# nvidia-smi 5 Hacker News commenters recommended nvidia-smi and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Recommended for checking VRAM use, hardware decode and power limits on NVIDIA GPUs, with the caveat that utilization can read 100% while the GPU is underused. ## Why people recommend it - Power limiting to protect breakers (2 comments): "You can use nvidia-smi to reduce the powerdraw of the card to just below what will trip the breaker." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47515642)) "If you're not power limiting in nvidia-smi, start." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48522286)) - Shows hardware decode activity (1 comments): "column "dec" tells you whether there is hw decode happening" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47383858)) - Reports VRAM usage (1 comments): "nvidia-smi is great for determining total VRAM usage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47927592)) ## What people warn about - Utilization reading can mislead (1 comments): "It reports the fraction of time that any kernel is running on the GPU, which means a GPU can report 100% utilization" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47878166)) - Gives numbers, not headroom (1 comments): "nvtop and nvidia-smi give you the number but not the headroom." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47932450)) - Long-standing unresolved issue (1 comments): "Known pretty longstanding issue w nvidia still unresolved afaik" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46751668)) - Claimed deliberate downgrade of features (1 comments): "deliberately DOWNGRADED software like nvidia-smi" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50228422)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [btop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/btop.md): 38 recommend - [htop](https://hackerapproved.com/p/htop.md): 28 recommend - [Stats menu bar system monitor](https://hackerapproved.com/p/stats.md): 10 recommend - [Activity Monitor for macOS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/activity-monitor.md): 5 recommend - [iStat Menus](https://hackerapproved.com/p/istat-menus.md): 5 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "nvidia-smi", https://hackerapproved.com/p/nvidia-smi/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).