Windows users can view GPU usage through the Task Manager, switch to the "Performance" tab and click "GPU" to see the usage rate and video memory information of each GPU; 2. NVIDIA users can use the nvidia-smi command or the NVIDIA control panel to view the GPU used by the specific program; 3. macOS users can view the application GPU usage through the "GPU" tab of the Activity Monitor; 4. Linux users can view GPU information by nvidia-smi or lspci commands; 5. Enter chrome://gpu in the browser to view the call status of the GPU on the web page.

Sometimes you may want to know which GPU your computer uses when running a program, such as playing games, running deep learning models, or doing video editing. If you don’t understand this problem, it may lead to performance failure and even lag or errors.

Here are some practical methods to help you quickly find out which GPU is currently using.

View GPU usage on Windows System (Task Manager)

The task manager that comes with Windows can already display basic GPU information, which is suitable for daily checks.

• Open Task Manager: Press Ctrl Shift Esc or right-click the taskbar to select "Task Manager"
• Switch to the Performance tab
• Click "GPU" on the left, and the right will list all GPU devices recognized by the current system.
• There are information such as "Usage Rate", "Video Memory Equivalence" under each GPU

If you have multiple GPUs, multiple entries will be listed here, and you can tell which graphics card is (such as NVIDIA RTX 3060 or Intel UHD Graphics) is the name.

Note: This method can only see if there is a GPU working, and it cannot be precisely known which program uses which GPU.

Check which GPU is used for the specific program (NVIDIA user)

If you are using an NVIDIA graphics card and have the NVIDIA control panel and NVIDIA System Management Interface (nvidia-smi) installed, you can view it in a deeper way.

Method 1: Use nvidia-smi (recommended)

1. Download and install NVIDIA drivers
2. Open Command Prompt (cmd)
3. Enter the command:

 nvidia-smi

This command displays the status of all GPUs, including the usage rate, temperature, memory usage of each GPU, and the process ID and program name of the currently using the GPU.

If you want real-time monitoring, you can use:

 nvidia-smi -q -d POWER,DISPLAY,TEMPERATURE,CLOCK,POWER,COMPUTE,MEMORY -l 1

Refresh the detailed status once a second.

Method 2: NVIDIA control panel sets the default GPU

1. Right-click the desktop → select "NVIDIA Control Panel"
2. Find "Manage 3D Settings" on the left
3. Under the "Program Settings" tab, you can see which programs are specified which GPU is used.

How to check macOS and Linux users?

macOS:

macOS provides a tool called Activity Monitor :

1. Open Applications → Utilities → Double-click Activity Monitor
2. Switch to the "GPU" tab
3. Here is a list of usage of each GPU and which applications are using GPU resources

Linux:

Linux users can view it through the following command:

 nvidia-smi

Also suitable for systems with NVIDIA drivers installed. If you do not have a driver installed, you can also try:

 lspci | grep VGA

This lists all graphics processing units in the current system, but does not show real-time usage.

Browser or web application can also affect GPU usage

Some web pages, especially those using WebGL or WebGPU technology (such as online games, map services), also call the GPU. Want to view these:

• Chrome browser address bar input: chrome://gpu
• This page will show the browser's hardware acceleration used by each module, and whether GPU rendering is enabled

Basically these are the methods. Different systems and platforms are slightly different, but the core idea is similar: use the system's own tools or tools provided by the manufacturer to view. The key is to confirm whether the program you use has really reached a high-performance GPU, rather than an integrated graphics card.

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