Story
Use your Nvidia GPU's VRAM as swap space on Linux
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Overview
c0deJedi's nbd-vram enables the use of NVIDIA GPU VRAM as swap space on Linux, particularly for laptops with soldered memory. This solution allows high-priority swap allocation, significantly increasing total addressable memory by utilizing unused VRAM.
Summary from github.com.
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Hacker News · github.com
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Based on 5 sampled comments from this thread. Analyzed 2026-06-03.
- Praise: Utilizing VRAM as swap space can optimize resource usage, particularly for systems with limited RAM, enhancing performance for specific applications.
- Praise: The concept of GPU-accelerated databases is gaining traction, with major companies investing in this technology, indicating a strong future for data processing capabilities.
- Praise: This approach could allow users with high-end GPUs to leverage their idle VRAM for other tasks, potentially increasing overall system efficiency.
- Concern: The reported sequential throughput of ~1.3 GB/s on an RTX 3070 is significantly underwhelming compared to its potential, raising concerns about performance limitations.
- Concern: Swapping to NVMe drives may be faster but introduces higher latency, which could negate the benefits of using VRAM as swap space.
- Concern: There are worries about the implementation of this system, as it may not be optimized for high performance, leading to inefficiencies.