provides real-time monitoring and management capabilities. The lspci | grep -i command identifies the NVIDIA GPUs present in the system by listing their PCI identifiers and device descriptions. Together, they check the GPU utilization, configuration, and troubleshooting that are essential for administrators and developers working with NVIDIA GPUs

If you have specific output that you want to interpret further, feel free to share it!