nvoc: linux overclocking gains multi GPU support, scripting, and is improved for ai use

NVOC, an open-source Linux tool for overclocking NVIDIA GPUs, has reached version 0.3.0 with multi-GPU support, machine-readable JSON output, and improved memory overclocking for AI workloads. The tool now supports targeting specific GPUs by index, UUID, name substring, or regex, and includes a systemd service for applying settings at boot. Experimental support for Ada Lovelace and Ampere architectures is available in draft pull requests.

The latest version has focused on overclocking for running local LLMs AI . Primarily better memory OC support, and improved support for targeting mixed GPU models in a single system. Read on. Back in September I posted about NVOC - NVIDIA GPU Overclocking for Linux https://github.com/martinstark/nvoc/ , an ergonomic cli tool for overclocking and undervolting RTX 50-series cards on Linux. The tool is at v0.3.0 now. It picked up multi-GPU support, machine-readable output, a few more cards, and a clean way to apply settings at boot. The first release assumed you had one card and operated on device 0. There was no way to point it at a specific GPU in a multi-card system. There is now a -d/--device flag. The simplest form takes an index, or a comma separated list of them: one card sudo nvoc -d 1 -o 856 two specific cards sudo nvoc -d 0,1 -c 200,2820 -o 856 -m 2000 -p 105 everything in the box sudo nvoc -d all -o 200 Indices are convenient until you reboot and they shuffle. NVML does not promise they stay put, so for anything you want to survive a restart, select by something stable. You can target a card by UUID, by a substring of its name, or by a regex against the name: stable across reboots sudo nvoc -d GPU-1234... -o 856 case-insensitive substring on the device name sudo nvoc -d name:5090 -o 856 sudo nvoc -d "n:5060 ti" -o 100 regex, for a mix of models sudo nvoc -d "regex:RTX 50 89 0" -o 856 sudo nvoc -d "r:5060 Ti ?" -o 100 In a box with a 5090 and a couple of 5060 Ti, name:5090 is easier than working out which index the driver handed each card this boot. To select a card you first need to know what is in the machine. nvoc list prints the index, name, and UUID of every GPU it can read: bash $ nvoc list 0 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 - GPU-1234... It skips devices it cannot read instead of falling over on them, so one flaky card does not take the whole listing down with it. info and list both take --json now, which is what you need to drive nvoc from a script rather than by hand: nvoc info --json nvoc list --json There is also nvoc list --uuid , which prints just the UUIDs, one per line. Put the two together and you can apply the same settings to every card by UUID without hardcoding anything: for uuid in $ nvoc list --uuid ; do sudo nvoc -d "$uuid" -o 856 -m 2000 -p 105 done -d all does the same in one shot. The loop earns its keep when you want different values per card. The original gated on the card being an RTX 50-series part by matching its name. That was lazy, and it locked out the RTX PRO Blackwell cards, which are the same architecture wearing a different name. nvoc now asks NVML for the architecture directly and accepts anything Blackwell, so the workstation cards work too. It is still Blackwell only, though. There is experimental support for Ada Lovelace RTX 4060, 4070, 4080, 4090 and Ampere RTX 3050, 3060, 3070, 3080, 3090 already, but it needs testing on hardware I do not have. If you own one of those cards, trying the relevant branch and reporting your results would be appreciated. Draft PRs: Ada Lovelace 40-series https://github.com/martinstark/nvoc/pull/12 and Ampere 30-series https://github.com/martinstark/nvoc/pull/13 . Overclock settings do not persist. Reboot and you are back at stock. A systemd oneshot service reapplies them automatically: /etc/systemd/system/gpu-oc.service Unit Description=GPU overclock settings After=multi-user.target Service Type=oneshot ExecStart=/usr/bin/nvoc -c 200,2820 -o 856 -m 2000 -p 105 Install WantedBy=multi-user.target sudo systemctl daemon-reload sudo systemctl enable --now gpu-oc.service On a multi-GPU box, pin by UUID or model rather than index, for the reasons above. The README has the full walkthrough. If you are on Arch, it is in the AUR now: paru -S nvoc-cli Building from source still works the same way with cargo build --release . reset puts clocks back through NVML directly, instead of the slightly hacky idle-clock trick the first version leaned on, and it attempts every reset before reporting what failed rather than bailing on the first error. --dry-run no longer needs root, since previewing a change should not require privileges to do nothing. info shows the memory clock offset next to the graphics one now. nvoc list instead of leaving you to guess. bash $ nvoc info driver: 595.71.05 gpu 0: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 gpu clock: 1080MHz gpu offset: 856MHz mem clock: 810MHz mem offset: 2000MHz temp: 52°C power: 28W power limit: 600W 104% power range: 400W-575W 600W hard limit Repo and issues: https://github.com/martinstark/nvoc/ https://github.com/martinstark/nvoc/