2/11/2021 WDDM/TCC mode in Windows - Learn CUDA Programming

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 Search this title... WDDM/TCC mode in Windows

Contents  Bookmarks ()
On the Windows platform, the NVIDIA GPU has two modes: WDDM and TCC. WDDM is
Introduction to CUDA Programming  the graphics driver for video cards so that it can render desktops and applications. If the
(/BOOK/PROGRAMMING/9781788996242/1) installed GPU is only used for computing, display rendering is useless overhead. In this
situation, the NVIDIA GPU can switch to a mode that only focuses on computing. This
Introduction to CUDA Programming
(/Book/Programming/9781788996242/1)
mode is known as TCC mode.

The history of high-performance computing WDDM allows the NVIDIA GPU to cooperate with Windows' WDDM driver, which
(/Book/Programming/9781788996242/1/Ch01lvl1sec01… serves displays. Supporting WDDM mode is a requirement for Windows graphics. On the
other hand, TCC mode only works toward computing. Depending on your GPU products
and configuration, the GPU's mode can be changed.

Operation mode follows four NVIDIA product classes, and its default mode can vary, as
follows:

 GeForce: WDDM mode only.

 Quadro/Titan: WDDM mode by default, but can be used in TCC mode too.

 Tesla: Typically defaults to TCC mode.

 Tegra: Supports Linux only. No WDDM/TCC issues.

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2/11/2021 WDDM/TCC mode in Windows - Learn CUDA Programming

WDDM mode supports CUDA operations and debugging CUDA applications with Nsight,
while also supporting the display. As a single host machine, you can do everything that the
GPU can. However, TCC mode disables graphics on the graphics driver and enables GPU

 BACK as a computing accelerator. In other words, this should be used when the graphics card
does not have to serve displays. 

Learn CUDA Programming TCC mode has some benefits over WDDM mode in CUDA processing, as follows:


 Serves large-scale computing

 Ignores Windows' display timeout interval (typically two seconds) to enable kernel
operations that are longer than two seconds

 Reduces CUDA's kernel launch overhead on Windows

 Supports CUDA processing with Windows remote desktop service

 Enables the use of NVIDIA GPUs with non-NVIDIA integrated graphics so that you
can save global memory
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Contents  Bookmarks ()
Therefore, TCC mode brings optimal configuration for GPUs as accelerators if they do not
serve displays.
Introduction to CUDA Programming 

(/BOOK/PROGRAMMING/9781788996242/1)
Setting TCC/WDDM mode
Introduction to CUDA Programming
To change TCC or WDDM mode, use the nvidia-smi utility, as follows:
(/Book/Programming/9781788996242/1)

The history of high-performance computing

Copy
(/Book/Programming/9781788996242/1/Ch01lvl1sec01…
$ sudo nvidia-smi -dm {0|1}

0 means WDDM mode, and 1 means TCC mode.

If you want to set TCC mode for the selected GPUs, use the  -g option to specify target
GPUs:

Copy

$ nvidia-smi -g {GPU_ID} -dm {0|1}

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2/11/2021 WDDM/TCC mode in Windows - Learn CUDA Programming

This option is useful when you want to separate the purpose of GPU use for display and
compute. After you've applied these settings, you may want to reboot your machine to
apply these changes.

 BACK
We can identify that TCC mode is enabled by using  nvidia-smi . The following
screenshot shows GPU operation mode in TCC:
Learn CUDA Programming

By looking at the right-hand side of the GPU name in the first column, we can confirm that
TCC mode is enabled. 

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Contents  Bookmarks ()  Previous Section (/book/programming/9781788996242/app01/app01sec01/useful-nvid

Introduction to CUDA Programming  book/programming/9781788996242/app01/app01sec03/performance-modelingand-xa0)

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Introduction to CUDA Programming

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The history of high-performance computing

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