gpu_busy_percent(9)

🌸 gpu_busy_percent — the kernel API manual, bestie edition 💅

okay so real talk, this page is gpu_busy_percent(9) and it's genuinely shorter than my attention span, so we're gonna get through this together in like one breath ✨

🫶 DESCRIPTION (a.k.a. what it actually does)

So the amdgpu driver ships a sysfs API, and its whole job is telling you how busy the GPU is — as a percentage 🔥 That's it. That's the vibe.

The file you're gonna be poking at for this is literally called gpu_busy_percent. That's the one. 👑

And how does it get that number? Not the driver doing math in its notes app, nope — the SMU firmware computes a percentage of load, and it does it based on the aggregate activity level in the IP cores. So it's like the firmware looked at all the IP cores' activity, smooshed it all together, and was like "here's a percent, you're welcome" 🧚

lowkey iconic that the firmware does the flexing here and not the driver. no cap.

🎀 SEE ALSO (the whole friend group, fr fr)

• Kernel file ./drivers/gpu/drm/amd/pm/amdgpu_pm.c — like, the actual source if you're feeling brave 🦋
• amdgpu_pm_dev_state_check(9)
• amdgpu_pm_get_access(9)
• amdgpu_pm_get_access_if_active(9)
• amdgpu_pm_put_access(9)
• power_dpm_state(9)
• power_dpm_force_performance_level(9)
• pp_table(9)
• pp_od_clk_voltage(9)
• pp_features(9)
• pp_dpm_sclk pp_dpm_mclk pp_dpm_socclk pp_dpm_fclk pp_dpm_dcefclk pp_dpm_pcie(9) — yes they're all bundled together like a group chat that never stops typing 💀
• pp_power_profile_mode(9)
• mem_busy_percent(9)
• vcn_busy_percent(9)
• pcie_bw(9)
• unique_id(9)
• thermal_throttling_logging(9)
• apu_thermal_cap(9)
• gpu_metrics(9)
• smartshift_apu_power(9)
• smartshift_dgpu_power(9)
• smartshift_bias(9)
• board(9)
• baseboard_temp(9)
• gpuboard_temp(9)
• cur_node_power_limit(9)
• node_power(9)
• npm_status(9)
• global_ppt_resid(9)
• max_node_power_limit(9)
• baseboard_power(9)
• baseboard_power_limit(9)
• pm_policy(9)
• hwmon(9)
• fan_curve(9)
• acoustic_limit_rpm_threshold(9)
• acoustic_target_rpm_threshold(9)
• fan_target_temperature(9)
• fan_minimum_pwm(9)
• fan_zero_rpm_enable(9)
• fan_zero_rpm_stop_temperature(9)

aaaand that's the whole page, bestie — short, sweet, and it ate 🌈 mwah 💖

sign-off time: this lil cutie lives under ./drivers/gpu/drm/amd/pm, it's dated October 2026, and yep, it's still gpu_busy_percent(9) — periodt 💅🎀