Tensorflow not detecting GPU - Adding visible gpu devices: 0

Question

I have a system with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti. I installed tensorflow, and look for the gpu device with tf.test.gpu_device_name(). It looks like it finds the gpu, but then says "Adding visible gpu devices: 0"

>>> import tensorflow as tf
>>> tf.test.gpu_device_name()
2019-01-08 10:01:12.589000: I tensorflow/core/platform/cpu_feature_guard.cc:141]
 Your CPU supports instructions that this TensorFlow binary was not compiled to
use: AVX2
2019-01-08 10:01:12.855000: I tensorflow/core/common_runtime/gpu/gpu_device.cc:1
432] Found device 0 with properties:
name: GeForce GTX 980 Ti major: 5 minor: 2 memoryClockRate(GHz): 1.228
pciBusID: 0000:01:00.0
totalMemory: 6.00GiB freeMemory: 5.67GiB
2019-01-08 10:01:12.862000: I tensorflow/core/common_runtime/gpu/gpu_device.cc:1
511] Adding visible gpu devices: 0

Answer 1

Interestingly, the 0 you are concerned about is not the 0 you would use for counting. Precisely, its not "detected 0 devices" but " device 0 detected". "Adding visible device 0", 0 here is an identity for you GPU. Or you can say, the way of tensorflow to differentiate between multiple GPUs in the system. Here is the output of my system, and I'm pretty sure, I m using up my gpu for computation. So don't worry. You are good to go! 😉

Python 3.6.6 (v3.6.6:4cf1f54eb7, Jun 27 2018, 03:37:03) [MSC v.1900 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import tensorflow as tf
>>> tf.test.gpu_device_name()
2019-01-08 20:51:02.212125: I tensorflow/core/platform/cpu_feature_guard.cc:141] Your CPU supports instructions that this TensorFlow binary was not compiled to use: AVX2
2019-01-08 20:51:03.199893: I tensorflow/core/common_runtime/gpu/gpu_device.cc:1411] Found device 0 with properties:
name: GeForce GTX 1060 with Max-Q Design major: 6 minor: 1 memoryClockRate(GHz): 1.3415
pciBusID: 0000:01:00.0
totalMemory: 6.00GiB freeMemory: 4.97GiB
2019-01-08 20:51:03.207308: I tensorflow/core/common_runtime/gpu/gpu_device.cc:1490] Adding visible gpu devices: 0
2019-01-08 20:51:04.857881: I tensorflow/core/common_runtime/gpu/gpu_device.cc:971] Device interconnect StreamExecutor with strength 1 edge matrix:
2019-01-08 20:51:04.861791: I tensorflow/core/common_runtime/gpu/gpu_device.cc:977]      0
2019-01-08 20:51:04.863796: I tensorflow/core/common_runtime/gpu/gpu_device.cc:990] 0:   N
2019-01-08 20:51:04.867507: I tensorflow/core/common_runtime/gpu/gpu_device.cc:1103] Created TensorFlow device (/device:GPU:0 with 4722 MB memory) -> physical GPU (device: 0, name: GeForce GTX 1060 with Max-Q Design, pci bus id: 0000:01:00.0, compute capability: 6.1)
'/device:GPU:0'