--- comments: true description: Quick start guide to setting up YOLOv8 on a NVIDIA Jetson device with comprehensive benchmarks. keywords: Ultralytics, YOLO, NVIDIA, Jetson, TensorRT, quick start guide, hardware setup, machine learning, AI --- # Quick Start Guide: NVIDIA Jetson with Ultralytics YOLOv8 This comprehensive guide provides a detailed walkthrough for deploying Ultralytics YOLOv8 on [NVIDIA Jetson](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/autonomous-machines/embedded-systems/) devices. Additionally, it showcases performance benchmarks to demonstrate the capabilities of YOLOv8 on these small and powerful devices. NVIDIA Jetson Ecosystem !!! Note This guide has been tested with [Seeed Studio reComputer J4012](https://www.seeedstudio.com/reComputer-J4012-p-5586.html) which is based on NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX 16GB running the latest stable JetPack release of [JP5.1.3](https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetpack-sdk-513). Using this guide for older Jetson devices such as the Jetson Nano (this only supports until JP4.6.4) may not be guaranteed to work. However this is expected to work on all Jetson Orin, Xavier NX, AGX Xavier devices running JP5.1.3. ## What is NVIDIA Jetson? NVIDIA Jetson is a series of embedded computing boards designed to bring accelerated AI (artificial intelligence) computing to edge devices. These compact and powerful devices are built around NVIDIA's GPU architecture and are capable of running complex AI algorithms and deep learning models directly on the device, without needing to rely on cloud computing resources. Jetson boards are often used in robotics, autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, and other applications where AI inference needs to be performed locally with low latency and high efficiency. Additionally, these boards are based on the ARM64 architecture and runs on lower power compared to traditional GPU computing devices. ## NVIDIA Jetson Series Comparison [Jetson Orin](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/autonomous-machines/embedded-systems/jetson-orin/) is the latest iteration of the NVIDIA Jetson family based on NVIDIA Ampere architecture which brings drastically improved AI performance when compared to the previous generations. Below table compared few of the Jetson devices in the ecosystem. | | Jetson AGX Orin 64GB | Jetson Orin NX 16GB | Jetson Orin Nano 8GB | Jetson AGX Xavier | Jetson Xavier NX | Jetson Nano | |-------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------| | AI Performance | 275 TOPS | 100 TOPS | 40 TOPs | 32 TOPS | 21 TOPS | 472 GFLOPS | | GPU | 2048-core NVIDIA Ampere architecture GPU with 64 Tensor Cores | 1024-core NVIDIA Ampere architecture GPU with 32 Tensor Cores | 1024-core NVIDIA Ampere architecture GPU with 32 Tensor Cores | 512-core NVIDIA Volta architecture GPU with 64 Tensor Cores | 384-core NVIDIA Volta™ architecture GPU with 48 Tensor Cores | 128-core NVIDIA Maxwell™ architecture GPU | | GPU Max Frequency | 1.3 GHz | 918 MHz | 625 MHz | 1377 MHz | 1100 MHz | 921MHz | | CPU | 12-core NVIDIA Arm® Cortex A78AE v8.2 64-bit CPU 3MB L2 + 6MB L3 | 8-core NVIDIA Arm® Cortex A78AE v8.2 64-bit CPU 2MB L2 + 4MB L3 | 6-core Arm® Cortex®-A78AE v8.2 64-bit CPU 1.5MB L2 + 4MB L3 | 8-core NVIDIA Carmel Arm®v8.2 64-bit CPU 8MB L2 + 4MB L3 | 6-core NVIDIA Carmel Arm®v8.2 64-bit CPU 6MB L2 + 4MB L3 | Quad-Core Arm® Cortex®-A57 MPCore processor | | CPU Max Frequency | 2.2 GHz | 2.0 GHz | 1.5 GHz | 2.2 GHz | 1.9 GHz | 1.43GHz | | Memory | 64GB 256-bit LPDDR5 204.8GB/s | 16GB 128-bit LPDDR5 102.4GB/s | 8GB 128-bit LPDDR5 68 GB/s | 32GB 256-bit LPDDR4x 136.5GB/s | 8GB 128-bit LPDDR4x 59.7GB/s | 4GB 64-bit LPDDR4 25.6GB/s" | For a more detailed comparison table, please visit the **Technical Specifications** section of [official NVIDIA Jetson page](https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetson-modules). ## What is NVIDIA JetPack? [NVIDIA JetPack SDK](https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetpack) powering the Jetson modules is the most comprehensive solution and provides full development environment for building end-to-end accelerated AI applications and shortens time to market. JetPack includes Jetson Linux with bootloader, Linux kernel, Ubuntu desktop environment, and a complete set of libraries for acceleration of GPU computing, multimedia, graphics, and computer vision. It also includes samples, documentation, and developer tools for both host computer and developer kit, and supports higher level SDKs such as DeepStream for streaming video analytics, Isaac for robotics, and Riva for conversational AI. ## Flash JetPack to NVIDIA Jetson The first step after getting your hands on an NVIDIA Jetson device is to flash NVIDIA JetPack to the device. There are several different way of flashing NVIDIA Jetson devices. 1. If you own an official NVIDIA Development Kit such as the Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit, you can visit [this link](https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/learn/get-started-jetson-orin-nano-devkit) to download an image and prepare an SD card with JetPack for booting the device. 2. If you own any other NVIDIA Development Kit, you can visit [this link](https://docs.nvidia.com/sdk-manager/install-with-sdkm-jetson/index.html) to flash JetPack to the device using [SDK Manager](https://developer.nvidia.com/sdk-manager). 3. If you own a Seeed Studio reComputer J4012 device, you can visit [this link](https://wiki.seeedstudio.com/reComputer_J4012_Flash_Jetpack) to flash JetPack to the included SSD. 4. If you own any other third party device powered by the NVIDIA Jetson module, it is recommended to follow command-line flashing by visiting [this link](https://docs.nvidia.com/jetson/archives/r35.5.0/DeveloperGuide/IN/QuickStart.html). !!! Note For methods 3 and 4 above, after flashing the system and booting the device, please enter "sudo apt update && sudo apt install nvidia-jetpack -y" on the device terminal to install all the remaining JetPack components needed. ## Start with Docker The fastest way to get started with Ultralytics YOLOv8 on NVIDIA Jetson is to run with pre-built docker image for Jetson. Execute the below command to pull the Docker containter and run on Jetson. This is based on [l4t-pytorch](https://catalog.ngc.nvidia.com/orgs/nvidia/containers/l4t-pytorch) docker image which contains PyTorch and Torchvision in a Python3 environment. ```sh t=ultralytics/ultralytics:latest-jetson && sudo docker pull $t && sudo docker run -it --ipc=host --runtime=nvidia $t ``` ## Start without Docker ### Install Ultralytics Package Here we will install ultralyics package on the Jetson with optional dependencies so that we can export the PyTorch models to other different formats. We will mainly focus on [NVIDIA TensorRT exports](https://docs.ultralytics.com/integrations/tensorrt) because TensoRT will make sure we can get the maximum performance out of the Jetson devices. 1. Update packages list, install pip and upgrade to latest ```sh sudo apt update sudo apt install python3-pip -y pip install -U pip ``` 2. Install `ultralytics` pip package with optional dependencies ```sh pip install ultralytics[export] ``` 3. Reboot the device ```sh sudo reboot ``` ### Install PyTorch and Torchvision The above ultralytics installation will install Torch and Torchvision. However, these 2 packages installed via pip are not compatible to run on Jetson platform which is based on ARM64 architecture. Therefore, we need to manually install pre-built PyTorch pip wheel and compile/ install Torchvision from source. 1. Uninstall currently installed PyTorch and Torchvision ```sh pip uninstall torch torchvision ``` 2. Install PyTorch 2.1.0 according to JP5.1.3 ```sh sudo apt-get install -y libopenblas-base libopenmpi-dev wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/redist/jp/v512/pytorch/torch-2.1.0a0+41361538.nv23.06-cp38-cp38-linux_aarch64.whl -O torch-2.1.0a0+41361538.nv23.06-cp38-cp38-linux_aarch64.whl pip install torch-2.1.0a0+41361538.nv23.06-cp38-cp38-linux_aarch64.whl ``` 3. Install Torchvision v0.16.2 according to PyTorch v2.1.0 ```sh sudo apt install -y libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev git clone https://github.com/pytorch/vision torchvision cd torchvision git checkout v0.16.2 python3 setup.py install --user ``` Visit [this page](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/pytorch-for-jetson/72048) to access all different versions of PyTorch for different JetPack versions. For a more detailed list on the PyTorch, Torchvision compatibility, please check [here](https://github.com/pytorch/vision). ## Use TensorRT on NVIDIA Jetson Out of all the model export formats supported by Ultralytics, TensorRT delivers the best inference performance when working with NVIDIA Jetson devices and our recommendation is to use TensorRT with Jetson. We also have a detailed document on TensorRT [here](https://docs.ultralytics.com/integrations/tensorrt). ## Convert Model to TensorRT and Run Inference The YOLOv8n model in PyTorch format is converted to TensorRT to run inference with the exported model. !!! Example === "Python" ```python from ultralytics import YOLO # Load a YOLOv8n PyTorch model model = YOLO('yolov8n.pt') # Export the model model.export(format='engine') # creates 'yolov8n.engine' # Load the exported TensorRT model trt_model = YOLO('yolov8n.engine') # Run inference results = trt_model('https://ultralytics.com/images/bus.jpg') ``` === "CLI" ```bash # Export a YOLOv8n PyTorch model to TensorRT format yolo export model=yolov8n.pt format=engine # creates 'yolov8n.engine' # Run inference with the exported model yolo predict model=yolov8n.engine source='https://ultralytics.com/images/bus.jpg' ``` ## Arguments | Key | Value | Description | |----------|------------|------------------------------------------------------| | `format` | `'engine'` | format to export to | | `imgsz` | `640` | image size as scalar or (h, w) list, i.e. (640, 480) | | `half` | `False` | FP16 quantization | ## NVIDIA Jetson Orin YOLOv8 Benchmarks YOLOv8 benchmarks below were run by the Ultralytics team on 3 different model formats measuring speed and accuracy: PyTorch, TorchScript and TensorRT. Benchmarks were run on Seeed Studio reComputer J4012 powered by Jetson Orin NX 16GB device at FP32 precision with default input image size of 640.
NVIDIA Jetson Ecosystem
| Model | Format | Status | Size (MB) | mAP50-95(B) | Inference time (ms/im) | |---------|-------------|--------|-----------|-------------|------------------------| | YOLOv8n | PyTorch | ✅ | 6.2 | 0.4473 | 14.3 | | YOLOv8n | TorchScript | ✅ | 12.4 | 0.4520 | 13.3 | | YOLOv8n | TensorRT | ✅ | 13.6 | 0.4520 | 8.7 | | YOLOv8s | PyTorch | ✅ | 21.5 | 0.5868 | 18 | | YOLOv8s | TorchScript | ✅ | 43.0 | 0.5971 | 23.9 | | YOLOv8s | TensorRT | ✅ | 44.0 | 0.5965 | 14.82 | | YOLOv8m | PyTorch | ✅ | 49.7 | 0.6101 | 36.4 | | YOLOv8m | TorchScript | ✅ | 99.2 | 0.6125 | 53.34 | | YOLOv8m | TensorRT | ✅ | 100.3 | 0.6123 | 33.28 | | YOLOv8l | PyTorch | ✅ | 83.7 | 0.6588 | 61.3 | | YOLOv8l | TorchScript | ✅ | 167.2 | 0.6587 | 85.21 | | YOLOv8l | TensorRT | ✅ | 168.3 | 0.6591 | 51.34 | | YOLOv8x | PyTorch | ✅ | 130.5 | 0.6650 | 93 | | YOLOv8x | TorchScript | ✅ | 260.7 | 0.6651 | 135.3 | | YOLOv8x | TensorRT | ✅ | 261.8 | 0.6645 | 84.5 | This table represents the benchmark results for five different models (YOLOv8n, YOLOv8s, YOLOv8m, YOLOv8l, YOLOv8x) across three different formats (PyTorch, TorchScript, TensorRT), giving us the status, size, mAP50-95(B) metric, and inference time for each combination. Visit [this link](https://www.seeedstudio.com/blog/2023/03/30/yolov8-performance-benchmarks-on-nvidia-jetson-devices) to explore more benchmarking efforts by Seeed Studio running on different versions of NVIDIA Jetson hardware. ## Reproduce Our Results To reproduce the above Ultralytics benchmarks on all export [formats](../modes/export.md) run this code: !!! Example === "Python" ```python from ultralytics import YOLO # Load a YOLOv8n PyTorch model model = YOLO('yolov8n.pt') # Benchmark YOLOv8n speed and accuracy on the COCO128 dataset for all all export formats results = model.benchmarks(data='coco128.yaml', imgsz=640) ``` === "CLI" ```bash # Benchmark YOLOv8n speed and accuracy on the COCO128 dataset for all all export formats yolo benchmark model=yolov8n.pt data=coco128.yaml imgsz=640 ``` Note that benchmarking results might vary based on the exact hardware and software configuration of a system, as well as the current workload of the system at the time the benchmarks are run. For the most reliable results use a dataset with a large number of images, i.e. `data='coco128.yaml' (128 val images), or `data='coco.yaml'` (5000 val images). !!! Note Currently only PyTorch, Torchscript and TensorRT are working with the benchmarking tools. We will update it to support other exports in the future. ## Best Practices when using NVIDIA Jetson When using NVIDIA Jetson, there are a couple of best practices to follow in order to enable maximum performance on the NVIDIA Jetson running YOLOv8. 1. Enable MAX Power Mode Enabling MAX Power Mode on the Jetson will make sure all CPU, GPU cores are turned on. ```sh sudo nvpmodel -m 0 ``` 2. Enable Jetson Clocks Enabling Jetson Clocks will make sure all CPU, GPU cores are clocked at their maximum frequency. ```sh sudo jetson_clocks ``` 3. Install Jetson Stats Application We can use jetson stats application to monitor the temperatures of the system components and check other system details such as view CPU, GPU, RAM utilization, change power modes, set to max clocks, check JetPack information ```sh sudo apt update sudo pip install jetson-stats sudo reboot jtop ``` Jetson Stats ## Next Steps Congratulations on successfully setting up YOLOv8 on your NVIDIA Jetson! For further learning and support, visit more guide at [Ultralytics YOLOv8 Docs](../index.md)!