nvfan 0.2.0a2

Control Nvidia GPU fan in your python script.

nvfan

A module to control Nvidia Graphic Cards' fan in your python script.

Why?

My deep learning rig contains 2 GTX 1080ti graphic cards with no liquid cooling. It takes only a few minutes for the GPUs to hit the thermal threshold of 86°C after I start a training process. Yet, it only uses fans at 50% rate.

There is an option to control fan speed manually using Nvidia Preferences GUI. But it annoys me run a desktop to control fans!

There are scripts around that use nvidia-settings to control fan right in the command line. Actually, I used them a lot and I am not satisfied. So I built mine.

What is special about it?

It integrates with my python scripts. The immediate benefit is that it gives control back to the driver after the work is finished. So I don't hear the noise more than necessary!

It can be used as a standalone script with enough options to control GPUs indiviually.

How to use it?

Controlling nvidia gpu fan requires an X server to be running. To run X without having a monitor attached to the system requires special config.

Preparation

Setup x config in a shell like below. You may need to use sudo.

$ nvidia-xconfig --enable-all-gpus --cool-bits=7 --connected-monitor=Monitor0 --allow-empty-initial-configuration --force-generate

Warning: we used --force-generate flag. A backup of your previous config is saved and is reported as the result of running this function.

Run X

I think the best way is to use xinit:

$ xinit &

Install nvfan

$ pip install nvfan

Usage

You can use command line script:

$ nvfan constant -g 0 -s 60

Or in your python script:

import nvfan

first_gpu = 0
nvfan.constant(first_gpu, 60)

The above script, puts GPU 0 in constant mode with 60% speed. You can use aggressive or driver modes too:

second_gpu = 1

# In aggressive mode, a small increase in temperature causes a large increase in fan speed.
nvfan.aggressive(second_gpu)

# Give control back to the driver manually. Please note that after execution is finished, this line is automatically called so you don't have to.
nvfan.driver(first_gpu)
nvfan.driver(second_gpu)

Instead of using the module you can use the GPU class to have more control (i.e. setting custom X11 display, if not set DISPLAY environment variable is used, or if not set, :0 is used as fallback)

import gpufan

gpu = gpufan.GPU(0, display=":1")  # or use default `None` for automatic lookup of display
gpu.aggressive()

Caution

Use this module at your own risk. The author takes no responsibility and the scripts come with no warranty.