Using Keras & Tensorflow with AMD GPU

Question

I\'m starting to learn Keras, which I believe is a layer on top of Tensorflow and Theano. However, I only have access to AMD GPUs such as the AMD R9 280X.

How can I

Answer 1

One can use AMD GPU via the PlaidML Keras backend.

Fastest: PlaidML is often 10x faster (or more) than popular platforms (like TensorFlow CPU) because it supports all GPUs, independent of make and model. PlaidML accelerates deep learning on AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, ARM, and embedded GPUs.

Easiest: PlaidML is simple to install and supports multiple frontends (Keras and ONNX currently)

Free: PlaidML is completely open source and doesn't rely on any vendor libraries with proprietary and restrictive licenses.

For most platforms, getting started with accelerated deep learning is as easy as running a few commands (assuming you have Python (v2 or v3) installed):

virtualenv plaidml
source plaidml/bin/activate
pip install plaidml-keras plaidbench

Choose which accelerator you'd like to use (many computers, especially laptops, have multiple):

plaidml-setup

Next, try benchmarking MobileNet inference performance:

plaidbench keras mobilenet

Or, try training MobileNet:

plaidbench --batch-size 16 keras --train mobilenet

To use it with keras set

os.environ["KERAS_BACKEND"] = "plaidml.keras.backend"

For more information

https://github.com/plaidml/plaidml

https://github.com/rstudio/keras/issues/205#issuecomment-348336284