2

SM means Streaming Multiprocessor / Shared Processor. As in this link

How to determine number of GPU cores being utilized for a process?

In Nvidia GTX 1080 there are 20 SMs, then utilization could be calculated as (1/20 * 100) = 5%

In such cases, how would one calculate utilization for Intel GPUs? How many SMs are there in Intel GPUs?

Thanks in advance

2 Answers 2

1

I wondered the same thing and looked it up, but first look at the pictures and it becomes immediately clear:

Intel HD Graphics 530 Schematics Intel HD Graphics 530 Die Shot

Intel’s HD Graphics 530 has 3 cores (=SM) and Intel likes to count the execution units inside the core (of which there are 8 per core).

This is consistent with all Intel GPUs. Every core has 8 execution units. And since Intel advertises the EU count of their GPUs, one can just divide this number by 8 to find the number of their GPU cores.

Further information on the Intel slides: Intel Processor Graphics: Architecture & Programming

-2

You can't really compare GPU cores between between Nvidia, AMD and Intel.

Each vendor defines a "core" in a different way and uses them differently.

Because Intel has them closely integrated in the CPU and makes them also subject to CPU technologies like dynamic performance scaling (aka "SpeedStep") and thermal throttling (of the CPU) it is really hard to compare to Nvidia and AMD where the GPU cores are far more independent.

Additionally, to further boost performance, Intel chipset graphics can off-load some operations to greater or lesser extend to the CPU cores when those have unused capacity. So software may believe it is running 100% on the GPU but could actually only be doing 80% on the GPU and 20% on the CPU. (Or whatever other distribution that is most efficient at that particular moment.)

Intel is also quite vague on specifications: They call the GPU cores "Execution Units" or EU's for short and usually Intel doesn't specify how many a given CPU has.

When you download the datasheets from the Intel ARK website (ark.intel.com) you really need to dig for this kind on info. E.g. For the 6th Gen Core-I CPU's Intel just says "there is a maximum of 72 EU's".

There is probably a way to query this via the Intel graphics driver, but, as I said above, question is whether or not those cores are actually usable in full.

How exactly an Intel EU compares to a Nvidia SM is in my opinion impossible to tell.

SM and EU aren't exactly the same thing to start with and I'm not even sure the notion of "GPU utilization" makes sense for Intel chipset graphics anyway, because of the dynamic way Intel CPU/GPU combo's can redistribute tasks between the components of the CPU/GPU.

1
  • Okay. Then how to analyse the number of cores (Intel GPU) being used "UTILIZATION"?
    – Vanns
    Aug 29, 2016 at 10:19

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .