# Transformers installation
! pip install transformers datasets
# To install from source instead of the last release, comment the command above and uncomment the following one.
# ! pip install git+https://github.com/huggingface/transformers.git
Hugging Face's Benchmarking tools are deprecated and it is advised to use external Benchmarking libraries to measure the speed and memory complexity of Transformer models.
Let's take a look at how 🤗 Transformers models can be benchmarked, best practices, and already available benchmarks.
A notebook explaining in more detail how to benchmark 🤗 Transformers models can be found here.
The classes PyTorchBenchmark and TensorFlowBenchmark allow to flexibly benchmark 🤗 Transformers models. The benchmark classes allow us to measure the peak memory usage and required time for both inference and training.
Hereby, inference is defined by a single forward pass, and training is defined by a single forward pass and backward pass.
The benchmark classes PyTorchBenchmark and TensorFlowBenchmark expect an object of type PyTorchBenchmarkArguments and
TensorFlowBenchmarkArguments, respectively, for instantiation. PyTorchBenchmarkArguments and TensorFlowBenchmarkArguments are data classes and contain all relevant configurations for their corresponding benchmark class. In the following example, it is shown how a BERT model of type bert-base-cased can be benchmarked.
from transformers import PyTorchBenchmark, PyTorchBenchmarkArguments
args = PyTorchBenchmarkArguments(models=["bert-base-uncased"], batch_sizes=[8], sequence_lengths=[8, 32, 128, 512])
benchmark = PyTorchBenchmark(args)
from transformers import TensorFlowBenchmark, TensorFlowBenchmarkArguments
args = TensorFlowBenchmarkArguments(
models=["bert-base-uncased"], batch_sizes=[8], sequence_lengths=[8, 32, 128, 512]
)
benchmark = TensorFlowBenchmark(args)
Here, three arguments are given to the benchmark argument data classes, namely models, batch_sizes, and
sequence_lengths. The argument models is required and expects a list of model identifiers from the
model hub The list arguments batch_sizes and sequence_lengths define
the size of the input_ids on which the model is benchmarked. There are many more parameters that can be configured
via the benchmark argument data classes. For more detail on these one can either directly consult the files
src/transformers/benchmark/benchmark_args_utils.py, src/transformers/benchmark/benchmark_args.py (for PyTorch)
and src/transformers/benchmark/benchmark_args_tf.py (for Tensorflow). Alternatively, running the following shell
commands from root will print out a descriptive list of all configurable parameters for PyTorch and Tensorflow
respectively.
python examples/pytorch/benchmarking/run_benchmark.py --help
An instantiated benchmark object can then simply be run by calling benchmark.run().
results = benchmark.run()
print(results)
==================== INFERENCE - SPEED - RESULT ==================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model Name Batch Size Seq Length Time in s -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- bert-base-uncased 8 8 0.006 bert-base-uncased 8 32 0.006 bert-base-uncased 8 128 0.018 bert-base-uncased 8 512 0.088 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ==================== INFERENCE - MEMORY - RESULT ==================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model Name Batch Size Seq Length Memory in MB -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- bert-base-uncased 8 8 1227 bert-base-uncased 8 32 1281 bert-base-uncased 8 128 1307 bert-base-uncased 8 512 1539 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ==================== ENVIRONMENT INFORMATION ==================== - transformers_version: 2.11.0 - framework: PyTorch - use_torchscript: False - framework_version: 1.4.0 - python_version: 3.6.10 - system: Linux - cpu: x86_64 - architecture: 64bit - date: 2020-06-29 - time: 08:58:43.371351 - fp16: False - use_multiprocessing: True - only_pretrain_model: False - cpu_ram_mb: 32088 - use_gpu: True - num_gpus: 1 - gpu: TITAN RTX - gpu_ram_mb: 24217 - gpu_power_watts: 280.0 - gpu_performance_state: 2 - use_tpu: False
python examples/tensorflow/benchmarking/run_benchmark_tf.py --help
An instantiated benchmark object can then simply be run by calling benchmark.run().
results = benchmark.run()
print(results)
results = benchmark.run()
print(results)
==================== INFERENCE - SPEED - RESULT ==================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model Name Batch Size Seq Length Time in s -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- bert-base-uncased 8 8 0.005 bert-base-uncased 8 32 0.008 bert-base-uncased 8 128 0.022 bert-base-uncased 8 512 0.105 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ==================== INFERENCE - MEMORY - RESULT ==================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model Name Batch Size Seq Length Memory in MB -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- bert-base-uncased 8 8 1330 bert-base-uncased 8 32 1330 bert-base-uncased 8 128 1330 bert-base-uncased 8 512 1770 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ==================== ENVIRONMENT INFORMATION ==================== - transformers_version: 2.11.0 - framework: Tensorflow - use_xla: False - framework_version: 2.2.0 - python_version: 3.6.10 - system: Linux - cpu: x86_64 - architecture: 64bit - date: 2020-06-29 - time: 09:26:35.617317 - fp16: False - use_multiprocessing: True - only_pretrain_model: False - cpu_ram_mb: 32088 - use_gpu: True - num_gpus: 1 - gpu: TITAN RTX - gpu_ram_mb: 24217 - gpu_power_watts: 280.0 - gpu_performance_state: 2 - use_tpu: False
By default, the time and the required memory for inference are benchmarked. In the example output above the first
two sections show the result corresponding to inference time and inference memory. In addition, all relevant
information about the computing environment, e.g. the GPU type, the system, the library versions, etc... are printed
out in the third section under ENVIRONMENT INFORMATION. This information can optionally be saved in a .csv file
when adding the argument save_to_csv=True to PyTorchBenchmarkArguments and
TensorFlowBenchmarkArguments respectively. In this case, every section is saved in a separate
.csv file. The path to each .csv file can optionally be defined via the argument data classes.
Instead of benchmarking pre-trained models via their model identifier, e.g. bert-base-uncased, the user can
alternatively benchmark an arbitrary configuration of any available model class. In this case, a list of
configurations must be inserted with the benchmark args as follows.
from transformers import PyTorchBenchmark, PyTorchBenchmarkArguments, BertConfig
args = PyTorchBenchmarkArguments(
models=["bert-base", "bert-384-hid", "bert-6-lay"], batch_sizes=[8], sequence_lengths=[8, 32, 128, 512]
)
config_base = BertConfig()
config_384_hid = BertConfig(hidden_size=384)
config_6_lay = BertConfig(num_hidden_layers=6)
benchmark = PyTorchBenchmark(args, configs=[config_base, config_384_hid, config_6_lay])
benchmark.run()
==================== INFERENCE - SPEED - RESULT ==================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model Name Batch Size Seq Length Time in s -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- bert-base 8 128 0.006 bert-base 8 512 0.006 bert-base 8 128 0.018 bert-base 8 512 0.088 bert-384-hid 8 8 0.006 bert-384-hid 8 32 0.006 bert-384-hid 8 128 0.011 bert-384-hid 8 512 0.054 bert-6-lay 8 8 0.003 bert-6-lay 8 32 0.004 bert-6-lay 8 128 0.009 bert-6-lay 8 512 0.044 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ==================== INFERENCE - MEMORY - RESULT ==================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model Name Batch Size Seq Length Memory in MB -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- bert-base 8 8 1277 bert-base 8 32 1281 bert-base 8 128 1307 bert-base 8 512 1539 bert-384-hid 8 8 1005 bert-384-hid 8 32 1027 bert-384-hid 8 128 1035 bert-384-hid 8 512 1255 bert-6-lay 8 8 1097 bert-6-lay 8 32 1101 bert-6-lay 8 128 1127 bert-6-lay 8 512 1359 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ==================== ENVIRONMENT INFORMATION ==================== - transformers_version: 2.11.0 - framework: PyTorch - use_torchscript: False - framework_version: 1.4.0 - python_version: 3.6.10 - system: Linux - cpu: x86_64 - architecture: 64bit - date: 2020-06-29 - time: 09:35:25.143267 - fp16: False - use_multiprocessing: True - only_pretrain_model: False - cpu_ram_mb: 32088 - use_gpu: True - num_gpus: 1 - gpu: TITAN RTX - gpu_ram_mb: 24217 - gpu_power_watts: 280.0 - gpu_performance_state: 2 - use_tpu: False
from transformers import TensorFlowBenchmark, TensorFlowBenchmarkArguments, BertConfig
args = TensorFlowBenchmarkArguments(
models=["bert-base", "bert-384-hid", "bert-6-lay"], batch_sizes=[8], sequence_lengths=[8, 32, 128, 512]
)
config_base = BertConfig()
config_384_hid = BertConfig(hidden_size=384)
config_6_lay = BertConfig(num_hidden_layers=6)
benchmark = TensorFlowBenchmark(args, configs=[config_base, config_384_hid, config_6_lay])
benchmark.run()
==================== INFERENCE - SPEED - RESULT ==================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model Name Batch Size Seq Length Time in s -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- bert-base 8 8 0.005 bert-base 8 32 0.008 bert-base 8 128 0.022 bert-base 8 512 0.106 bert-384-hid 8 8 0.005 bert-384-hid 8 32 0.007 bert-384-hid 8 128 0.018 bert-384-hid 8 512 0.064 bert-6-lay 8 8 0.002 bert-6-lay 8 32 0.003 bert-6-lay 8 128 0.0011 bert-6-lay 8 512 0.074 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ==================== INFERENCE - MEMORY - RESULT ==================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Model Name Batch Size Seq Length Memory in MB -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- bert-base 8 8 1330 bert-base 8 32 1330 bert-base 8 128 1330 bert-base 8 512 1770 bert-384-hid 8 8 1330 bert-384-hid 8 32 1330 bert-384-hid 8 128 1330 bert-384-hid 8 512 1540 bert-6-lay 8 8 1330 bert-6-lay 8 32 1330 bert-6-lay 8 128 1330 bert-6-lay 8 512 1540 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ==================== ENVIRONMENT INFORMATION ==================== - transformers_version: 2.11.0 - framework: Tensorflow - use_xla: False - framework_version: 2.2.0 - python_version: 3.6.10 - system: Linux - cpu: x86_64 - architecture: 64bit - date: 2020-06-29 - time: 09:38:15.487125 - fp16: False - use_multiprocessing: True - only_pretrain_model: False - cpu_ram_mb: 32088 - use_gpu: True - num_gpus: 1 - gpu: TITAN RTX - gpu_ram_mb: 24217 - gpu_power_watts: 280.0 - gpu_performance_state: 2 - use_tpu: False
Again, inference time and required memory for inference are measured, but this time for customized configurations
of the BertModel class. This feature can especially be helpful when deciding for which configuration the model
should be trained.
This section lists a couple of best practices one should be aware of when benchmarking a model.
CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES environment variable in the
shell, e.g. export CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=0 before running the code.no_multi_processing should only be set to True for testing and debugging. To ensure accurate
memory measurement it is recommended to run each memory benchmark in a separate process by making sure
no_multi_processing is set to True.Previously all available core models (10 at the time) have been benchmarked for inference time, across many different settings: using PyTorch, with and without TorchScript, using TensorFlow, with and without XLA. All of those tests were done across CPUs (except for TensorFlow XLA) and GPUs.
The approach is detailed in the following blogpost and the results are available here.
With the new benchmark tools, it is easier than ever to share your benchmark results with the community