PyTorch 2.0 represents a significant step forward for the PyTorch machine learning framework. The stable release of PyTorch 2.0 brings new features that unlock even higher performance, while remaining backward compatible with prior releases and retaining the Pythonic focus which has helped to make PyTorch so enthusiastically adopted by the AI/ML community. AMD has long been a strong proponent of PyTorch, and we are delighted that the PyTorch 2.0 stable release includes support for AMD Instinct™ and Radeon™ GPUs that are supported by the ROCm™ software platform.
With the stable PyTorch 2.0 release, PyTorch 2.0 introduces torch.compile as a beta feature underpinned by TorchInductor with support for AMD Instinct and Radeon GPUs through OpenAI Triton deep learning compiler. Through TorchInductor, developers can now generate low level kernels using Triton that are portable and performant to hand-written kernels on native hardware centric kernel programming models.
OpenAI Triton is a language and compiler for blocked algorithms, which aims to provide an abstraction layer between CUDA/HIP and Torch at which developers can write efficient kernels more productively. We have written a new backend which interfaces Triton’s custom MLIR dialects with our ROCm compiler stack.
Triton can automatically optimize kernels generated by machine learning compilers such as TorchInductor for multiple AI accelerators including AMD Instinct GPU accelerator by leveraging hardware-specific features of the AMD CDNA™ GPU architecture. This makes it easy for developers and users to switch seamlessly from any HW to AMD Instinct GPU accelerators and get great out of the box performance.
In addition, compilers like Triton can also enable developers to use high-level programming languages, such as Python, to write machine learning code that can be efficiently compiled and executed on specialized hardware. This can help greatly improve the productivity of machine learning developers, as they can focus on the algorithmic aspects of their models and rely on the compiler to generate efficient code.
By design, PyTorch 2.0 is backward compatible to earlier PyTorch releases. This holds true for the ROCm build of PyTorch 2.0 as well. Developers using PyTorch with AMD GPUs can migrate to PyTorch 2.0 with the confidence that their existing code will continue to work without any required changes, so there is no penalty to access the improvements that come with this release. On the other hand, using PyTorch 2.0 and TorchInductor can result in significant performance improvement over the default eager-mode as shown below.
The initial results using AMD Instinct MI250 GPUs already shows strong performance improvement with minimal optimization on TorchInductor compared to the default eager-mode. We see an average performance increase of up to 1.54X on 44 out of the 45 models on HuggingFace benchmarks suite with CamemBert, DistillGPT2 and T5Small being a few of the standout models with up to 1.5X or more performance improvement over eager-mode. We are looking forward to continued engagement with members of the PyTorch team at Meta to enable further optimization on ROCm software stack and the additional performance improvement for future PyTorch releases.
Image 1: AMD MI250 GPU performance improvement for TorchInductor vs eager-mode using HuggingFace MI200-89.
PyTorch 2.0 follows the same set of install options as before to build and install for supporting AMD GPUs. These include an installable Python package hosted at pytorch.org, AMD’s public PyTorch docker image, and of course the option to build from source using the upstream PyTorch repository. As with PyTorch builds for other platforms, the specific command line to be run for pip-based install is provided by the configurator at https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/.
The GPUs supported by the ROCm software platform which forms the basis for PyTorch support on AMD GPUs are documented at https://docs.amd.com/bundle/Hardware_and_Software_Reference_Guide/page/Hardware_and_Software_Support.html
Conclusion
PyTorch 2.0 represents a major step in continuing to broaden support for ML developers by increasing performance while maintaining a simple, Pythonic interface. This performance uplift is made possible in large part by the new TorchInductor infrastructure, which in turn harnesses the Triton ML programming language and just-in-time compiler. AMD’s support for these technologies allows users to realize the full promise of the new PyTorch architecture. Our GPU support in PyTorch 2.0 is just one manifestation of a larger vision around AI and machine learning. AI/ML plays an important role in multiple AMD product lines, including Instinct and Radeon GPUs, Alveo™ data center accelerators, and both Ryzen™ and EPYC processors. These hardware and software initiatives are all part of AMD’s Pervasive AI vision, and we look forward to addressing the many new challenges and opportunities of this dynamic space.
MI200-89 – PyTorch Inductor mode HuggingFace Transformers training speedup, running the standard PyTorch 2.0 test suite, over PyTorch eager-mode comparison based on AMD internal testing on a single GCD as of 3/10/2023 using a 2P AMD EPYC™ 7763 production server with 4x AMD Instinct™ MI250 (128GB HBM2e) 560W GPUs with Infinity Fabric™ technology; host ROCm™ 5.3, guest ROCm™ 5.4.4, PyTorch 2.0.0, Triton 2.0. Server manufacturers may vary configurations, yielding different results. Performance may vary based on factors including use of latest drivers and optimizations.
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