CUDA Trace

Nsight Systems is capable of capturing information about CUDA execution in the profiled process.

The following information can be collected and presented on the timeline in the report:

Linux only:

CUDA thread rows

Near the bottom of the timeline row tree, the GPU node will appear and contain a CUDA node. Within the CUDA node, each CUDA context used within the process will be shown along with its corresponding CUDA streams. Steams will contain memory operations and kernel launches on the GPU. Kernel launches are represented by blue, while memory transfers are displayed in red.

CUDA GPU rows

The easiest way to capture CUDA information is to launch the process from Nsight Systems, and it will setup the environment for you. To do so, simply set up a normal launch and select the Collect CUDA trace checkbox.

Configure CUDA trace

Additional configuration parameters are available:

Please note that if your application crashes before all collected CUDA trace data has been copied out, some or all data might be lost and not present in the report.

Unified Memory Transfer Trace

Unified Memory (also called Managed Memory) transfer trace is enabled automatically in Nsight Systems when CUDA trace is selected. It incurs no overhead in programs that do not perform any Unified Memory transfers. Data is displayed in the Managed Memory area of the timeline:

UVM trace

HtoD transfer indicates the CUDA kernel accessed managed memory that was residing on the host, so the kernel execution paused and transferred the data to the device. Heavy traffic here will incur performance penalties in CUDA kernels, so consider using manual cudaMemcpy operations from pinned host memory instead.

PtoP transfer indicates the CUDA kernel accessed managed memory that was residing on a different device, so the kernel execution paused and transferred the data to this device. Heavy traffic here will incur performance penalties, so consider using manual cudaMemcpyPeer operations to transfer from other devices' memory instead. The row showing these events is for the destination device -- the source device is shown in the tooltip for each transfer event.

DtoH transfer indicates the CPU accessed managed memory that was residing on a CUDA device, so the CPU execution paused and transferred the data to system memory. Heavy traffic here will incur performance penalties in CPU code, so consider using manual cudaMemcpy operations from pinned host memory instead.

CUDA Trace Filters

By default, the CUDA and cuDNN tracing is limited to a select list of functions.

CUDA Runtime API

cudaBindSurfaceToArray
cudaBindTexture
cudaBindTexture2D
cudaBindTextureToArray
cudaBindTextureToMipmappedArray
cudaConfigureCall
cudaCreateSurfaceObject
cudaCreateTextureObject
cudaD3D10MapResources
cudaD3D10RegisterResource
cudaD3D10UnmapResources
cudaD3D10UnregisterResource
cudaD3D9MapResources
cudaD3D9MapVertexBuffer
cudaD3D9RegisterResource
cudaD3D9RegisterVertexBuffer
cudaD3D9UnmapResources
cudaD3D9UnmapVertexBuffer
cudaD3D9UnregisterResource
cudaD3D9UnregisterVertexBuffer
cudaDestroySurfaceObject
cudaDestroyTextureObject
cudaDeviceReset
cudaDeviceSynchronize
cudaEGLStreamConsumerAcquireFrame
cudaEGLStreamConsumerConnect
cudaEGLStreamConsumerConnectWithFlags
cudaEGLStreamConsumerDisconnect
cudaEGLStreamConsumerReleaseFrame
cudaEGLStreamConsumerReleaseFrame
cudaEGLStreamProducerConnect
cudaEGLStreamProducerDisconnect
cudaEGLStreamProducerReturnFrame
cudaEventCreate
cudaEventCreateFromEGLSync
cudaEventCreateWithFlags
cudaEventDestroy
cudaEventQuery
cudaEventRecord
cudaEventRecord_ptsz
cudaEventSynchronize
cudaFree
cudaFreeArray
cudaFreeHost
cudaFreeMipmappedArray
cudaGLMapBufferObject
cudaGLMapBufferObjectAsync
cudaGLRegisterBufferObject
cudaGLUnmapBufferObject
cudaGLUnmapBufferObjectAsync
cudaGLUnregisterBufferObject
cudaGraphicsD3D10RegisterResource
cudaGraphicsD3D11RegisterResource
cudaGraphicsD3D9RegisterResource
cudaGraphicsEGLRegisterImage
cudaGraphicsGLRegisterBuffer
cudaGraphicsGLRegisterImage
cudaGraphicsMapResources
cudaGraphicsUnmapResources
cudaGraphicsUnregisterResource
cudaGraphicsVDPAURegisterOutputSurface
cudaGraphicsVDPAURegisterVideoSurface
cudaHostAlloc
cudaHostRegister
cudaHostUnregister
cudaLaunch
cudaLaunchCooperativeKernel
cudaLaunchCooperativeKernelMultiDevice
cudaLaunchCooperativeKernel_ptsz
cudaLaunchKernel
cudaLaunchKernel_ptsz
cudaLaunch_ptsz
cudaMalloc
cudaMalloc3D
cudaMalloc3DArray
cudaMallocArray
cudaMallocHost
cudaMallocManaged
cudaMallocMipmappedArray
cudaMallocPitch
cudaMemGetInfo
cudaMemPrefetchAsync
cudaMemPrefetchAsync_ptsz
cudaMemcpy
cudaMemcpy2D
cudaMemcpy2DArrayToArray
cudaMemcpy2DArrayToArray_ptds
cudaMemcpy2DAsync
cudaMemcpy2DAsync_ptsz
cudaMemcpy2DFromArray
cudaMemcpy2DFromArrayAsync
cudaMemcpy2DFromArrayAsync_ptsz
cudaMemcpy2DFromArray_ptds
cudaMemcpy2DToArray
cudaMemcpy2DToArrayAsync
cudaMemcpy2DToArrayAsync_ptsz
cudaMemcpy2DToArray_ptds
cudaMemcpy2D_ptds
cudaMemcpy3D
cudaMemcpy3DAsync
cudaMemcpy3DAsync_ptsz
cudaMemcpy3DPeer
cudaMemcpy3DPeerAsync
cudaMemcpy3DPeerAsync_ptsz
cudaMemcpy3DPeer_ptds
cudaMemcpy3D_ptds
cudaMemcpyArrayToArray
cudaMemcpyArrayToArray_ptds
cudaMemcpyAsync
cudaMemcpyAsync_ptsz
cudaMemcpyFromArray
cudaMemcpyFromArrayAsync
cudaMemcpyFromArrayAsync_ptsz
cudaMemcpyFromArray_ptds
cudaMemcpyFromSymbol
cudaMemcpyFromSymbolAsync
cudaMemcpyFromSymbolAsync_ptsz
cudaMemcpyFromSymbol_ptds
cudaMemcpyPeer
cudaMemcpyPeerAsync
cudaMemcpyToArray
cudaMemcpyToArrayAsync
cudaMemcpyToArrayAsync_ptsz
cudaMemcpyToArray_ptds
cudaMemcpyToSymbol
cudaMemcpyToSymbolAsync
cudaMemcpyToSymbolAsync_ptsz
cudaMemcpyToSymbol_ptds
cudaMemcpy_ptds
cudaMemset
cudaMemset2D
cudaMemset2DAsync
cudaMemset2DAsync_ptsz
cudaMemset2D_ptds
cudaMemset3D
cudaMemset3DAsync
cudaMemset3DAsync_ptsz
cudaMemset3D_ptds
cudaMemsetAsync
cudaMemsetAsync_ptsz
cudaMemset_ptds
cudaPeerRegister
cudaPeerUnregister
cudaStreamAddCallback
cudaStreamAddCallback_ptsz
cudaStreamAttachMemAsync
cudaStreamAttachMemAsync_ptsz
cudaStreamCreate
cudaStreamCreateWithFlags
cudaStreamCreateWithPriority
cudaStreamDestroy
cudaStreamQuery
cudaStreamQuery_ptsz
cudaStreamSynchronize
cudaStreamSynchronize_ptsz
cudaStreamWaitEvent
cudaStreamWaitEvent_ptsz
cudaThreadSynchronize
cudaUnbindTexture

CUDA Master API

cu64Array3DCreate
cu64ArrayCreate
cu64D3D9MapVertexBuffer
cu64GLMapBufferObject
cu64GLMapBufferObjectAsync
cu64MemAlloc
cu64MemAllocPitch
cu64MemFree
cu64MemGetInfo
cu64MemHostAlloc
cu64Memcpy2D
cu64Memcpy2DAsync
cu64Memcpy2DUnaligned
cu64Memcpy3D
cu64Memcpy3DAsync
cu64MemcpyAtoD
cu64MemcpyDtoA
cu64MemcpyDtoD
cu64MemcpyDtoDAsync
cu64MemcpyDtoH
cu64MemcpyDtoHAsync
cu64MemcpyHtoD
cu64MemcpyHtoDAsync
cu64MemsetD16
cu64MemsetD16Async
cu64MemsetD2D16
cu64MemsetD2D16Async
cu64MemsetD2D32
cu64MemsetD2D32Async
cu64MemsetD2D8
cu64MemsetD2D8Async
cu64MemsetD32
cu64MemsetD32Async
cu64MemsetD8
cu64MemsetD8Async
cuArray3DCreate
cuArray3DCreate_v2
cuArrayCreate
cuArrayCreate_v2
cuArrayDestroy
cuBinaryFree
cuCompilePtx
cuCtxCreate
cuCtxCreate_v2
cuCtxDestroy
cuCtxDestroy_v2
cuCtxSynchronize
cuD3D10CtxCreate
cuD3D10CtxCreateOnDevice
cuD3D10CtxCreate_v2
cuD3D10MapResources
cuD3D10RegisterResource
cuD3D10UnmapResources
cuD3D10UnregisterResource
cuD3D11CtxCreate
cuD3D11CtxCreateOnDevice
cuD3D11CtxCreate_v2
cuD3D9CtxCreate
cuD3D9CtxCreateOnDevice
cuD3D9CtxCreate_v2
cuD3D9MapResources
cuD3D9MapVertexBuffer
cuD3D9MapVertexBuffer_v2
cuD3D9RegisterResource
cuD3D9RegisterVertexBuffer
cuD3D9UnmapResources
cuD3D9UnmapVertexBuffer
cuD3D9UnregisterResource
cuD3D9UnregisterVertexBuffer
cuEGLStreamConsumerAcquireFrame
cuEGLStreamConsumerConnect
cuEGLStreamConsumerConnectWithFlags
cuEGLStreamConsumerDisconnect
cuEGLStreamConsumerReleaseFrame
cuEGLStreamProducerConnect
cuEGLStreamProducerDisconnect
cuEGLStreamProducerPresentFrame
cuEGLStreamProducerReturnFrame
cuEventCreate
cuEventCreateFromEGLSync
cuEventCreateFromNVNSync
cuEventDestroy
cuEventDestroy_v2
cuEventQuery
cuEventRecord
cuEventRecord_ptsz
cuEventSynchronize
cuGLCtxCreate
cuGLCtxCreate_v2
cuGLInit
cuGLMapBufferObject
cuGLMapBufferObjectAsync
cuGLMapBufferObjectAsync_v2
cuGLMapBufferObjectAsync_v2_ptsz
cuGLMapBufferObject_v2
cuGLMapBufferObject_v2_ptds
cuGLRegisterBufferObject
cuGLUnmapBufferObject
cuGLUnmapBufferObjectAsync
cuGLUnregisterBufferObject
cuGraphicsD3D10RegisterResource
cuGraphicsD3D11RegisterResource
cuGraphicsD3D9RegisterResource
cuGraphicsEGLRegisterImage
cuGraphicsGLRegisterBuffer
cuGraphicsGLRegisterImage
cuGraphicsMapResources
cuGraphicsMapResources_ptsz
cuGraphicsUnmapResources
cuGraphicsUnmapResources_ptsz
cuGraphicsUnregisterResource
cuGraphicsVDPAURegisterOutputSurface
cuGraphicsVDPAURegisterVideoSurface
cuInit
cuLaunch
cuLaunchCooperativeKernel
cuLaunchCooperativeKernelMultiDevice
cuLaunchCooperativeKernel_ptsz
cuLaunchGrid
cuLaunchGridAsync
cuLaunchKernel
cuLaunchKernel_ptsz
cuLinkComplete
cuLinkCreate
cuLinkCreate_v2
cuLinkDestroy
cuMemAlloc
cuMemAllocHost
cuMemAllocHost_v2
cuMemAllocManaged
cuMemAllocPitch
cuMemAllocPitch_v2
cuMemAlloc_v2
cuMemFree
cuMemFreeHost
cuMemFree_v2
cuMemGetInfo
cuMemGetInfo_v2
cuMemHostAlloc
cuMemHostAlloc_v2
cuMemHostRegister
cuMemHostRegister_v2
cuMemHostUnregister
cuMemPeerRegister
cuMemPeerUnregister
cuMemPrefetchAsync
cuMemPrefetchAsync_ptsz
cuMemcpy
cuMemcpy2D
cuMemcpy2DAsync
cuMemcpy2DAsync_v2
cuMemcpy2DAsync_v2_ptsz
cuMemcpy2DUnaligned
cuMemcpy2DUnaligned_v2
cuMemcpy2DUnaligned_v2_ptds
cuMemcpy2D_v2
cuMemcpy2D_v2_ptds
cuMemcpy3D
cuMemcpy3DAsync
cuMemcpy3DAsync_v2
cuMemcpy3DAsync_v2_ptsz
cuMemcpy3DPeer
cuMemcpy3DPeerAsync
cuMemcpy3DPeerAsync_ptsz
cuMemcpy3DPeer_ptds
cuMemcpy3D_v2
cuMemcpy3D_v2_ptds
cuMemcpyAsync
cuMemcpyAsync_ptsz
cuMemcpyAtoA
cuMemcpyAtoA_v2
cuMemcpyAtoA_v2_ptds
cuMemcpyAtoD
cuMemcpyAtoD_v2
cuMemcpyAtoD_v2_ptds
cuMemcpyAtoH
cuMemcpyAtoHAsync
cuMemcpyAtoHAsync_v2
cuMemcpyAtoHAsync_v2_ptsz
cuMemcpyAtoH_v2
cuMemcpyAtoH_v2_ptds
cuMemcpyDtoA
cuMemcpyDtoA_v2
cuMemcpyDtoA_v2_ptds
cuMemcpyDtoD
cuMemcpyDtoDAsync
cuMemcpyDtoDAsync_v2
cuMemcpyDtoDAsync_v2_ptsz
cuMemcpyDtoD_v2
cuMemcpyDtoD_v2_ptds
cuMemcpyDtoH
cuMemcpyDtoHAsync
cuMemcpyDtoHAsync_v2
cuMemcpyDtoHAsync_v2_ptsz
cuMemcpyDtoH_v2
cuMemcpyDtoH_v2_ptds
cuMemcpyHtoA
cuMemcpyHtoAAsync
cuMemcpyHtoAAsync_v2
cuMemcpyHtoAAsync_v2_ptsz
cuMemcpyHtoA_v2
cuMemcpyHtoA_v2_ptds
cuMemcpyHtoD
cuMemcpyHtoDAsync
cuMemcpyHtoDAsync_v2
cuMemcpyHtoDAsync_v2_ptsz
cuMemcpyHtoD_v2
cuMemcpyHtoD_v2_ptds
cuMemcpyPeer
cuMemcpyPeerAsync
cuMemcpyPeerAsync_ptsz
cuMemcpyPeer_ptds
cuMemcpy_ptds
cuMemcpy_v2
cuMemsetD16
cuMemsetD16Async
cuMemsetD16Async_ptsz
cuMemsetD16_v2
cuMemsetD16_v2_ptds
cuMemsetD2D16
cuMemsetD2D16Async
cuMemsetD2D16Async_ptsz
cuMemsetD2D16_v2
cuMemsetD2D16_v2_ptds
cuMemsetD2D32
cuMemsetD2D32Async
cuMemsetD2D32Async_ptsz
cuMemsetD2D32_v2
cuMemsetD2D32_v2_ptds
cuMemsetD2D8
cuMemsetD2D8Async
cuMemsetD2D8Async_ptsz
cuMemsetD2D8_v2
cuMemsetD2D8_v2_ptds
cuMemsetD32
cuMemsetD32Async
cuMemsetD32Async_ptsz
cuMemsetD32_v2
cuMemsetD32_v2_ptds
cuMemsetD8
cuMemsetD8Async
cuMemsetD8Async_ptsz
cuMemsetD8_v2
cuMemsetD8_v2_ptds
cuMipmappedArrayCreate
cuMipmappedArrayDestroy
cuModuleLoad
cuModuleLoadData
cuModuleLoadDataEx
cuModuleLoadFatBinary
cuModuleUnload
cuStreamAddCallback
cuStreamAddCallback_ptsz
cuStreamAttachMemAsync
cuStreamAttachMemAsync_ptsz
cuStreamBatchMemOp
cuStreamBatchMemOp_ptsz
cuStreamCreate
cuStreamCreateWithPriority
cuStreamDestroy
cuStreamDestroy_v2
cuStreamSynchronize
cuStreamSynchronize_ptsz
cuStreamWaitEvent
cuStreamWaitEvent_ptsz
cuStreamWaitValue32
cuStreamWaitValue32_ptsz
cuStreamWaitValue64
cuStreamWaitValue64_ptsz
cuStreamWriteValue32
cuStreamWriteValue32_ptsz
cuStreamWriteValue64
cuStreamWriteValue64_ptsz
cuSurfObjectCreate
cuSurfObjectDestroy
cuSurfRefCreate
cuSurfRefDestroy
cuTexObjectCreate
cuTexObjectDestroy
cuTexRefCreate
cuTexRefDestroy
cuVDPAUCtxCreate
cuVDPAUCtxCreate_v2

Linux only:

cuDNN API functions

cudnnActivationBackward
cudnnActivationBackward_v3
cudnnActivationBackward_v4
cudnnActivationForward
cudnnActivationForward_v3
cudnnActivationForward_v4
cudnnAddTensor
cudnnBatchNormalizationBackward
cudnnBatchNormalizationBackwardEx
cudnnBatchNormalizationForwardInference
cudnnBatchNormalizationForwardTraining
cudnnBatchNormalizationForwardTrainingEx
cudnnCTCLoss
cudnnConvolutionBackwardBias
cudnnConvolutionBackwardData
cudnnConvolutionBackwardFilter
cudnnConvolutionBiasActivationForward
cudnnConvolutionForward
cudnnCreate
cudnnCreateAlgorithmPerformance
cudnnDestroy
cudnnDestroyAlgorithmPerformance
cudnnDestroyPersistentRNNPlan
cudnnDivisiveNormalizationBackward
cudnnDivisiveNormalizationForward
cudnnDropoutBackward
cudnnDropoutForward
cudnnDropoutGetReserveSpaceSize
cudnnDropoutGetStatesSize
cudnnFindConvolutionBackwardDataAlgorithm
cudnnFindConvolutionBackwardDataAlgorithmEx
cudnnFindConvolutionBackwardFilterAlgorithm
cudnnFindConvolutionBackwardFilterAlgorithmEx
cudnnFindConvolutionForwardAlgorithm
cudnnFindConvolutionForwardAlgorithmEx
cudnnFindRNNBackwardDataAlgorithmEx
cudnnFindRNNBackwardWeightsAlgorithmEx
cudnnFindRNNForwardInferenceAlgorithmEx
cudnnFindRNNForwardTrainingAlgorithmEx
cudnnFusedOpsExecute
cudnnIm2Col
cudnnLRNCrossChannelBackward
cudnnLRNCrossChannelForward
cudnnMakeFusedOpsPlan
cudnnMultiHeadAttnBackwardData
cudnnMultiHeadAttnBackwardWeights
cudnnMultiHeadAttnForward
cudnnOpTensor
cudnnPoolingBackward
cudnnPoolingForward
cudnnRNNBackwardData
cudnnRNNBackwardDataEx
cudnnRNNBackwardWeights
cudnnRNNBackwardWeightsEx
cudnnRNNForwardInference
cudnnRNNForwardInferenceEx
cudnnRNNForwardTraining
cudnnRNNForwardTrainingEx
cudnnReduceTensor
cudnnReorderFilterAndBias
cudnnRestoreAlgorithm
cudnnRestoreDropoutDescriptor
cudnnSaveAlgorithm
cudnnScaleTensor
cudnnSoftmaxBackward
cudnnSoftmaxForward
cudnnSpatialTfGridGeneratorBackward
cudnnSpatialTfGridGeneratorForward
cudnnSpatialTfSamplerBackward
cudnnSpatialTfSamplerForward
cudnnTransformFilter
cudnnTransformTensor
cudnnTransformTensorEx

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