powermetrics bandwidth stats (M1 Max)

Question

tlkh OP

Created Oct ’21

Replies 2

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Hi,

I am trying to interpret the bandwidth stats from the built-in powermetrics cli tool on M1 Max. For example, I can get output that looks like this:

GFX RD             : 7.144 MB/s
GFX WR             : 5.154 MB/s
GFX1 RD             : 7.108 MB/s
GFX1 WR             : 5.155 MB/s
GFX DCS RD           : 6.544 MB/s
GFX DCS WR           : 6.951 MB/s

I have a few questions:

What is "DCS"?
On M1 Max, there is GFX and GFX1. Is this 2 cluster of 16 graphics cores, each with their own memory controller? In that case, what is "GFX DCS"?

I can't find any existing documentation, so hope someone can help to explain this.

Thanks in advance!

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Answer 1

tlkh OP

Nov ’21

Solved: DCS = DRAM Command Scheduler

0

Answer 2

cwinte OP

Mar ’24

FYI I recently came across a Python based CLI graphic display of data from powermetrics on github: asitop Though it accumulates a file of source data in /tmp that grows at 1M per minute and does not seem to clean up on exit. I poinmted this out to dev and suggested some form of pipe might be better...

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