AGFT: An Adaptive GPU Frequency Tuner for Real-Time LLM Inference Optimization

Abstract: The explosive growth of interactive LLMs has placed unprecedented demands for low latency on cloud GPUs, forcing them into high-power modes and causing escalating energy costs. Real-time inference workloads exhibit significant dynamic volatility, presenting substantial energy-saving opportunities. However, traditional static or rule-based power management strategies struggle to exploit these opportunities without compromising peak performance. To address this challenge, we propose AGFT (An Adaptive GPU Frequency Tuner), a framework that employs online reinforcement learning to autonomously learn an optimal frequency tuning policy. By monitoring real-time features like request load and latency, AGFT utilizes fine-grained frequency control for precise adjustments and intelligent action space pruning for stable, efficient decision-making. This creates a robust, automated energy management solution. We comprehensively evaluated AGFT in an environment simulating realistic, fluctuating inference requests. The experimental results demonstrate that AGFT successfully saves 44.3% of GPU energy consumption while introducing a minimal performance latency overhead of under 10%. This achievement translates into a comprehensive Energy-Delay Product (EDP) optimization of up to 40.3%, clearly showing that our framework can significantly enhance the energy efficiency and economic benefits of existing LLM inference clusters without compromising service quality.