110 lines
3.7 KiB
ReStructuredText
110 lines
3.7 KiB
ReStructuredText
Fast Performance
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================
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Here are some best practices to increase your performance.
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Dataloaders
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-----------
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When building your Dataloader set `num_workers` > 0 and `pin_memory=True` (only for GPUs).
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.. code-block:: python
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Dataloader(dataset, num_workers=8, pin_memory=True)
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num_workers
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^^^^^^^^^^^
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The question of how many `num_workers` is tricky. Here's a summary of
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some references, [`1 <https://discuss.pytorch.org/t/guidelines-for-assigning-num-workers-to-dataloader/813>`_], and our suggestions.
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1. num_workers=0 means ONLY the main process will load batches (that can be a bottleneck).
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2. num_workers=1 means ONLY one worker (just not the main process) will load data but it will still be slow.
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3. The num_workers depends on the batch size and your machine.
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4. A general place to start is to set `num_workers` equal to the number of CPUs on that machine.
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.. warning:: Increasing num_workers will ALSO increase your CPU memory consumption.
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The best thing to do is to increase the `num_workers` slowly and stop once you see no more improvement in your training speed.
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Spawn
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^^^^^
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When using `distributed_backend=ddp_spawn` (the ddp default) or TPU training, the way multiple GPUs/TPU cores are used is by calling `.spawn()` under the hood.
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The problem is that PyTorch has issues with `num_workers` > 0 when using .spawn(). For this reason we recommend you
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use `distributed_backend=ddp` so you can increase the `num_workers`, however your script has to be callable like so:
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.. code-block:: bash
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python my_program.py --gpus X
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.item(), .numpy(), .cpu()
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-------------------------
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Don't call .item() anywhere on your code. Use `.detach()` instead to remove the connected graph calls. Lightning
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takes a great deal of care to be optimized for this.
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----------
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empty_cache()
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-------------
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Don't call this unnecessarily! Every time you call this ALL your GPUs have to wait to sync.
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----------
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Construct tensors directly on the device
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----------------------------------------
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LightningModules know what device they are on! Construct tensors on the device directly to avoid CPU->Device transfer.
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.. code-block:: python
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# bad
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t = torch.rand(2, 2).cuda()
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# good (self is LightningModule)
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t = torch.rand(2, 2, device=self.device)
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For tensors that need to be model attributes, it is best practice to register them as buffers in the modules's
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`__init__` method:
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.. code-block:: python
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# bad
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self.t = torch.rand(2, 2, device=self.device)
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# good
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self.register_buffer("t", torch.rand(2, 2))
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----------
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Use DDP not DP
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--------------
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DP performs three GPU transfers for EVERY batch:
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1. Copy model to device.
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2. Copy data to device.
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3. Copy outputs of each device back to master.
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Whereas DDP only performs 1 transfer to sync gradients. Because of this, DDP is MUCH faster than DP.
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----------
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16-bit precision
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----------------
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Use 16-bit to decrease the memory (and thus increase your batch size). On certain GPUs (V100s, 2080tis), 16-bit calculations are also faster.
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However, know that 16-bit and multi-processing (any DDP) can have issues. Here are some common problems.
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1. `CUDA error: an illegal memory access was encountered <https://github.com/pytorch/pytorch/issues/21819>`_.
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The solution is likely setting a specific CUDA, CUDNN, PyTorch version combination.
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2. `CUDA error: device-side assert triggered`. This is a general catch-all error. To see the actual error run your script like so:
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.. code-block:: bash
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# won't see what the error is
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python main.py
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# will see what the error is
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CUDA_LAUNCH_BLOCKING=1 python main.py
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We also recommend using 16-bit native found in PyTorch 1.6. Just install this version and Lightning will automatically use it.
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