Error when trying to use CudaHalfTensor for training

[mbcel]

I want to train my model using fp16 precision on my gpu. My gpu has the Pascal architecture and the cutorch.hasHalf flag indicates true. I am using cuDNN 5.1 and CUDA Toolkit 8.0.

As far as I understand it right I only have to change the Tensors that are allocated on my gpu from CudaTensor to CudaHalfTensor and the calculations should be in fp16 precision. However, when I do that I get an error on using the optim.sgd() function that says: "No algorithms found that would fit in free GPU memory".

Am I doing something wrong? Or is fp16 actually supported for a VGG16 model using sgd?

The detailed error message is:

In 1 module of nn.Sequential:
/home/.../torch/install/share/lua/5.1/cudnn/find.lua:469: No algorithms found that would fit in free GPU memory
stack traceback:
	[C]: in function 'error'
	/home/.../torch/install/share/lua/5.1/cudnn/find.lua:469: in function 'forwardAlgorithm'
	...torch/install/share/lua/5.1/cudnn/SpatialConvolution.lua:189: in function <...torch/install/share/lua/5.1/cudnn/SpatialConvolution.lua:185>
	[C]: in function 'xpcall'
	/home/.../torch/install/share/lua/5.1/nn/Container.lua:63: in function 'rethrowErrors'
	/home/.../torch/install/share/lua/5.1/nn/Sequential.lua:44: in function 'forward'
	./trainManager.lua:103: in function 'opfunc'
	/home/.../torch/install/share/lua/5.1/optim/sgd.lua:44: in function 'sgd'

[soumith]

this is presumably a bug in cudnn 5.1 itself.

[borisfom]

@Marcel1991 : Can you post a snippet of your code where this is happening ?
What is your card, exactly? What does cutorch.hasFastHalfInstructions() return ?

Also: try using CUDNN6. A number of FP16 issues fixed there. Check out R6 barnch of this repo and do 'luarocks make cudnn-scm-1.rockspec'.

[mbcel]

@borisfom : So cutorch.hasFastHalfInstructions() returns false. My GPU is a Titan X Pascal.

I tried CUDNN6 with the R6 branch now. It's still not working but now I get a new error that seems to point more to the direction where something is going wrong:

/home/.../torch/install/share/lua/5.1/nn/Container.lua:67: 
In 1 module of nn.Sequential:
In 1 module of nn.ConcatTable:
/home/.../torch/install/share/lua/5.1/cudnn/find.lua:483: cudnnFindConvolutionForwardAlgorithm failed, sizes:  convDesc=[mode : CUDNN_CROSS_CORRELATION datatype : CUDNN_DATA_FLOAT] hash=-dimA8,3,368,1224 -filtA13,3,3,3 8,13,184,612 -padA1,1 -convStrideA2,2 CUDNN_DATA_FLOAT
stack traceback:
	[C]: in function 'error'
	/home/.../torch/install/share/lua/5.1/cudnn/find.lua:483: in function 'forwardAlgorithm'
	...torch/install/share/lua/5.1/cudnn/SpatialConvolution.lua:190: in function <...torch/install/share/lua/5.1/cudnn/SpatialConvolution.lua:186>
	[C]: in function 'xpcall'
	/home/.../torch/install/share/lua/5.1/nn/Container.lua:63: in function 'rethrowErrors'
	/home/.../torch/install/share/lua/5.1/nn/ConcatTable.lua:11: in function </home/.../torch/install/share/lua/5.1/nn/ConcatTable.lua:9>
	[C]: in function 'xpcall'
	/home/.../torch/install/share/lua/5.1/nn/Container.lua:63: in function 'rethrowErrors'
	/home/.../torch/install/share/lua/5.1/nn/Sequential.lua:44: in function 'forward'
	./trainManager.lua:104: in function 'opfunc'
	...

The relevant code is:

batchInputs = torch.CudaHalfTensor()
batchLabels = torch.CudaHalfTensor()

-- function trains one minibatch on module
function TrainManager.trainBatch(self, batchInputsCpu, batchLabelsCpu)
  local waitTime = waitTimer:time().real
  cutorch.synchronize()
  local batchTimer = torch.Timer()

  collectgarbage() -- free unused memory
  cutorch.synchronize()

  local options = self.options

  -- copy data into gpu tensors
  batchInputs:resize(batchInputsCpu:size()):copy(batchInputsCpu)
  batchLabels:resize(batchLabelsCpu:size()):copy(batchLabelsCpu)

  local batchLoss
  -- sgd expects function with input: moduleParameters; output: loss, gradParams
  local opFunction = function(modelParameters)
    model:zeroGradParameters()

    local outputs = model:forward(batchInputs)
    batchLoss = criterion:forward(outputs, batchLabels)
    local gradientOutputs = criterion:backward(outputs, batchLabels)
    model:backward(batchInputs, gradientOutputs)

    -- L2 regularization
    -- ignore to add l2 loss to error due to fair comparison of different l2 settings
    -- batchLoss = batchLoss + optimisationState.regL2 * torch.norm(modelParameters, 2)^2/2
    --gradientParameters:add( modelParameters:clone():mul(optimisationState.regL2) )

    return batchLoss, gradientParameters
  end

  optim.adam(opFunction, modelParameters, optimisationState)

...

The error occurs at the last line when the adam() function is called. The same happens with sgd() function

[mbcel]

Does anyone use CudaHalfTensor successfully with the Titan X Pascal? And if yes, what nvidia driver do you use and which Ubuntu version?