Files
ollama/cmd/bench/README.md
Daniel Hiltgen 79c1e93c00 bench: improve benchmarking tool (#14240)
New features:
- Warmup phase to eliminate cold-start outliers
- time-to-first-token measured in each epoch
- VRAM/memory tracking to identify CPU spillover
- Controlled prompt length
- Defaults to 6 epochs and 200 tokens max

Benchstat fixes:
- ns/request instead of ns/op — non-standard unit created a separate group instead of grouping with timing metrics
- Token count as the N field — benchstat interprets N as iteration count for statistical weighting, not as a token count
2026-03-15 11:47:31 -07:00

144 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown

Ollama Benchmark Tool
---------------------
A Go-based command-line tool for benchmarking Ollama models with configurable parameters, warmup phases, TTFT tracking, VRAM monitoring, and benchstat/CSV output.
## Features
* Benchmark multiple models in a single run
* Support for both text and image prompts
* Configurable generation parameters (temperature, max tokens, seed, etc.)
* Warmup phase before timed epochs to stabilize measurements
* Time-to-first-token (TTFT) tracking per epoch
* Model metadata display (parameter size, quantization level, family)
* VRAM and CPU memory usage tracking via running process info
* Controlled prompt token length for reproducible benchmarks
* Benchstat and CSV output formats
## Building from Source
```
go build -o ollama-bench ./cmd/bench
./ollama-bench -model gemma3 -epochs 6 -format csv
```
Using Go Run (without building)
```
go run ./cmd/bench -model gemma3 -epochs 3
```
## Usage
### Basic Example
```
./ollama-bench -model gemma3 -epochs 6
```
### Benchmark Multiple Models
```
./ollama-bench -model gemma3,gemma3n -epochs 6 -max-tokens 100 -p "Write me a short story" | tee gemma.bench
benchstat -col /name gemma.bench
```
### With Image Prompt
```
./ollama-bench -model qwen3-vl -image photo.jpg -epochs 6 -max-tokens 100 -p "Describe this image"
```
### Controlled Prompt Length
```
./ollama-bench -model gemma3 -epochs 6 -prompt-tokens 512
```
### Advanced Example
```
./ollama-bench -model llama3 -epochs 10 -temperature 0.7 -max-tokens 500 -seed 42 -warmup 2 -format csv -output results.csv
```
## Command Line Options
| Option | Description | Default |
|----------|-------------|---------|
| -model | Comma-separated list of models to benchmark | (required) |
| -epochs | Number of iterations per model | 6 |
| -max-tokens | Maximum tokens for model response | 200 |
| -temperature | Temperature parameter | 0.0 |
| -seed | Random seed | 0 (random) |
| -timeout | Timeout in seconds | 300 |
| -p | Prompt text | (default story prompt) |
| -image | Image file to include in prompt | |
| -k | Keep-alive duration in seconds | 0 |
| -format | Output format (benchstat, csv) | benchstat |
| -output | Output file for results | "" (stdout) |
| -warmup | Number of warmup requests before timing | 1 |
| -prompt-tokens | Generate prompt targeting ~N tokens (0 = use -p) | 0 |
| -v | Verbose mode | false |
| -debug | Show debug information | false |
## Output Formats
### Benchstat Format (default)
Compatible with Go's benchstat tool for statistical analysis. Uses one value/unit pair per line, standard `ns/op` for timing metrics, and `ns/token` for throughput. Each epoch produces one set of lines -- benchstat aggregates across repeated runs to compute statistics.
```
# Model: gemma3 | Params: 4.3B | Quant: Q4_K_M | Family: gemma3 | Size: 4080218931 | VRAM: 4080218931
BenchmarkModel/name=gemma3/step=prefill 1 78125.00 ns/token 12800.00 token/sec
BenchmarkModel/name=gemma3/step=generate 1 19531.25 ns/token 51200.00 token/sec
BenchmarkModel/name=gemma3/step=ttft 1 45123000 ns/op
BenchmarkModel/name=gemma3/step=load 1 1500000000 ns/op
BenchmarkModel/name=gemma3/step=total 1 2861047625 ns/op
```
Use with benchstat:
```
./ollama-bench -model gemma3 -epochs 6 > gemma3.bench
benchstat -col /step gemma3.bench
```
Compare two runs:
```
./ollama-bench -model gemma3 -epochs 6 > before.bench
# ... make changes ...
./ollama-bench -model gemma3 -epochs 6 > after.bench
benchstat before.bench after.bench
```
### CSV Format
Machine-readable comma-separated values:
```
NAME,STEP,COUNT,NS_PER_COUNT,TOKEN_PER_SEC
# Model: gemma3 | Params: 4.3B | Quant: Q4_K_M | Family: gemma3 | Size: 4080218931 | VRAM: 4080218931
gemma3,prefill,128,78125.00,12800.00
gemma3,generate,512,19531.25,51200.00
gemma3,ttft,1,45123000,0
gemma3,load,1,1500000000,0
gemma3,total,1,2861047625,0
```
## Metrics Explained
The tool reports the following metrics for each epoch:
* **prefill**: Time spent processing the prompt (ns/token)
* **generate**: Time spent generating the response (ns/token)
* **ttft**: Time to first token -- latency from request start to first response content
* **load**: Model loading time (one-time cost)
* **total**: Total request duration
Additionally, the model info comment line (displayed once per model before epochs) includes:
* **Params**: Model parameter count (e.g., 4.3B)
* **Quant**: Quantization level (e.g., Q4_K_M)
* **Family**: Model family (e.g., gemma3)
* **Size**: Total model memory in bytes
* **VRAM**: GPU memory used by the loaded model (when Size > VRAM, the difference is CPU spill)