Handling VRAM Limitations with Polars GPU Engine: Techniques for Large Data Processing

Zach Anderson
Jun 28, 2025 02:49

Explore techniques like Unified Virtual Memory and multi-GPU streaming execution in Polars GPU Engine to process data exceeding VRAM limits efficiently.

In the realm of data-intensive applications such as quantitative finance, algorithmic trading, and fraud detection, data practitioners often encounter datasets that exceed the capacity of their hardware. The Polars GPU engine, leveraging NVIDIA’s cuDF, presents solutions to efficiently manage such extensive data workloads, according to NVIDIA’s blog post.

Challenges with VRAM Constraints

Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) are preferred for their superior performance in handling compute-bound queries. However, a notable challenge is the limited Video RAM (VRAM), which is typically less than the system RAM, presenting hurdles when processing large datasets. To address this, the Polars GPU engine offers two primary strategies: Unified Virtual Memory (UVM) and multi-GPU streaming execution.

Unified Virtual Memory (UVM)

UVM technology, developed by NVIDIA, facilitates a unified memory space between system RAM and GPU VRAM. This integration allows the Polars GPU engine to offload data to system RAM when VRAM reaches capacity, thus preventing out-of-memory errors. This method is particularly effective for single-GPU setups dealing with datasets slightly larger than the available VRAM. Although there is a performance overhead due to data migration, this can be minimized using the RAPIDS Memory Manager (RMM) for optimized memory allocation.

Multi-GPU Streaming Execution

For datasets that extend into the terabyte range, the Polars GPU engine introduces multi-GPU streaming execution. This experimental feature partitions data for parallel processing across multiple GPUs, enhancing processing speed and efficiency. The streaming executor modifies the internal representation graph for batched execution, distributing tasks across GPUs. This technique is compatible with both single and multi-GPU execution, utilizing Dask’s scheduling capabilities.

Selecting the Optimal Strategy

The choice between UVM and multi-GPU streaming execution depends on the dataset size and the available hardware. UVM is ideal for moderately large datasets, while multi-GPU streaming is suited for very large datasets requiring distributed processing. Both strategies enhance the Polars GPU engine’s capacity to handle datasets exceeding VRAM limits.

For further insights into these strategies, including detailed configurations and performance optimization, visit the NVIDIA blog.

Image source: Shutterstock