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Monitor NVIDIA GPU Utilization on Ubuntu Using NVIDIA-SMI

This article explains how to monitor NVIDIA GPU utilization on Ubuntu using NVIDIA-SMI. First, ensure the GPU driver is installed and verify that `nvidia-smi` is available. Next, use the basic commands to check GPU status, view detailed information, and monitor in real time. Then, use the additional commands to list devices, query specific GPU details, and monitor utilization per second or per process. Finally, understanding the key metrics helps you assess GPU health and workload.

What is NVIDIA-SMI?

nvidia-smi (NVIDIA System Management Interface) is a command-line utility included with NVIDIA GPU drivers. It allows you to:

Monitor GPU usage and memory
Check temperature and power consumption
Track which processes are using the GPU
Manage GPU settings such as persistence mode

It comes pre-installed with the NVIDIA RTX driver and CUDA toolkit. There’s no separate installation needed if you install the official NVIDIA driver.

Installing NVIDIA-SMI

Make sure your GPU driver is installed. Example for Ubuntu 24 with RTX 4090:

sudo apt install -y nvidia-driver-535

Verify nvidia-smi is available:

nvidia-smi

Basic NVIDIA-SMI Commands

Check GPU status

nvidia-smi

Shows a summary of GPU usage, driver version, memory, and running processes.
2. Detailed information

nvidia-smi -a

Displays complete info about your GPU monitoring and CUDA monitoring, including temperature, power usage, and performance state.
3. Real-time monitoring

watch -n 1 -d nvidia-smi

Refreshes GPU stats every second for continuous monitoring.
4. List all NVIDIA devices

nvidia-smi -L

Example output:

GPU 0: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (UUID: GPU-fa3da260-9c42-828f-981a-f6d7b48d77b3)

Query specific GPU details

nvidia-smi --query-gpu=index,name,uuid,serial --format=csv

Monitor GPU utilization per second

nvidia-smi dmon

Columns include: GPU, Power, Temperature, SM (compute usage), Memory, Encoder/Decoder usage, and Clock speeds.
7. Monitor per-process GPU usage

nvidia-smi pmon

Shows GPU usage per running process, including PID, process type, SM%, memory%, encoder/decoder%, and command.

Understanding NVIDIA-SMI Metrics

Metric	Description
Temp	Core GPU temperature in °C. Normal operation is <90°C.
Perf	Performance state (P0 maximum – P12 minimum).
Persistence-M	“On” keeps the NVIDIA driver loaded for faster application startup.
Pwr: Usage/Cap	Current power consumption in Watts.
Bus-Id	PCI bus ID of GPU.
Disp.A	Display active flag; Off if no display attached.
Memory-Usage	GPU memory allocation; important for AI/ML workloads.
Volatile Uncorr. ECC	Error count of memory corruption since last driver load.
GPU-Util	Percent of GPU utilization over the sampling period.
Compute M.	GPU compute mode (shared or exclusive).
GPU	Index for multi-GPU systems.
PID / Process Name	Process ID and name using GPU.

Tips for Beginners

Run nvidia-smi frequently when training models to monitor memory and utilization.
Use watch -n 1 nvidia-smi for real-time observation.
If GPU temperature exceeds 90°C, check cooling or reduce load.
Check per-process usage with pmon to find resource-heavy applications.

Summary

nvidia-smi is the most reliable tool for monitoring NVIDIA GPUs on Ubuntu.

Comes pre-installed with drivers
Provides real-time GPU usage, memory, and temperature
Supports per-process monitoring and multi-GPU setups

Beginners can use this to track GPU health, optimize AI workloads on Linux GPU server, or debug performance issues.

Last Updated: 10/28/2026

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