vastai-performance-tuning

name	vastai-performance-tuning
description	Optimize Vast.ai GPU instance selection, startup time, and training throughput. Use when optimizing instance selection, reducing startup latency, or maximizing GPU utilization on rented hardware. Trigger with phrases like "vastai performance", "optimize vastai", "vastai slow", "vastai gpu utilization", "vastai throughput".
allowed-tools	Read, Write, Edit, Bash(vastai:*), Bash(ssh:*)
version	1.11.0
license	MIT
author	Jeremy Longshore <[e-mail]>
tags	["saas","vast-ai","api","performance"]
compatibility	Designed for Claude Code, also compatible with Codex and OpenClaw

Vast.ai Performance Tuning

Overview

Optimize GPU instance selection, startup time, and training throughput on Vast.ai. Key levers: Docker image caching, GPU selection by dlperf score, data pipeline optimization, and multi-GPU scaling.

Prerequisites

• Vast.ai account with active or planned instances
• Understanding of GPU compute bottlenecks
• Profiling tools (nvidia-smi, torch.profiler)

Instructions

Step 1: Optimize Instance Selection by Performance

# Sort by dlperf (deep learning performance benchmark) instead of price
vastai search offers 'num_gpus=1 gpu_ram>=24 reliability>0.95' \
  --order 'dlperf-' --limit 10

# The dlperf field measures actual GPU compute throughput
# Higher dlperf = faster training even at same GPU model
# Variance within same GPU model can be 20-30%

def select_by_performance_per_dollar(offers):
    """Select the offer with best performance per dollar."""
    for o in offers:
        o["perf_per_dollar"] = o.get("dlperf", 0) / max(o["dph_total"], 0.01)
    return max(offers, key=lambda o: o["perf_per_dollar"])

Step 2: Reduce Instance Startup Time

# Use smaller, pre-cached Docker images
# FAST: nvidia/cuda:12.1.1-runtime-ubuntu22.04 (~2GB, widely cached)
# MEDIUM: pytorch/pytorch:2.2.0-cuda12.1-cudnn8-runtime (~4GB)
# SLOW: custom-image:latest with pip install at build (~10GB+)

# Pre-install deps in the image, not in onstart
# BAD (slow startup):
vastai create instance $ID --image pytorch/pytorch:latest \
  --onstart-cmd