gpuinfo - macOS GPU Usage Monitor

A simple command-line tool to monitor GPU usage percentage on macOS, particularly useful for monitoring local LLMs like Ollama that utilize GPU resources.

Features

• Display current GPU utilization percentage
• Percent-only mode for scripts and automation
• Full GPU information mode with detailed specs
• Watch mode for continuous monitoring
• Works with Apple Silicon Macs (M1, M2, M3, etc.)
• Lightweight and fast

Usage

# Show current GPU usage once
./gpuinfo

# Show only the percentage number (useful for scripts)
./gpuinfo -p

# Show full GPU information
./gpuinfo -f

# Watch GPU usage continuously (updates every second)
./gpuinfo -w

# Watch with custom interval (e.g., every 2 seconds)
./gpuinfo -w -i 2

# Watch in percent-only mode
./gpuinfo -w -p

# Show help
./gpuinfo -h

Installation

Quick Build and Test

make build
./gpuinfo

Install System-wide

make install

This installs gpuinfo to /usr/local/bin/ so you can run it from anywhere:

gpuinfo

Uninstall

make uninstall

Examples

Check if your Ollama model is using GPU:

# Terminal 1: Start monitoring
gpuinfo -w

# Terminal 2: Run your LLM
ollama run llama2

You should see GPU usage spike when the model is processing requests.

tmux Status Bar Integration

For beautiful GPU monitoring in your tmux status bar, see the tmux integration guide.

Features dynamic colors that change based on GPU usage - perfect for monitoring AI workloads!

Output Examples

Default output:

$ gpuinfo
GPU: 85%

Percent-only mode (great for scripts):

$ gpuinfo -p
85

Full information mode:

$ gpuinfo -f
GPU Information:
  Name: Apple M3
  Utilization: 85%
  Renderer: 80%
  Tiler: 90%
  Metal: Metal 3
  Memory: 24.0 GB (Unified)

Requirements

• macOS (tested on Apple Silicon)
• Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install)

Implementation Notes

This tool uses IOKit to read GPU performance statistics from the IOAccelerator service, similar to how the popular Stats application works. It reads the "Device Utilization %" or "GPU Activity(%)" properties from the PerformanceStatistics dictionary.

Troubleshooting

If you see "GPU: [GPU Name] (monitoring not available)", it means the performance statistics aren't accessible. This can happen if:

• The system doesn't expose GPU utilization data
• There are permission issues
• The GPU isn't currently active

Try running a GPU-intensive task to see if monitoring becomes available.