NVIDIA GPU VRAM Used as Swap Space on Linux
In brief
- A new tool lets Linux users use their NVIDIA GPU's VRAM as swap space.
- This matters because it can increase the total addressable memory on a system.
- For example, a laptop with 16 GB of RAM and 8 GB of VRAM can have around 46 GB of total addressable memory.
- This is useful for hybrid graphics laptops with limited upgrade options.
- The tool works by allocating VRAM via the CUDA driver API and serving it as a block device.
- Users can install and start using the tool with a few commands.
- It will automatically start on every boot and use the available VRAM as swap space.
- The system will now have more memory to use.
Terms in this brief
- VRAM
- Video Random Access Memory — a type of memory used to store images and textures in graphics cards. It helps computers render visuals faster by keeping frequently accessed data close to the processor.
- Swap Space
- A portion of a computer's storage used as temporary memory when the system's RAM is full. It allows the computer to manage tasks even with limited physical memory by using disk space as an extension of RAM.
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