Linux
Windows
Compute Engine provides graphics processing units (GPUs) that you can
add to your virtual machines (VMs). You can use these GPUs to accelerate
specific workloads on your VMs such as machine learning and data
processing.
This document provides an overview of the steps required for creating a VM with
attached GPUs.
For more information about GPUs on Compute Engine, see
About GPUs
.
Select the GPU model
For a list of GPU models that are available, see
GPU platforms
. Also make a note of the machine type that is
supported for the selected GPU model.
For each model, it might also be helpful to review the following:
Choose an operating system
If you are using GPUs for machine learning, you can use a
Deep Learning VM Images for your VM. Each Deep Learning VM Images
has a GPU driver pre-installed and include packages, such as
TensorFlow and PyTorch. You can also use a Deep Learning VM Images
for general GPU workloads. For information about
the images available and the packages installed on the images, see
Choosing an image
.
You can also use any
public image
or
custom image
, but some
images might require a unique driver or install process that is not covered in
this document.
You must identify which drivers are appropriate for your OS image.
For steps to install drivers, see
installing GPU drivers
.
Check GPU quota
To protect Compute Engine systems and users, new projects have
a global GPU quota, which limits the total number of GPUs you can create
in any supported zone. To review GPU quota, see
GPU quota
.
If you need additional GPU quota,
request a quota increase
.
When you request GPU quota, you must request quota for the GPU types that you
want to create in each region and an additional global quota for the total number
of GPUs of all types in all zones.
If your project has an established billing history, it will receive quota
automatically after you submit the request.
Create a VM that has attached GPUs
To create a VM that has attached GPUs, complete the following steps:
Create the VM. The method used to create a VM depends on the
GPU model selected.
For the VM to use the GPU, you need to
install the GPU driver on your VM
.
If you enabled an NVIDIA RTX virtual workstation (formerly known as NVIDIA GRID),
install a driver for virtual workstation
.
What's next?