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What amdtop monitors
amdtop is designed for Linux systems with AMD GPUs, APUs, and Strix Halo XDNA NPUs. Its CPU and system views sit alongside GPU telemetry provided through libamdgpu_top. The project describes its interface as inspired by nvitop and btop. Feature availability depends on the hardware and the telemetry exposed by the system; the project documentation does not establish independent accuracy testing. amdtop project documentation
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- CPU and system: per-core activity grids and history graphs, package temperature and power, load average, system memory, and swap.
- GPU: separate device bands showing an index and PCI bus ID, with GPU telemetry and process information where available.
- Memory: APU memory is represented as GTT (unified system RAM); discrete GPU memory is shown as VRAM.
- Processes: rows can include resident system memory, VRAM or GTT use, and engine activity.
- Additional bandwidth telemetry: adaptive memory-bandwidth reporting can show memory-controller utilization where available, as well as SoC DRAM read and write throughput on supported APUs.
The project README reports 41 bundled themes, with tokyo-night as the default. That is a feature count reported by the project, not an independently measured result.
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Install amdtop on Linux
The project lists Rust 1.88 or newer, libdrm development headers, and an AMD GPU or APU using the amdgpu kernel driver as requirements. The runtime dependency is libdrm_amdgpu.so.1. Install the development headers using the package name for your distribution:
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- Debian or Ubuntu:
libdrm-dev - Fedora:
libdrm-devel - Arch Linux:
libdrm
amdtop documents these installation options:
- Install the published Cargo package: run
cargo install amdtop. - Install the development version: use the Git-based Cargo installation command documented in the project README.
- On Arch Linux: install the package listed in the Arch User Repository (AUR).
After installation, launch the monitor from a terminal with amdtop. The project is licensed under Apache-2.0.
Read the interface and control it
Sections for CPU, GPU, NPU, and processes can be collapsed or expanded, and their state is retained across runs. The documented keyboard controls are:
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TabandShift+Tab: move between sections.SpaceorEnter: collapse or expand a section.tandT: cycle through themes.bandB: change the gauge block style.q,Escape, orCtrl+C: quit.
Interpret XDNA NPU readings carefully
Detecting an XDNA device is not the same as measuring its live utilization. amdtop can identify a device and firmware information, but utilization and per-context monitoring require a cumulative drm-engine-* busy-time counter exposed by the loaded amdxdna kernel module. Driver trees can use different engine-key names, and released telemetry parsers do not recognize every form. Consequently, the NPU may be detected even when live utilization is unavailable.
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Identify GPUs by PCI bus ID
amdtop lists physical GPUs in PCI BDF order and displays each device’s bus ID beside its index. Use that PCI bus ID to identify a physical GPU reliably: process-specific HIP_VISIBLE_DEVICES and ROCR_VISIBLE_DEVICES settings do not change amdtop’s system-wide numbering.
What the documentation does—and does not—establish
The project documents its features, requirements, and controls, but the reviewed project and upstream documentation do not establish an independent benchmark, controlled accuracy comparison, or compatibility test across hardware. Treat readings as dependent on your GPU or APU, kernel driver, and available telemetry rather than assuming every metric will appear on every machine.
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