gpu-power-limit-service

A script to create / manage a systemd service to set NVidia GPU power limits

Why?

In some situations, you need to limit the amount of power your GPUs consume. NVidia GPUs provide this capability via the nvidia-smi tool (a pre-requisite to this service.) This setup-gpu-power-limit.sh script is a one-stop installer / uninstaller, creating a systemd service to set and maintain your desired power limits at boot.

Features

• Auto-detects all NVIDIA GPUs and shows each card's min / current / max power limits before you choose settings.

• Interactive menu to install / update the power-limit service, and uninstall it.

• Generates a systemd unit (gpu-power-limit.service) that applies your chosen limits on every boot.

• Monitor option displays the current power draw of all GPUs.

• Uninstall option cleanly stops, disables, and removes the service.

• Optional --debug flag turns on bash tracing and prints the exact line on any error for quick troubleshooting.

Example Setup

The script is interactive - here's an example interaction:

user@server:# ./setup-gpu-power-limit.sh
Detected NVIDIA GPUs and power limits:
  GPU0  (min/cur/max W):   100.00 /  200.00 /  350.00

===== GPU Power-Limit Service =====
1) Install or update gpu-power-limit.service
2) Uninstall gpu-power-limit.service
3) Monitor draw
4) Exit
Choose an option [1-4]: 1

NOTE: setting power limits requires sudo privileges.
Enter new power limit for GPU0 (W,  100- 350): 205
Writing /etc/systemd/system/gpu-power-limit.service ...
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/gpu-power-limit.service → /etc/systemd/system/gpu-power-limit.service.

✅  gpu-power-limit.service installed and running.

===== GPU Power-Limit Service =====
1) Install or update gpu-power-limit.service
2) Uninstall gpu-power-limit.service
3) Monitor draw
4) Exit
Choose an option [1-4]: 3


Press ESC to exit...
GPU0  42W                                                   

===== GPU Power-Limit Service =====
1) Install or update gpu-power-limit.service
2) Uninstall gpu-power-limit.service
3) Monitor draw
4) Exit

Goodbye!

Helpful Related Info

This info is here just for reference, for manual testing and probing. The script automates these settings.

Commands:

sudo nvidia-smi -q -d POWER    # show current power settings
sudo nvidia-smi -i 0 -pl 250   # manually set the power for GPU 0 to 250 watts

And a sample of the unit file generated:

[Unit]
Description=GPU power limiter
After=network.target

[Service]
User=root
Type=oneshot
Restart=never
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/usr/bin/bash -c "/usr/bin/nvidia-smi -i 0 -pl 205"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target