GPU Usage in Ubuntu

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are used in Ubuntu for much more than rendering graphics on a desktop. They can accelerate scientific simulations, machine learning, image processing, video encoding, and general-purpose mathematical calculations. Different software interfaces provide access to GPU hardware: CUDA is widely used for general-purpose computing on NVIDIA GPUs, while OpenGL is primarily designed for graphics rendering. Other technologies, including Vulkan, OpenCL, and HIP, support graphics or computational workloads across different hardware platforms.

Monitoring GPU usage can help identify which processes are using the GPU, how much video memory (VRAM) they consume, and whether the hardware is operating under heavy load. The available monitoring tools depend on the GPU manufacturer, driver, and software interface. For example, NVIDIA provides tools such as nvidia-smi, while AMD GPUs on Linux can expose information through the kernel's amdgpu driver and related utilities. This section covers GPU monitoring and related tools for Ubuntu, including methods for investigating GPU memory usage and computational activity.

Published: 2026-10-18 18:17:16