In this post, I’m gonna describe the steps I used to utilize GPU for the PyTorch Deep Learning framework on my laptop.

Setup GPU on Ubuntu 16.04 (2020-11)

The following steps were performed on Ubuntu 16.04. I provided a post update corresponding to these steps for set upping GPU on Ubuntu 20.4 in the update section.

Generally, you should check the compatibility of several things:

• Pytorch Version
• Nvidia Driver
• Cuda Version

My python version is 3.7, you can create a conda env by the following command:

conda create -n deep_env python=3.7

First Step: Check compatibilities

Check Cuda and Nvidia GPU drivers compatibility at:

https://docs.nvidia.com/deploy/cuda-compatibility/index.html

Here is the important table:

Check PyTorch compatibility at:

https://pytorch.org/get-started/previous-versions/

Based on my system configuration I decided to install the following versions:

CUDA: 10.1

GPU Driver: 418.56

Pytorch: 1.6.0 / Torchvision: 0.7.0

Second Step: Install GPU Driver

Install the appropriate version of your GPU using one of the following options:

1. Go to Software & Update -> Additional Drivers -> Using Nvidia binary driver – version X.X.
2. Or if you can’t see the first option run the following command: sudo apt install nvidia-418
3. Or alternatively, you can download drivers from the Official Nvidia website.
4. Reboot your system
5. Now run the command nvidia-smi. It must show something like the following:

Third Step: Install Cuda Toolkit

Download and install the proper Cuda Tool kit version from https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-toolkit-archive and then reboot. Specifically, I downloaded CUDA 10.1 Toolkit from this link and installed the .run file by:

sudo sh cuda_10.1.105_418.39_linux.run

Final Step: Install PyTorch

Install the appropriate Pytorch version from:

https://pytorch.org/get-started/previous-versions/

I have installed it using the following command:

pip install torch==1.6.0+cu101 torchvision==0.7.0+cu101 -f https://download.pytorch.org/whl/torch_stable.html

Update for Ubuntu 20.04 (2022-08)

I have recently migrated from Ubuntu 16.4 to Ubuntu 20.04. So I had to change the configurations for my GPU setup.

First Step: Check compatibilities

Here is the new configuration that worked for me:

CUDA: 11.4

GPU Driver: 470

Pytorch: 1.11.0+cu113/ Torchvision: 0.12.0+cu113

Second Step: Install GPU Driver

Select the compatible NVIDIA driver from Additional Drivers and then reboot your system.

Now run the command nvidia-smi. It must show something like the following:

Third Step: Install Cuda Toolkit

Downloaded CUDA 11.4 Toolkit from the Official NVIDIA Website and then install the .run file by running the following command:

sudo sh cuda_11.4.4_470.82.01_linux.run

Final Step: Install PyTorch

pip install torch==1.11.0+cu113 torchvision==0.12.0+cu113 torchaudio==0.11.0 --extra-index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu113

Checking PyTorch is using GPU

If everything is fine you should see the following outputs when running the Python script below:

>>> import torch

>>> torch.cuda.is_available()
True

>>> torch.cuda.device_count()
1

>>> torch.cuda.current_device()
0

>>> torch.cuda.device(0)
<torch.cuda.device at 0x7efce0b03be0>

>>> torch.cuda.get_device_name(0)
'GeForce GTX 960M'

Enjoy GPU Power!