XE PMU (PERFORMANCE MONITORING UNIT)(9)

💖 Xe PMU (Performance Monitoring Unit) 💖

Bestie, welcome to the Kernel API Manual moment for the Xe PMU, section 9 🫶. This page is literally about exposing events/counters like GT-C6 residency, GT frequency, and per-class-engine activity to user land via the perf interface. Events are per device, no cap.

All events are listed in sysfs:

$ ls -ld /sys/bus/event_source/devices/xe_*
$ ls /sys/bus/event_source/devices/xe_0000_00_02.0/events/
$ ls /sys/bus/event_source/devices/xe_0000_00_02.0/format/

The following format parameters are available to read events, but only few are valid with each event — so do a little vibe check before you use them 👀:

• gt[60:63] — selects gt for the event ✨
• engine_class[20:27] — selects engine-class for event 🎀
• engine_instance[12:19] — selects the engine-instance for the event 🦋
• function[44:59] — selects the function of the event (SRIOV enabled) 💅

For engine specific events (engine-*), the gt, engine_class, and engine_instance parameters must be set as populated by DRM_XE_DEVICE_QUERY_ENGINES, and function if SRIOV is enabled. Periodt.

For gt specific events (gt-*), the gt parameter must be passed. All other parameters will be 0. That's it, that's the rule 🌸.

The standard perf tool can be used to grep for a certain event as well. Example:

$ perf list | grep gt-c6

To sample a specific event for a GT at regular intervals:

$ perf stat -e <event_name,gt=> -I <interval>

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

Kernel file ./drivers/gpu/drm/xe/xe_pmu.c, xe_pmu_unregister(9), xe_pmu_register(9) 🔥

Cute sign-off: this page's source is ./drivers/gpu/drm/xe, it's dated October 2026, and the footer version vibe is Xe PMU (Perf...toring Unit)(9) 💖✨🎀