What is the power consumption of the NVIDIA H100 GPU?

NVIDIA H100 GPU Power Consumption Explained

The NVIDIA H100 GPU, built on NVIDIA's advanced Hopper architecture, is designed primarily for high-performance computing, artificial intelligence workloads, and data center applications. Understanding its power consumption is essential for optimizing energy efficiency and calculating operational costs.

NVIDIA H100 GPU Power Specifications

The NVIDIA H100 GPU is available in multiple form factors, each having slightly different power consumption levels:

• NVIDIA H100 SXM (Data Center Version): Up to 700 Watts (Thermal Design Power - TDP)
• NVIDIA H100 PCIe (PCI Express Version): Approximately 350 Watts TDP

These power ratings represent peak power consumption under full computational workloads.

Factors Influencing NVIDIA H100 GPU Power Consumption

Several factors influence the actual power usage of the NVIDIA H100 GPU:

• Workload intensity: Deep learning training, inference, or high-performance computing tasks typically demand higher power consumption.
• GPU utilization: Power consumption depends heavily on the GPU utilization rate, memory usage, and compute resource demands.
• System cooling efficiency: Optimal cooling solutions help maintain GPU efficiency, indirectly influencing power requirements.

Managing NVIDIA H100 GPU Power Consumption

Here are key strategies to manage and optimize power usage when deploying the NVIDIA H100 GPU:

• Utilize Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scaling (DVFS): NVIDIA GPUs automatically adjust voltage and frequency to manage power usage based on workload intensity.
• Optimized Workload Scheduling: Distribute workloads evenly across GPUs to improve efficiency and reduce unnecessary power draw.
• Monitoring Tools: Use NVIDIA's software tools like nvidia-smi to monitor GPU power usage and performance.

How to Measure NVIDIA H100 GPU Power Consumption

To monitor real-time GPU power consumption, you can use NVIDIA's nvidia-smi command-line utility. Here's an example command:

nvidia-smi --query-gpu=power.draw --format=csv,noheader,nounits

This command returns the current power draw of your NVIDIA GPU(s) in watts.

Conclusion

The NVIDIA H100 GPU has a high power rating, reflecting its exceptional computational capabilities. While the SXM model has a maximum TDP of around 700 watts, the PCIe version is typically around 350 watts. It's essential to consider your data center's power budget, cooling infrastructure, and energy efficiency requirements when deploying these GPUs.