How to Check if Your GPUs Can Be Seen by Your System

Overview

Before troubleshooting GPU-related issues or setting up GPU-accelerated applications, it's essential to verify that your system can detect the installed GPUs. This guide provides multiple methods to check GPU visibility across different operating systems, with a focus on NVIDIA GPUs.

Prerequisites

• Physical GPU(s) installed in your system
• Administrative/root privileges (for some commands)
• Terminal/Command Prompt access

Steps

For Linux Systems

1. Check PCI Devices

The most reliable method to check if your GPU is physically detected:

lspci -tvnn | grep -i nvidia

This command:

• Lists all PCI devices in a tree view (-t)
• Shows detailed information (-v)
• Displays both device names and numbers (-nn)
• Filters results to only show NVIDIA devices

Expected output (example):

└─[0000:01:00.0] VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GA102 [GeForce RTX 3080] [10de:2206] (rev a1)

For AMD GPUs, use:

lspci -tvnn | grep -i amd

To see all graphics devices regardless of manufacturer:

lspci | grep -E "VGA|3D|Display"

2. Using NVIDIA System Management Interface

If NVIDIA drivers are installed:

nvidia-smi

Expected output:

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 550.144.03 Driver Version: 550.144.03 CUDA Version: 12.4 |
|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU Name Persistence-M | Bus-Id Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan Temp Perf Pwr:Usage/Cap | Memory-Usage | GPU-Util Compute M. |
| | | MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
| 0 NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Gene... On | 00000000:01:00.0 Off | Off |
| 30% 32C P8 29W / 300W | 1MiB / 49140MiB | 0% Default |
| | | N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+--=====================|
| No running processes found |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

For a more concise list of detected GPUs:

 nvidia-smi -L

Expected output:

GPU 0: NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation (UUID: GPU-18be02d4-c671-978a-06f8-a91cb5958b8f)

3. Check Device Nodes

Verify the existence of NVIDIA device nodes:

ls -la /dev/nvidia*

Expected output:

crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 195, 254 Feb 24 14:18 /dev/nvidia-modeset
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 511, 0 Feb 24 14:18 /dev/nvidia-uvm
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 511, 1 Feb 24 14:18 /dev/nvidia-uvm-tools
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 195, 0 Feb 24 14:18 /dev/nvidia0

4. Check Kernel Modules

Verify if NVIDIA kernel modules are loaded

lsmod | grep -i nvidia

Expected output:

nvidia_uvm 6758400 0
nvidia_drm 126976 0
nvidia_modeset 1359872 1 nvidia_drm
nvidia 54439936 2 nvidia_uvm,nvidia_modeset
video 73728 1 nvidia_modeset
drm_kms_helper 274432 3 ast,nvidia_drm
drm 782336 6 drm_kms_helper,ast,drm_shmem_helper,nvidia,nvidia_drm

For Windows Systems

1. Using Device Manager

1. Press Win + X and select "Device Manager"
2. Expand the "Display adapters" category
3. All detected GPUs should be listed here

2. Using PowerShell

For NVIDIA GPUs with drivers installed:

1. Open PowerShell as Administrator
2. Run the following command:
   powershell

    

   Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_VideoController | Select-Object Name, Status, PNPDeviceID

3. Using NVIDIA Control Panel

1. Right-click on the desktop and select "NVIDIA Control Panel"
2. Navigate to "Help" > "System Information"
3. This displays all detected NVIDIA GPUs and their driver information

Troubleshooting

GPU Not Detected

If your GPU is not detected:

1. Verify physical installation:
   • Ensure the GPU is properly seated in the PCIe slot
   • Check power connections to the GPU
   • Try a different PCIe slot if available
     
     
2. BIOS/UEFI settings:
   • Ensure PCIe settings are configured correctly
   • Check if the PCIe slot is enabled
   • Verify that the primary graphics adapter is set correctly
     
     
3. Driver issues:
   • Install or reinstall GPU drivers
   • Check for driver compatibility with your GPU model
   • Verify that the driver version is compatible with your system
     
     
4. System logs:
   • Check system logs for hardware detection issues:
      

     dmesg | grep -i pci 
     dmesg | grep -i nvidia

5. Multiple GPU setups:
   • Ensure your power supply has sufficient capacity
   • Check if your motherboard supports multiple GPUs
   • Verify PCIe bifurcation settings for multi-GPU setups

Additional Resources

• NVIDIA Driver Documentation
• AMD GPU Documentation
• PCI Utilities Documentation