Introduction

When nvidia-smi shows Off, it usually does not mean the GPU itself is disabled. In nvidia-smi, Off only has meaning together with the column header above it, so the first step is always to identify which feature is being reported as off.

Off Depends on the Column

The default nvidia-smi output is a compact table, and several columns may display On or Off. Common examples include:

• 'Persistence-M'
• 'Disp.A'
• 'MIG M.'
• ECC-related mode columns on supported GPUs

So a row that contains more than one Off is not contradictory. Each Off may refer to a completely different feature.

A normal command is simply:

nvidia-smi

You might see something like:

|   0  NVIDIA A10        Off  | 00000000:65:00.0 Off |                    0 |

That line is easy to misread unless you line it up with the headers. One Off may mean persistence mode is disabled, while another may mean no display is active.

Common Meanings of Off

Here are the most common interpretations.

If Persistence-M is Off, persistence mode is disabled. On many Linux systems, persistence mode keeps the driver initialized between jobs. Off often just means the default behavior is in effect.

If Disp.A is Off, display active is off. That usually means the GPU is not currently driving a monitor or desktop session. On headless servers, that is completely normal.

If MIG M. is Off, Multi-Instance GPU mode is disabled. That simply means the GPU is not partitioned into MIG instances.

If an ECC-related mode column is Off, ECC memory protection is disabled. Whether that matters depends on the hardware and the workload.

None of those meanings automatically imply that the GPU is dead, unavailable, or powered off.

Query Specific Fields Instead of Guessing

If the table is hard to read, ask nvidia-smi for named fields directly. That removes the ambiguity because every value is labeled.

nvidia-smi --query-gpu=name,persistence_mode,display_active,utilization.gpu,memory.used --format=csv

A sample result might look like:

name, persistence_mode, display_active, utilization.gpu, memory.used
NVIDIA A10, Disabled, Disabled, 0 %, 2 MiB

That output is easier to interpret than the default summary table. If you need other fields, nvidia-smi --help-query-gpu lists the queryable names supported on that system.

When Off Is Completely Normal

Many systems spend their entire life with some features off.

Examples:

• a headless training server normally shows no active display
• a machine not using MIG normally shows MIG mode off
• a default Linux setup may have persistence mode off until an administrator enables it

So the right question is not "why is it off?" but "which feature is off, and do I need that feature on?"

If CUDA jobs run, memory allocates correctly, and temperatures look healthy, an Off value in one of those mode columns is often harmless.

A Better Way to Troubleshoot

Instead of interpreting the whole table by eye, query only the fields you care about.

For example:

nvidia-smi --query-gpu=name,temperature.gpu,utilization.gpu,persistence_mode,display_active --format=csv -l 2

This makes it much easier to answer focused questions such as:

• is the GPU busy
• is persistence mode enabled
• is a display attached or active
• is the temperature normal

That is usually more productive than trying to infer meaning from one word in a dense table.

Common Pitfalls

The most common mistake is assuming Off means the GPU itself is switched off. Usually it means one specific feature is disabled.

Another issue is ignoring the header alignment in the default table. Narrow terminals, copied screenshots, and wrapped output make the columns easy to misread.

People also confuse Disp.A Off with a driver failure. On a headless compute server, no active display is expected and does not stop CUDA workloads.

Finally, do not assume every GPU supports every mode. Features such as MIG and ECC vary by hardware family and driver support, so the visible columns can differ from machine to machine.

Summary

• 'Off in nvidia-smi only makes sense together with its column header.'
• Common meanings include disabled persistence mode, no active display, disabled MIG mode, or disabled ECC-related modes.
• 'Off usually does not mean the GPU itself is unusable.'
• Use --query-gpu with CSV output when the default table is hard to interpret.
• Troubleshoot the specific feature shown in the column rather than treating every Off value as the same condition.