# Optimizing DeepSeek-R1 Throughput on NVIDIA H200 GPUs

## Conclusion

![DeepSeek-R1 H200 Throughput Optimization](../../assets/performance-lab/deepseek-r1-h200.png)

Recommended configuration for optimizing throughput of DeepSeek-R1 on a single node with H200x8:

???+ tip "Serving Command"
    ```bash
    python3 -m sglang.launch_server --model deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1-0528 --tp 8 --enable-dp-attention
    ```

Comparison of benchmark results before and after optimization:

| Benchmark Case | baseline (vLLM without any optimizations) | Optimized |
|----------|-------------------------------------------|-----------|
| **ShareGPT** | Total TPS: 5482.59<br>Mean TPOT(ms): 227.45 | Total TPS: 7143.30 <span style="background-color:lightgreen;">(+30.3%)</span><br>Mean TPOT(ms): 304.71 |
| **Short Prompt** | Total TPS: 5931.25<br>Mean TPOT(ms): 351.83 | Total TPS: 20448.42 <span style="background-color:lightgreen;">(+244.8%)</span><br>Mean TPOT(ms): 802.48 |
| **Medium Prompt** | Total TPS: 17690.89<br>Mean TPOT(ms): 237.02 | Total TPS: 19024.33 <span style="background-color:lightgreen;">(+7.5%)</span><br>Mean TPOT(ms): 154.49 |
| **Long Prompt** | Total TPS: 15808.55<br>Mean TPOT(ms): 164.23 | Total TPS: 16096.80 <span style="background-color:lightgreen;">(+1.8%)</span><br>Mean TPOT(ms): 107.91 |
| **Very Long Prompt** | Total TPS: 15514.57<br>Mean TPOT(ms): 365.79 | Total TPS: 16091.68 <span style="background-color:lightgreen;">(+3.7%)</span><br>Mean TPOT(ms): 198.62 |



!!! note
    1. Our benchmark tests do not cover all possible optimization combinations. For example, we select the inference engine that performs best under its default configuration as the starting point for further tuning. This pruning approach yields a local optimum, which may not be the global optimum.
    2. There are other optimization methods that depend on specific user scenarios, including max batch size, schedule configuration, extended KV cache, CUDA graph, etc. The conclusions in this document can serve as a starting point for more targeted optimizations.
    3. The tests are conducted on specific hardware and software setups. Advances in the inference engine may lead to new conclusions.

If there are any missing points or updates reflecting new changes, please [let us know](https://github.com/gpustack/gpustack/issues/new/choose).


## Optimization Objective

Achieve high throughput under high-concurrency request scenarios.

## Experimental Setup

### Model

deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1-0528

### Hardware

8 × NVIDIA H200 SXM GPUs on a single node.

### Engine Version

- vLLM: v0.11.0
- SGLang: v0.5.3
- TensorRT-LLM: v1.0.0

### Benchmark Dataset

1. ShareGPT
2. Random dataset with varying sequence lengths:
    - Very long prompt: 32000 input tokens, 100 output tokens
    - Long prompt: 4000 input tokens, 200 output tokens
    - Medium prompt: 2000 input tokens, 100 output tokens
    - Short prompt: 128 input tokens, 4 output tokens

### Benchmark Script

We use the **vLLM bench CLI** tool to benchmark the model performance. The following command is used to run the benchmark:

```bash
# Prepare the ShareGPT dataset
wget https://huggingface.co/datasets/anon8231489123/ShareGPT_Vicuna_unfiltered/resolve/main/ShareGPT_V3_unfiltered_cleaned_split.json

# Benchmark on ShareGPT dataset
vllm bench serve --model deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1-0528 --backend openai-chat --endpoint /v1/chat/completions --dataset-name sharegpt --dataset-path ShareGPT_V3_unfiltered_cleaned_split.json --num-prompts 1000

# Benchmark on random dataset (fixed seed for reproducibility)
vllm bench serve --model deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1-0528 --backend openai-chat --endpoint /v1/chat/completions --dataset-name random --random-input-len 4000 --random-output-len 200 --num-prompts 500 --seed 42
```

## Experiment Results

### 1. Choosing the Inference Engine

vLLM
??? info "Serving script"
    ```bash
    vllm serve deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1-0528 -tp 8
    ```

??? info "Benchmark result"
    ```
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     1000
    Benchmark duration (s):                  76.59
    Total input tokens:                      219171
    Total generated tokens:                  200752
    Request throughput (req/s):              13.06
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         2621.05
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    7451.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                1000.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          5482.59
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          17743.08
    Median TTFT (ms):                        17698.39
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           24371.87
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          227.45
    Median TPOT (ms):                        177.90
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           568.18
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           119.29
    Median ITL (ms):                         66.09
    P99 ITL (ms):                            384.38
    ==================================================
    ```

SGLang
??? info "Serving script"
    ```bash
    python3 -m sglang.launch_server --model-path deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1-0528 --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --tp-size 8
    ```

??? info "Benchmark result"
    ```
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     1000
    Benchmark duration (s):                  63.28
    Total input tokens:                      219171
    Total generated tokens:                  200767
    Request throughput (req/s):              15.80
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         3172.46
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    9699.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                1000.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          6635.73
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          6948.08
    Median TTFT (ms):                        6793.80
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           13674.05
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          420.18
    Median TPOT (ms):                        216.55
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           2473.09
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           138.99
    Median ITL (ms):                         51.66
    P99 ITL (ms):                            1159.64
    ==================================================
    ```

TensorRT-LLM
??? info "Serving script"
    ```bash
    trtllm-serve /workspace/DeepSeek-R1-0528 --tp_size 8 --ep_size 8
    ```

??? info "Benchmark result"
    ```
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     1000
    Benchmark duration (s):                  124.04
    Total input tokens:                      219171
    Total generated tokens:                  200813
    Request throughput (req/s):              8.06
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         1618.94
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    7636.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                1000.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          3385.88
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          20253.90
    Median TTFT (ms):                        20524.78
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           23743.46
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          221.31
    Median TPOT (ms):                        167.15
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           726.85
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           155.18
    Median ITL (ms):                         111.57
    P99 ITL (ms):                            1518.10
    ==================================================
    ```
Result: SGLang(6635.73 tok/s) > vLLM (5482.59 tok/s) > TensorRT-LLM (3385.88 tok/s)

### 2. Parallelism in SGLang
TP+DP Attention
??? info "Serving script"
    ```bash
    python3 -m sglang.launch_server --model-path deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1-0528 --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --tp-size 8 --enable-dp-attention
    ```

??? info "Benchmark result"
    ```
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     1000
    Benchmark duration (s):                  58.79
    Total input tokens:                      219171
    Total generated tokens:                  200752
    Request throughput (req/s):              17.01
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         3414.99
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    9601.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                1000.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          7143.30
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          5992.00
    Median TTFT (ms):                        5976.11
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           9650.89
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          304.71
    Median TPOT (ms):                        188.40
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           1704.65
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           121.64
    Median ITL (ms):                         51.15
    P99 ITL (ms):                            464.61
    ==================================================
    ```

### 3. Torch.compile in SGLang

??? info "Serving script"
    ```bash
    python3 -m sglang.launch_server --model-path deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1-0528 --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --tp-size 8 --enable-dp-attention --enable-torch-compile 
    ```

??? info "Benchmark result"
    ```
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     1000
    Benchmark duration (s):                  61.72
    Total input tokens:                      219171
    Total generated tokens:                  200813
    Request throughput (req/s):              16.20
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         3253.37
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    9287.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                1000.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          6804.17
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          6978.36
    Median TTFT (ms):                        6965.90
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           10888.39
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          306.37
    Median TPOT (ms):                        203.10
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           1807.98
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           127.42
    Median ITL (ms):                         51.90
    P99 ITL (ms):                            596.33
    ==================================================
    ```

### 4. MTP in SGLang

??? info "Serving script"
    ```bash
    python3 -m sglang.launch_server --model-path deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1-0528 --host 0.0.0.0 --port 8000 --tp-size 8 --enable-dp-attention --enable-torch-compile --speculative-algorithm EAGLE --speculative-num-steps 1 --speculative-eagle-topk 1 --speculative-num-draft-tokens 2
    ```

??? info "Benchmark result"
    ```
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     1000
    Benchmark duration (s):                  189.43
    Total input tokens:                      219171
    Total generated tokens:                  200813
    Request throughput (req/s):              5.28
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         1060.10
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    1121.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                1000.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          2217.12
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          95444.76
    Median TTFT (ms):                        98104.26
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           176418.52
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          42.24
    Median TPOT (ms):                        42.11
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           82.73
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           74.27
    Median ITL (ms):                         36.60
    P99 ITL (ms):                            200.54
    ==================================================
    ```

### Summary of Optimization Options
| Optimization Option               | Throughput Improvement               |
|-----------------------------|-------------------------------------|
| Engine Selection            | <span style="background-color:lightgreen;">+21.0%</span>                             |
| Parallelism                 | <span style="background-color:lightgreen;">+7.6%</span>                              |
| Torch Compile               | -                                   |
| MTP                         | -                                   |

### Other Benchmark Cases

We further benchmarked the optimized configuration to evaluate its generalization under various workloads.

??? info "Baseline serving script"
    ```bash
    vllm serve deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1-0528 -tp 8
    ```

??? info "Baseline benchmark results"
    ```bash
    # random 32K input
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     100
    Benchmark duration (s):                  206.90
    Total input tokens:                      3199900
    Total generated tokens:                  10000
    Request throughput (req/s):              0.48
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         48.33
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    498.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                100.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          15514.57
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          101351.99
    Median TTFT (ms):                        101163.80
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           200267.68
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          365.79
    Median TPOT (ms):                        400.72
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           404.78
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           362.20
    Median ITL (ms):                         459.96
    P99 ITL (ms):                            614.75
    ==================================================

    # random 4K input
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     500
    Benchmark duration (s):                  132.68
    Total input tokens:                      1997530
    Total generated tokens:                  100000
    Request throughput (req/s):              3.77
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         753.67
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    2922.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                500.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          15808.55
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          63058.71
    Median TTFT (ms):                        61952.74
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           124112.96
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          164.23
    Median TPOT (ms):                        177.37
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           195.80
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           163.74
    Median ITL (ms):                         57.87
    P99 ITL (ms):                            383.79
    ==================================================

    # random 2K input
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     500
    Benchmark duration (s):                  59.26
    Total input tokens:                      998393
    Total generated tokens:                  50000
    Request throughput (req/s):              8.44
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         843.71
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    4036.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                500.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          17690.89
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          28911.90
    Median TTFT (ms):                        27559.21
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           53497.07
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          237.02
    Median TPOT (ms):                        276.56
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           322.76
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           235.10
    Median ITL (ms):                         357.74
    P99 ITL (ms):                            379.46
    ==================================================

    # random 128 input
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     1000
    Benchmark duration (s):                  22.07
    Total input tokens:                      126882
    Total generated tokens:                  4000
    Request throughput (req/s):              45.32
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         181.27
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    2082.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                1000.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          5931.25
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          19392.11
    Median TTFT (ms):                        18992.42
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           21440.63
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          351.83
    Median TPOT (ms):                        389.74
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           432.12
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           263.87
    Median ITL (ms):                         368.43
    P99 ITL (ms):                            470.22
    ==================================================

    # ShareGPT batch size 4
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     100
    Maximum request concurrency:             4
    Benchmark duration (s):                  108.42
    Total input tokens:                      22836
    Total generated tokens:                  21338
    Request throughput (req/s):              0.92
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         196.81
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    216.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                9.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          407.45
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          123.30
    Median TTFT (ms):                        117.53
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           258.12
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          19.36
    Median TPOT (ms):                        19.13
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           22.67
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           19.41
    Median ITL (ms):                         18.84
    P99 ITL (ms):                            48.61
    ==================================================
    ```

??? info "Optimized serving script"
    ```bash
    python3 -m sglang.launch_server --model deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-R1-0528 --tp 8 --enable-dp-attention
    ```

??? info "Optimized benchmark results"
    ```bash
    # random 32K input
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     100
    Benchmark duration (s):                  199.47
    Total input tokens:                      3199900
    Total generated tokens:                  9952
    Request throughput (req/s):              0.50
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         49.89
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    521.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                100.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          16091.68
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          98133.46
    Median TTFT (ms):                        97539.39
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           196094.04
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          198.62
    Median TPOT (ms):                        198.45
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           365.31
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           209.45
    Median ITL (ms):                         35.27
    P99 ITL (ms):                            1680.63
    ==================================================

    # random 4K input
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     500
    Benchmark duration (s):                  130.31
    Total input tokens:                      1997530
    Total generated tokens:                  100000
    Request throughput (req/s):              3.84
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         767.42
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    3227.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                500.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          16096.80
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          62808.37
    Median TTFT (ms):                        61113.90
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           122763.87
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          107.91
    Median TPOT (ms):                        105.31
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           179.79
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           115.81
    Median ITL (ms):                         46.40
    P99 ITL (ms):                            155.40
    ==================================================

    # random 2K input
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     500
    Benchmark duration (s):                  55.11
    Total input tokens:                      998393
    Total generated tokens:                  50000
    Request throughput (req/s):              9.07
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         907.31
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    5778.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                500.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          19024.33
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          27248.86
    Median TTFT (ms):                        25136.93
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           49876.53
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          154.49
    Median TPOT (ms):                        148.01
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           294.80
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           159.34
    Median ITL (ms):                         48.78
    P99 ITL (ms):                            801.82
    ==================================================

    # random 128 input
    ============ Serving Benchmark Result ============
    Successful requests:                     1000
    Benchmark duration (s):                  6.40
    Total input tokens:                      126882
    Total generated tokens:                  4000
    Request throughput (req/s):              156.24
    Output token throughput (tok/s):         624.94
    Peak output token throughput (tok/s):    2769.00
    Peak concurrent requests:                1000.00
    Total Token throughput (tok/s):          20448.42
    ---------------Time to First Token----------------
    Mean TTFT (ms):                          3626.25
    Median TTFT (ms):                        3413.13
    P99 TTFT (ms):                           4879.78
    -----Time per Output Token (excl. 1st token)------
    Mean TPOT (ms):                          802.48
    Median TPOT (ms):                        940.27
    P99 TPOT (ms):                           1182.88
    ---------------Inter-token Latency----------------
    Mean ITL (ms):                           481.68
    Median ITL (ms):                         139.56
    P99 ITL (ms):                            3031.24
    ==================================================
    ```
