cuda Getting started with cuda Compiling and Running the Sample Programs

Example

The NVIDIA installation guide ends with running the sample programs to verify your installation of the CUDA Toolkit, but doesn't explicitly state how. First check all the prerequisites. Check the default CUDA directory for the sample programs. If it is not present, it can be downloaded from the official CUDA website. Navigate to the directory where the examples are present.

$ cd /path/to/samples/
$ ls

You should see an output similar to:

0_Simple     2_Graphics  4_Finance      6_Advanced       bin     EULA.txt
1_Utilities  3_Imaging   5_Simulations  7_CUDALibraries  common  Makefile

Ensure that the Makefile is present in this directory. The make command in UNIX based systems will build all the sample programs. Alternatively, navigate to a subdirectory where another Makefile is present and run the make command from there to build only that sample.

Run the two suggested sample programs - deviceQuery and bandwidthTest:

$ cd 1_Utilities/deviceQuery/
$ ./deviceQuery 

The output will be similar to the one shown below:

./deviceQuery Starting...

 CUDA Device Query (Runtime API) version (CUDART static linking)

Detected 1 CUDA Capable device(s)

Device 0: "GeForce GTX 950M"
  CUDA Driver Version / Runtime Version          7.5 / 7.5
  CUDA Capability Major/Minor version number:    5.0
  Total amount of global memory:                 4096 MBytes (4294836224 bytes)
  ( 5) Multiprocessors, (128) CUDA Cores/MP:     640 CUDA Cores
  GPU Max Clock rate:                            1124 MHz (1.12 GHz)
  Memory Clock rate:                             900 Mhz
  Memory Bus Width:                              128-bit
  L2 Cache Size:                                 2097152 bytes
  Maximum Texture Dimension Size (x,y,z)         1D=(65536), 2D=(65536, 65536), 3D=(4096, 4096, 4096)
  Maximum Layered 1D Texture Size, (num) layers  1D=(16384), 2048 layers
  Maximum Layered 2D Texture Size, (num) layers  2D=(16384, 16384), 2048 layers
  Total amount of constant memory:               65536 bytes
  Total amount of shared memory per block:       49152 bytes
  Total number of registers available per block: 65536
  Warp size:                                     32
  Maximum number of threads per multiprocessor:  2048
  Maximum number of threads per block:           1024
  Max dimension size of a thread block (x,y,z): (1024, 1024, 64)
  Max dimension size of a grid size    (x,y,z): (2147483647, 65535, 65535)
  Maximum memory pitch:                          2147483647 bytes
  Texture alignment:                             512 bytes
  Concurrent copy and kernel execution:          Yes with 1 copy engine(s)
  Run time limit on kernels:                     Yes
  Integrated GPU sharing Host Memory:            No
  Support host page-locked memory mapping:       Yes
  Alignment requirement for Surfaces:            Yes
  Device has ECC support:                        Disabled
  Device supports Unified Addressing (UVA):      Yes
  Device PCI Domain ID / Bus ID / location ID:   0 / 1 / 0
  Compute Mode:
     < Default (multiple host threads can use ::cudaSetDevice() with device simultaneously) >

deviceQuery, CUDA Driver = CUDART, CUDA Driver Version = 7.5, CUDA Runtime Version = 7.5, NumDevs = 1, Device0 = GeForce GTX 950M
Result = PASS

The statement Result = PASS at the end indicates that everything is working correctly. Now, run the other suggested sample program bandwidthTest in a similar fashion. The output will be similar to:

[CUDA Bandwidth Test] - Starting...
Running on...

 Device 0: GeForce GTX 950M
 Quick Mode

 Host to Device Bandwidth, 1 Device(s)
 PINNED Memory Transfers
   Transfer Size (Bytes)    Bandwidth(MB/s)
   33554432            10604.5

 Device to Host Bandwidth, 1 Device(s)
 PINNED Memory Transfers
   Transfer Size (Bytes)    Bandwidth(MB/s)
   33554432            10202.0

 Device to Device Bandwidth, 1 Device(s)
 PINNED Memory Transfers
   Transfer Size (Bytes)    Bandwidth(MB/s)
   33554432            23389.7

Result = PASS

NOTE: The CUDA Samples are not meant for performance measurements. Results may vary when GPU Boost is enabled.

Again, the Result = PASS statement indicates that everything was executed properly. All other sample programs can be run in a similar fashion.