Nsight Systems is a statistical sampling profiler with tracing features. It is designed to work with devices and devkits based on NVIDIA Tegra SoCs (system-on-chip) or systems based on the x86_64 processor architecture that also include NVIDIA GPU(s).
Throughout this document we will refer to the device on which profiling happens as the target, and the computer on which the user works and controls the profiling session as the host. Note that for x86_64 based systems these may be on the same device, whereas with Tegra based systems they will always be separate.
Furthermore, three different activities are distinguished as follows:
Profiling — The process of collecting any performance data. A profiling session in Nsight Systems typically includes sampling and tracing.
Sampling — The process of periodically stopping the profilee (the application under investigation during the profiling session), typically involves collecting backtraces (call stacks of active threads), which allows you to understand statistically how much time is spent in each function. Additionally, hardware counters can also be sampled. This process is inherently imprecise when a low number of samples have been collected.
Tracing — The process of collecting precise information about various activities happening in the profilee or in the system. For example, profilee API execution may be traced providing the exact time and duration of a function call.
Since Nsight Systems supports multiple generations of Tegra SoCs, NVIDIA discrete GPUs, and x86_64 processors, as well as various target operating systems, this documentation only describes the features available in the build of Nsight Systems it ships with.
Common features that are supported by Nsight Systems on most platforms include the following:
Sampling of the profilee and collecting backtraces using multiple algorithms (such as frame pointers or DWARF data). Building top-down, bottom-up, and flat views as appropriate. This information helps identify performance bottlenecks in CPU-intensive code.
Sampling or tracing system power behaviors, such as CPU frequency.
Support for multiple windows. Users with multiple monitors can see multiple reports simultaneously, or have multiple views into the same report file.
With Nsight Systems, a user could:
Identify call paths that monopolize the CPU.
Identify individual functions that monopolize the CPU (across different call paths).
See visual representation of CUDA Runtime and Driver API calls, as well as CUDA GPU workload. Nsight Systems uses the CUDA Profiling Tools Interface (CUPTI), for more information, see: CUPTI documentation
See visual representation of NVTX annotations: ranges, markers, and thread names.
See visual representation of D3D12: which API calls are being made on the CPU, graphic frames, stutter analysis, as well as GPU workloads (command lists and debug ranges).
See visual representation of Vulkan: which API calls are being made on the CPU, graphic frames, stutter analysis, as well as Vulkan GPU workloads (command buffers and debug ranges).
Launch a trace session from within Visual Studio.
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