How to Prevent TensorFlow from Allocating the Totality of a GPU Memory

If you are working with TensorFlow and have encountered issues with it allocating the entirety of your GPU memory, there are a few strategies you can employ to prevent this from happening. Allocating the entirety of the GPU memory can lead to inefficient usage and potentially cause your system to crash. Here are some tips to prevent TensorFlow from taking over all of your GPU memory:

Set GPU Memory Growth

One way to prevent TensorFlow from allocating all of your GPU memory is to set the GPU memory growth option. This allows the GPU memory to be allocated on an as-needed basis, rather than all at once. To do this, you can use the following code:


import tensorflow as tf
gpus = tf.config.experimental.list_physical_devices('GPU')
for gpu in gpus:
tf.config.experimental.set_memory_growth(gpu, True)


Limit GPU Memory Allocation

Another option is to specify a limit on the amount of GPU memory that TensorFlow can allocate. This can be done using the following code:


gpus = tf.config.experimental.list_physical_devices('GPU')

if gpus:
try:
tf.config.experimental.set_virtual_device_configuration(
gpus[0],
[tf.config.experimental.VirtualDeviceConfiguration(memory_limit=5120)])
except RuntimeError as e:
print(e)


Use Memory Allocator

You can also use TensorFlow’s memory allocator to control the memory allocation process. This allows you to manually allocate and deallocate memory as needed. Here is an example of how you can use the memory allocator:


import tensorflow as tf
from tensorflow.compat.v1 import ConfigProto
from tensorflow.compat.v1 import InteractiveSession

config = ConfigProto()
config.gpu_options.allow_growth = True
session = InteractiveSession(config=config)

# Your TensorFlow code here


By following these strategies, you can prevent TensorFlow from allocating the entirety of your GPU memory and ensure that it is used more efficiently. This can help improve the performance of your TensorFlow applications and prevent potential system crashes.