nv-monitor is a lightweight terminal application for monitoring NVIDIA graphics hardware and system resources. It combines GPU monitoring with information about processor utilisation and system memory, helping users understand overall system behaviour during demanding workloads.
The program was developed with NVIDIA DGX Spark systems in mind, but it also works with other compatible Linux machines equipped with NVIDIA GPUs. Its monitoring facilities account for differences in hardware architecture, including systems with shared CPU and GPU memory.
nv-monitor is useful for developers and administrators who want an overview of compute activity without running a full monitoring stack. The terminal interface presents measurements as numerical values, resource bars and compact historical charts.
It can also operate without the interactive interface, collecting metrics for external tools or recording them for later investigation. This makes it suitable for both hands-on troubleshooting and unattended monitoring.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Reports NVIDIA GPU utilisation, temperature, power draw and clock frequency.
- Displays GPU memory consumption and available capacity.
- Handles unified-memory reporting on compatible systems.
- Shows video encoding and decoding utilisation.
- Monitors overall CPU utilisation and activity on individual processor cores.
- Reports CPU temperature and operating frequency.
- Displays system memory, buffer, cache and swap usage.
- Accounts for HugePages when calculating available memory on supported hardware.
- Lists GPU processes with their process IDs, usernames and commands.
- Distinguishes compute and graphics workloads.
- Reports per-process CPU consumption and allocated GPU memory.
- Provides rolling CPU and GPU activity charts using Unicode graphics.
- Supports configurable refresh intervals and interactive sorting controls.
- Logs performance measurements to CSV files.
- Exports Prometheus-compatible metrics through an OpenMetrics endpoint.
- Supports headless operation for unattended monitoring.
- Includes a synthetic load generator for testing monitoring configurations.
Website: github.com/wentbackward/nv-monitor
Support:
Developer: Paul Gresham
License: MIT License
nv-monitor is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| NVIDIA GPU Monitoring Tools | |
|---|---|
| NVTOP | (h)top like task monitor for AMD, Intel and NVIDIA GPUs |
| nvitop | Bills itself as “the one-stop solution for GPU process management” |
| LACT | Configures and monitors AMD, NVIDIA and Intel GPUs |
| GPU Hot | Real-time NVIDIA GPU monitoring dashboard |
| gpustat | Query and monitor GPU status |
| GreenWithEnvy | GUI System tool |
| NVDashboard | JupyterLab extension for displaying dashboards of GPU usage |
| nv-monitor | Lightweight terminal-based monitoring application |
| nvidia-htop | Enriches the output of nvidia-smi |
| gptop | Cross-platform GPU monitor |
| NVIDIA System Monitor | Task manager monitoring your GPU |
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