AMDuProf Overhead Estimation - AMDuProf Overhead Estimation - 57368

uProf User Guide

Document ID
57368
Release Date
2025-06-09
Revision
5.1 English

In version 5.1 of AMDuProf, a new feature has been added to provide users with information regarding the overhead associated with data collection and processing during profiling.

This feature is intended to help users understand the impact of profiling on their system and make informed decisions regarding the selection of profiling configurations.

Supported and Unsupported Profiling Types

Table 1. Overhead Support for Profiling (Other Than CPU Profiling)
Profiling Type Overhead Feature Support
OS Runtime Tracing Not supported
CPU Tracing Not supported
GPU Tracing Not supported
OpenMP Tracing Not supported
MPI Tracing Not supported
GPU Profiling Not supported
Live Power Profile Not supported
Table 2. Overhead Support for Predefined Configurations (CPU Profiling)
Profiling Type Overhead Feature Support
Hotspots Supported
Threading Analysis Supported
Overview Supported
Investigate CPI Supported
Assess Performance (Extended) Supported
Investigate Instruction Access Supported
Investigate Branching Supported
Investigate Data Access Supported
Cache Analysis Not supported
Instruction Based Sampling Not supported
Assess Performance Supported
Time Based Sampling Supported

For unsupported configurations, a message stating no overhead data available for the selected configuration is displayed.

There are three categories of overheads:
  1. High Overhead
  2. Fair Overhead
  3. Low Overhead
Figure 1. Sample High Overhead Message
There are two types of overheads:
  1. Collection Overhead: Refers to the time required to collect data during profiling. This time is influenced by the profiling configuration and system conditions.
  2. Processing Overhead: Refers to the time spent processing the collected data. This is impacted by various factors, including the presence of throttling events, sampling intervals, and sampling frequencies.
Before proceeding with the profiling experiment, AMDuProf provides a suggestion regarding the overhead based on the current configuration. This suggestion helps users decide whether to proceed with the current configuration or modify it based on the expected overhead. There are multiple factors influencing overheads.
  1. Predefined Configurations: In predefined configurations, certain events such as overview and threading have a high overhead in both data collection and processing.
  2. Throttling Events: If there are one or more throttling events present in either predefined or custom configurations, the processing overhead will be high, and the collection overhead will be Fair.
  3. Sampling Intervals and Frequencies:
    1. Threshold for Sampling Intervals/Frequencies: A threshold exists for sampling intervals and frequencies.
    2. Higher Sampling Interval/Lower Sampling Frequency: Increases collection and processing overhead.
    3. Lower Sampling Interval/Higher Sampling Frequency: Decreases collection and processing overhead.

    This balance affects the efficiency of data collection and processing.

    In addition to overhead information, you get an estimate of the profiling time based on the configuration and overhead type.

    You can evaluate the overhead suggestion and decide whether to proceed with the current configuration or modify it for optimal performance. This guidance helps balance the desired profiling data and the overhead it may incur on the system.

    For configurations not supported by the overhead feature, a message stating that no overhead data available for the selected configuration will be displayed.

Figure 2. Sample Overhead Message for Unsupported Configuration