Energy efficiency is becoming increasingly important in the areas of high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI). As reported on the NVIDIA Technology Blog, Alan Gray, Principal Developer Technology Engineer at NVIDIA, provides insight into how to optimize energy and power efficiency for applications leveraging NVIDIA’s latest technologies.
Balance between performance and energy consumption
Traditional approaches in computing have focused on maximizing performance by reducing execution time. But with rising energy costs and the growing environmental impact of data centers, developers are now prioritizing energy consumption in their strategies. Energy usage, which is the product of power and time, can be effectively managed by fine-tuning GPU settings and application configuration.
target audience
This initiative is especially useful for HPC and AI developers, data center operators, and GPU programmers looking to improve energy efficiency along with performance. It is also valuable to researchers leveraging applications such as GROMACS or AI inference models, and IT teams looking to reduce energy costs and environmental impact.
Key Areas of Focus
Gray’s session takes a closer look at several important areas for optimizing the energy and power efficiency of NVIDIA GPUs.
- Introduction to Energy Optimization: Discuss the balance between performance and energy efficiency in HPC and AI.
- GPU clock frequency tuning: Investigate the impact of clock frequency tuning on power consumption and runtime.
- Application Benchmarks: Shares insights from energy optimization for workloads such as GROMACS and TensorRT-LLM.
- Non-GPU Power Impact: Look at the energy consumption of CPU, memory, and cooling systems and strategies such as direct liquid cooling (DLC).
- Energy Efficiency of NVIDIA H100 and DGX A100: Analyzing energy saving potential and the impact of non-GPU components on total power consumption.
- Application-level optimization: Technology that optimizes performance and energy efficiency at the application level.
- Holistic Data Center Energy Strategy: A comprehensive approach to minimizing energy usage through hardware and software optimization.
Additional learning opportunities
For those interested in deeper insights, NVIDIA offers a high-level talk titled Energy and Power Efficiency in Applications on the Latest NVIDIA Technologies. Participants can also explore more extensive resources on NVIDIA On-Demand or join the NVIDIA Developer Program to gain additional skills and insights from industry experts.
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