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---
name: vllm-performance-tuning
description: |-
vLLM performance-tuning operator reference — tuning workflow (baseline → bottleneck → knob → re-bench), fused-MoE kernel autotune (`benchmark_moe.py` generates `E=N,N=M,device_name=X.json` configs), DeepEP all-to-all + expert parallelism + EPLB, CUDA graph modes (FULL_AND_PIECEWISE default), torch.compile AOT + compile cache, scheduler knobs (`--max-num-batched-tokens`, `--max-num-seqs`, `--async-scheduling`), TP/EP/DP/PP decision tree, NCCL/DCGM on H100/H200/B200/GB200, PD disaggregation (Nixl/Mooncake/LMCache), known regressions + vendor quirks (v0.14→0.15.1 MiniMax, MI300X FP8<BF16, DeepGEMM M<128 TTFT).
when_to_use: |-
Trigger on vLLM perf tuning, throughput/latency/goodput optimization, MoE deployment on new hardware, bringing up new GPU SKU (B200/B300/GB200/MI325X/Jetson Thor/RTX Pro Blackwell). Keywords — `benchmark_moe.py`, `VLLM_TUNED_CONFIG_FOLDER`, `VLLM_ALL2ALL_BACKEND`, `VLLM_USE_DEEP_GEMM`, `VLLM_USE_AOT_COMPILE`, `VLLM_ENABLE_MOE_DP_CHUNK`, DeepEP, DeepGEMM, EPLB, `--enable-expert-parallel`, `--enable-eplb`, `--enable-dbo`, `--max-num-batched-tokens`, `--max-num-seqs`, `--async-scheduling`, `--cudagraph-capture-sizes` (formerly `--cuda-graph-sizes`), `--performance-mode`, `--watermark`, Wide-EP, MLA, PD disagg, FULL_AND_PIECEWISE. Narrow — "tune MoE for B200", "TP vs EP for MoE", "MoE slow", "async scheduling broke latency". Also implicit — "vllm is slow", "why low TPS", "throughput too low", "TTFT too high", "tune model X", "perf regression after upgrade", "audit perf", "deploy-memo perf targets". NOT for measuring (→ `vllm-benchmarking`). NOT for KV cache (→ `vllm-caching`).
---
# vLLM performance tuning
Target: operators deploying models on new hardware, chasing throughput / latency / goodput SLOs, or diagnosing perf regressions. Verified against **v0.30.0** (2026-09-22), the latest stable. **v0.28.0 added a new ≥160 GiB device tier** (#51726) whose `vllm serve` default is 16384 — it did **not** raise the H100/H200 server default, which is still 8192. See `references/scheduler-and-compile.md` for all three tiers. Last freshened 2026-09-22.
Companion skills: `vllm-benchmarking` (measure), `vllm-caching` (KV), `vllm-nvidia-hardware` (GPU/GEMM), `vllm-configuration` (env vars), `vllm-observability` (metrics).
## Tuning levers (apply by goal, not in fixed order)
**Always first — characterize the workload.** ISL / OSL / req/s / concurrency / SLO (P95 TTFT, P95 TPOT, P95 ITL). "Goodput" = tok/s/GPU **under SLO**, not raw tok/s. Everything below is keyed off these numbers.
**Parallelism + MoE kernels (biggest single wins):**
- **Pick parallelism** (see `references/moe-and-ep.md`) — model-fits-1-GPU → TP=1 + replicas (DP); MoE MLA (DeepSeek/Kimi-K2) → DP-attn + EP; multi-node → TP intra + PP inter OR Wide-EP.
- **MoE on a new SKU → run `benchmark_moe.py --tune`** — generates `E=*,N=*,device_name=*.json` configs. Without tuned configs vLLM logs "Using default MoE config. Performance might be sub-optimal!" = 20-40% throughput loss.
- **Wide-EP** (`--enable-expert-parallel --enable-eplb --enable-dbo`) for DeepSeek/Qwen3/Kimi-K2 at ≥16 GPUs.
**Throughput / batching:**
- **`auto_tune.sh`** (`benchmarks/auto_tune/`) sweeps `max_num_seqs × max_num_batched_tokens`.
- **`--gpu-memory-utilization`** — raise from 0.90 toward 0.95 until steady OOM margin, then back off. MoE: cap at 0.85 (all-to-all buffers not in accounting).
- **Chunked prefill (on by default where supported)** — raise `--max-num-batched-tokens` if TTFT > SLO; lower if ITL > SLO. **Know your starting point: the default is gated on BOTH device memory and entrypoint**, not a single number. Read from `vllm/engine/arg_utils.py` at tag v0.29.0:
| Device | `vllm serve` (OpenAI API) | Offline `LLM(...)` |
|---|---|---|
| ≥160 GiB (B200/B300) | 16384 / seqs 1024 | 16384 / seqs 1024 |
| ≥70 GiB non-A100 (H100/H200) | **8192** / seqs 1024 | 16384 / seqs 1024 |
| everything else, incl. A100 | 2048 / seqs 256 | 8192 / seqs 256 |
**v0.28.0's "max_num_batched_tokens raised from 8192 to 16384" (#51726) did not change the serving default on H100/H200.** It raised the offline `LLM_CLASS` value and the big-memory tier. Taking that release note at face value and assuming your `vllm serve` default moved is the mistake to avoid — it is still 8192 there. TPU chips have their own smaller table (V6E 1024, V5E 512, V5P lower still, on the serving path).
- **`--performance-mode {balanced,interactivity,throughput}`** — one flag for the whole posture; try it before hand-tuning the batching pair.
**Latency / graph + compile:**
- **CUDA graphs** — keep `FULL_AND_PIECEWISE` (default); the flag is now `--cudagraph-capture-sizes` / `--max-cudagraph-capture-size`, and the generated cap already tracks `min(max_num_seqs*2, 512)`.
- **`--async-scheduling`** — default-on in recent releases unless using spec-dec / PP / unsupported MM path.
- **Compile cache** — pre-bake `$VLLM_CACHE_ROOT/torch_compile_cache` on a representative pod; mount as PVC / bake into OCI layer.
**Distributed (last resort, only when the lever above is exhausted):**
- **NCCL** — on well-configured clouds do nothing. Bare-metal IB: `NCCL_IB_HCA`, `NCCL_IB_GID_INDEX`, `NCCL_NET_GDR_LEVEL`. Never `NCCL_CUMEM_ENABLE=0` on GB200.
- **PD disagg** — reach for only after the above are exhausted and prefill interference is the actual bottleneck.
## Triage tree ("why is it slow")
From Red Hat's 5-step triage ([2026-03-09](https://developers.redhat.com/articles/2026/03/09/5-steps-triage-vllm-performance)):
| Symptom | Look at | Common cause |
|---|---|---|
| TTFT high, queue empty | compute-bound prefill | chunked-prefill budget too low, no prefix cache, bad parallelism |
| TTFT high, queue growing | capacity | raise replicas, raise `max_num_seqs`, check preemption rate |
| TPOT high, TTFT fine | decode-bound | MoE kernel not tuned, wrong attention backend, async sched off |
| ITL spikes | CUDA-graph miss | batch sizes fall outside captured buckets |
| Preemptions climbing | KV thrashing | raise `--watermark`, lower `--max-num-seqs`, or add replicas (`--swap-space` is gone — V1 always recomputes) |
| `num_running` < configured concurrency | scheduler stall | check async-sched blockers, multimodal path, structured output |
**DCGM signals** (not `GPU_UTIL`): `DCGM_FI_PROF_SM_OCCUPANCY`, `DCGM_FI_PROF_PIPE_TENSOR_ACTIVE`. Low tensor-core active on a GEMM-bound workload = memory-bound.
## Quick-answer router
**MoE tuning + expert parallelism + DeepEP + EPLB + parallelism decision matrix** → `references/moe-and-ep.md`
**Scheduler knobs + CUDA graphs + torch.compile + compile cache** → `references/scheduler-and-compile.md`
**NCCL / InfiniBand / DCGM + PD disaggregation (Nixl/Mooncake/LMCache)** → `references/distributed.md`
**Known regressions + vendor quirks (AMD / Ascend / XPU)** → `references/regressions.md`
**Full citation anchors** → `references/sources.md`
## Top 10 operator mistakes this skill exists to prevent
1. **Not running `benchmark_moe.py` on a new GPU SKU.** Shipped configs cover common combos (H100, H200, A100, MI300X for Mixtral). B200 / B300 / GB200 / MI325X / Jetson Thor / RTX Pro Blackwell almost always need re-tuning. Symptom: `Using default MoE config. Performance might be sub-optimal!` in logs. Fix: `python benchmarks/kernels/benchmark_moe.py --model <moe-model> --tp-size <N> --enable-expert-parallel --tune --save-dir ./configs`, then `export VLLM_TUNED_CONFIG_FOLDER=./configs`. Expected: 20-40% throughput recovery.
2. **`gpu_memory_utilization=0.95` on MoE.** All-to-all staging buffers (DeepEP, NVSHMEM) aren't in the memory accountant. OOM at high concurrency. Fix: cap at 0.85 for MoE, 0.92 for dense.
3. **TP not divisible by head count.** Model has 32 heads, TP=7 → shape mismatch. Rule: `num_heads % TP == 0` AND `hidden_size % TP == 0`.
4. **DeepSeek-V3.2 at TP=8 on H100/H200/B200/B300.** FlashMLA-Sparse only uses 16 heads per rank, padded to 64 → overhead. Fix: `DP=8, EP=8, TP=1`. ([DeepSeek-V3.2 recipe](https://docs.vllm.ai/projects/recipes/en/latest/DeepSeek/DeepSeek-V3_2.html))
5. **Llama-4-Maverick with `--enable-expert-parallel`.** Activation density 0.78% (1/128) — AllToAll overhead exceeds parallelism win. **EP hurts 7-12%** vs TP-only for Maverick. DeepSeek-R1 (3.13%) and Qwen3-235B (6.25%) benefit from EP. Rule: only enable EP when `(experts_per_token / total_experts) > 2%`.
6. **MLA model with TP=8.** Single KV head, TP duplicates ~84.5 GB KV cache per rank. Fix: DP-attention + EP-MoE splits KV to ~0.125 GB/GPU/request.
7. **`--async-scheduling` with unsupported path.** Structured outputs (fixed #26866), spec-dec (#24799 fixed), PP/struct-out/spec-dec/MM umbrella tracker #27679 closed 2025-12-29 — all sub-PRs merged. The vllm-ascend v0.11.0rc2 precision bug (#4649) is fixed — **closed 2026-03-13**; upgrade rather than disabling async-sched. Symptom: stall, latency regression, or precision loss. Fix: upgrade; only disable if you've reproduced the issue on your version.
8. **Shipping `VLLM_MOE_USE_DEEP_GEMM=1` blindly on H200.** Between `d83f3f7` and `5a84b76` the DeepGEMM MoE M<128 restriction was removed; H200 DeepSeek-R1 EP at concurrency ≤8 regressed 1.5× TTFT. **[#28882](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/issues/28882) closed 2026-04-21** — upgrade to v0.19.1+ or current main. For pre-v0.19.1 deployments, the workaround was `VLLM_MOE_USE_DEEP_GEMM=0` + FlashInfer FP8 for low-concurrency decode; re-benchmark after upgrading before removing the override.
9. **Skipping compile cache on K8s.** First-pod torch.compile = 5-15 min on large models. Fix: pre-bake `$VLLM_CACHE_ROOT/torch_compile_cache` on one pod, mount as PVC / OCI layer. Llama-4 specifically needs `VLLM_DISABLE_COMPILE_CACHE=1` — stale-cache bug.
10. **`NCCL_CUMEM_ENABLE=0` on GB200.** Disables multi-node NVLink, forces TCP/IB fallback. Nvidia's rule: **"users should not need to tune NCCL environment variables"** on modern clouds. GB200 set `NCCL_NET_GDR_C2C=1`. PR [#16992](https://github.com/vllm-project/vllm/pull/16992) fixed vLLM's defaults.
## Operator cheat sheet
### MoE tune on new hardware (canonical recipe)
```bash
# Step 1 — run the tuner (uses Ray to parallelize across local GPUs)
python benchmarks/kernels/benchmark_moe.py \
--model deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3 \
--tp-size 8 --enable-expert-parallel --dtype fp8_w8a8 \
--tune --save-dir ./moe_configs
# Step 2 — point vLLM at the configs
export VLLM_TUNED_CONFIG_FOLDER=./moe_configs
# Step 3 — serve + verify no "default MoE config" warning in logs
vllm serve deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V3 --tensor-parallel-size 8 \
--enable-expert-parallel --enable-eplb --enable-dbo \
--gpu-memory-utilization 0.85
```
### Parallelism first-pick table
| Model family | Small-scale | Large-scale (≥16 GPUs) |
|---|---|---|
| Dense (Llama, Qwen3-dense) | TP=N, DP=replicas | TP=8 intra-node + PP=nodes OR TP=8 + DP=N |
| MoE non-MLA (Mixtral, Qwen3-MoE) | TP=N, EP off | TP + EP: EP = E / TP |
| MoE MLA (DeepSeek-V3/R1, Kimi-K2) | DP=N + EP | Wide-EP: DP-attn + EP-MoE, `--enable-eplb` |
| Llama-4-Maverick (0.78% density) | TP only | TP only (EP hurts) |
| DeepSeek-V3.2 (FlashMLA-Sparse) | DP=8, EP=8, TP=1 | same |
Concurrency crossover (8× MI300X benchmarks): ≤128 concurrent → TP wins, ≥512 → DP wins, 256-512 mixed. ([AMD MoE playbook](https://rocm.blogs.amd.com/software-tools-optimization/vllm-moe-guide/README.html))
### Scheduler first-pass by workload
| Scenario | `max_num_batched_tokens` | `max_num_seqs` | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Throughput-heavy (batch decode) | 4096-16384 | 256-512 | async sched on |
| Latency-heavy (chat) | 1024-2048 | 64-128 | async sched on, `--stream-interval 1` |
| Long-context RAG | 8192-16384 | 32-64 | `--enable-prefix-caching`, `--long-prefill-token-threshold` |
| Wide-EP DeepSeek | 8192 | 256 | `--enable-expert-parallel --enable-eplb --enable-dbo`, `FULL_AND_PIECEWISE` |
### Compile-level shorthand
| Flag | Effect |
|---|---|
| `-O0` | No compile, no CUDA graphs (= `--enforce-eager`) |
| `-O1` | Simple compile + PIECEWISE graphs |
| **`-O2`** | **default** — full compile + `FULL_AND_PIECEWISE` + fusions (AllReduce+RMSNorm +15%, SP+Async-TP +10%, Attention+Quant FP8 +7%) |
| `-O3` | reserved (currently = `-O2`) |
### What changed under you, v0.22.0 → v0.27.0
Six minors of execution-path change. These move the baseline a re-tune is
measured against — re-benchmark across any of these boundaries rather than
comparing to numbers taken before them.
**v0.26.0 → v0.27.0 (the flag-surface window — these break configs, not just numbers):**
- **`--max-num-partial-prefills` / `--max-long-partial-prefills` removed**
(#49244, v0.27.0). A recipe carrying them no longer starts. They were V0
fields the V1 oracle already rejected, so nothing was lost.
- **First-request compilation stalls are gone.** FA4 JIT warmup infrastructure
(#47451) plus runner-owned Triton kernel warmup before the first request
(#49903). A pre-v0.27.0 TTFT baseline that swallowed a cold JIT is not
comparable to one taken after.
- **torch 2.13.0 / torchvision 0.28.0** (#48155, upstream-flagged as a breaking
environment change). Both AOT-compile gates are now satisfied by default, so
AOT and the mega-artifact are on unless explicitly disabled.
- **Startup validation got stricter** and now fails fast instead of dying later:
`/dev/shm` too small for the shm ring buffer (#48879), cgroup memory limits
respected on all platforms (#49966), incompatible nested runtime overrides
rejected (#49247), DCP topology validation (#49777), better data-parallel
launch validation (#49124). Configs that "worked" by accident will now refuse
to boot — that is the fix, not a regression.
- **`stream_interval` is a per-request sampling param** (#49754), so one
interactive client no longer forces `N=1` server-wide.
- **`FusedMoE` renamed `FusedMoEFactory`** (#44941) — matters only if you import
it; no operator-facing flag changed.
**v0.22.0 → v0.25.1:**
- **Model Runner V2 became the default execution path, in three steps.**
Qwen3 (v0.22.0) → **+ Llama and Mistral dense models** (#43458, v0.23.0) →
**all dense models** (#44443, v0.25.0). MRv2 also gained a FlashInfer sampler
(#42472), breakable CUDA graphs (#44050), pipeline-parallel bubble
elimination (#42187), and full-CUDA-graph-compatible dynamic speculative
decoding (#45953). A throughput figure measured on a pre-MRv2 build is not
comparable to one taken after the switch for the same model.
- **DeepEP v2 replaced v1** (#41183, v0.24.0), with follow-on token-bound and
topk-index fixes (#46404, #46432).
- **Async EPLB is on by default** (#43219, v0.23.0). v0.24.0 then made
NCCL-based EPLB **rejected** in combination with async EPLB (#44978) — a
config that used to start will now fail fast.
- **Sequence parallelism no longer requires DP** (#47070, v0.25.0),
+1.9–5.0% E2E throughput — a lever that was previously unavailable in
non-DP deployments.
- **`CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES` is no longer set internally**; use the new
`device_ids` argument (#45026, v0.24.0). Device-pinning wrappers need review.
- **PagedAttention was removed entirely** (#47361, v0.25.0).
- **The Transformers modeling backend is now as fast as native vLLM**
(#47187, v0.25.0) — the historical "always convert to a native
implementation for speed" reflex is worth re-testing.
- Notable kernel wins if hunting single-digit percentages: batch-invariant
Cutlass FP8 **+28.9% E2E** (#40408, v0.22.0), CutlassFP8 padding
pre-processing **+13.5% TTFT** (#42651), SM90 CUTLASS FP8 odd-M `swap_ab`
**180–290% kernel** (#44572, v0.24.0), reduce-scatter MoE all-reduce
+3.1–3.2% E2E (#46635, v0.25.0).
### Key numbers to memorize
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Default `max_num_batched_tokens` / `max_num_seqs`, `vllm serve` on ≥70 GiB non-A100 GPU | **8192 / 1024** |
| Same, on <70 GiB or any A100 | 2048 / 256 (the PR #10544 figure — small-GPU branch only) |
| Default CUDA-graph sizes (`--cudagraph-capture-sizes`) | `[1,2,4] + range(8,256,8) + range(256,max,16)`, cap `min(max_num_seqs*2, 512)` |
| H200 Wide-EP DeepSeek-R1 throughput | 2.2k tok/s/GPU vs ~1.5k baseline ([vllm.ai/blog/large-scale-serving](https://vllm.ai/blog/large-scale-serving)) |
| GB200 Wide-EP DeepSeek-R1 | 26.2K TPGS prefill, 10.1K TPGS decode, 3-5× H200 ([vllm.ai/blog/dsr1-gb200-part1](https://vllm.ai/blog/dsr1-gb200-part1)) |
| MLPerf v5.1 Blackwell Ultra | 5,842 tok/s/GPU offline, 2,907 server ([NVIDIA blog](https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-blackwell-ultra-sets-new-inference-records-in-mlperf-debut/)) |
| DeepEP dispatch (FP8, Azure H100 IB400) | 45.9 GB/s RDMA, 149.8 GB/s NVLink ([Azure blog](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/azurehighperformancecomputingblog/achieving-optimal-performance-for-deepseek-expert-parallelism-deepep-on-azure/4414699)) |
| Activation density cutoff for EP win | > 2% (below: TP wins) |
## Source policy
All claims cite file:line, release-note PR refs, or issue IDs. Full anchor list + vendor-specific sources in `references/sources.md`. Compiled 2026-04-18 against v0.19.0; freshened 2026-05-28 (v0.21.0) and 2026-07-21 (v0.25.1). **Last freshened 2026-08-11 against v0.27.0**, by reading the config dataclasses and `arg_utils.py` at the tag rather than skimming release notes.
**Flags rot silently between minors, and release notes will not tell you.** This
pass found four documented knobs that no longer exist — `--max-num-partial-prefills`
and `--max-long-partial-prefills` (v0.27.0), `--preemption-mode` and `--swap-space`
(removed **eleven and five months** before this pass, and missed by two prior
freshens) — plus `--cuda-graph-sizes` renamed to `--cudagraph-capture-sizes`.
Three prior passes verified *issues* diligently and never verified the *flag
surface*. When freshening, read `vllm/config/*.py` + `vllm/engine/arg_utils.py`
at the target tag and check each flag this skill names, by name.
**Treat a `CLOSED` issue as unfixed until you read why it closed.** This pass found #31475 (MI300X FP8 slower than BF16), #25538 (preempt/resume thrashing) and #35048 (MiniMax latency regression) all closed `NOT_PLANNED` by the inactivity bot — none of them fixed. #35048 was merely stale-marked when last checked and was predicted to go this way; it did, on 2026-07-22. Only #29539 and #34249 closed against real fixes, and #38971 closed with a usable *answer* (`--moe-backend`).
Next refresh when v0.26.x ships, or when the Wide-EP GB200 Part II blog lands (still Part I only as of 2026-07-21, not re-probed this pass).
