I battled with this for hours. The current instructions at https://developer.apple.com/metal/tensorflow-plugin/ specify using Miniconda and can be summarized as:
conda create -y --name cv python
conda activate cv
conda install -y -c apple tensorflow-deps
python -m pip install tensorflow-macos tensorflow-metal
As of Jan 2023, these instructions are riddled with issues:
- Symptom: you ran
conda install -c apple tensorflow-deps
expecting to get the current version (2.10.0) , but conda list tensorflow-deps
shows tensorflow-deps 2.9.0
Reason: Apple's tensorflow-deps package v2.10.0 depends on numpy >=1.23.2,<1.23.3. There is no such version of numpy in Anaconda (only conda-forge). Anaconda's dependency resolution silently falls back to an older version of tensorflow-deps. This will cause more problems as you continue with the instructions.
- Symptom: you ran
conda install -c apple tensorflow-deps==2.10.0
and got UnsatisfiableError: The following specifications were found to be incompatible with each other
Reason: Same as above, but at least Anaconda has told you about it. It doesn't mention what the incompatibility is, because that would be helpful.
- Symptom: "RuntimeError: module compiled against API version 0x10 but this version of numpy is 0xf"
Reason: If you install tensorflow-deps 2.9.0 (or Anaconda installs it for you due to the above) you will get numpy 1.22.3. When you pip install tensorflow-macos tensorflow-metal
, you will get tensorflow-macos 2.11.0 and tensorflow-metal 0.7.0, one or both of which is binary-incompatible with numpy 1.22.3.
- Symptom: 2023-01-22 15:16:23.209301: W tensorflow/core/framework/op_kernel.cc:1830] OP_REQUIRES failed at xla_ops.cc:418 : NOT_FOUND: could not find registered platform with id
Problem: TensorFlow 2.11 has introduced an incompatibility between optimizers and pluggable architectures. You can have TF 2.11, but you'll need to use a legacy optimizer.
Solutions
I have found 3 options for a working GPU-accelerated TF install on Apple Silicon using Anaconda.
It will help your debugging to get a minimal test script like the one from https://developer.apple.com/metal/tensorflow-plugin/ which is:
import tensorflow as tf
cifar = tf.keras.datasets.cifar100
(x_train, y_train), (x_test, y_test) = cifar.load_data()
model = tf.keras.applications.ResNet50(
include_top=True,
weights=None,
input_shape=(32, 32, 3),
classes=100,)
loss_fn = tf.keras.losses.SparseCategoricalCrossentropy(from_logits=True)
model.compile(optimizer="adam", loss=loss_fn, metrics=["accuracy"])
model.fit(x_train, y_train, epochs=5, batch_size=64)
This way you can check GPU usage by running TF_MLC_LOGGING=1 python tf_arch_test.py
and watching Activity Monitor. While feeling which side of the laptop is burning your legs can be a helpful indicator of GPU usage, it's not always reliable.
Fix #1: Add conda-forge as a channel, use the legacy optimizer in your code.
conda config --add channels conda-forge
conda config --set channel_priority strict
conda create -y --name cv
conda activate cv
conda install -y -c apple tensorflow-deps
python -m pip install tensorflow-macos
python -m pip install tensorflow-metal
python --version
conda list|grep -E '(tensorflow|numpy)'
TF_MLC_LOGGING=1 python tf_arch_test.py
You will get:
Python 3.10.8
numpy 1.23.2 py310h127c7cf_0 conda-forge
tensorflow-deps 2.10.0 0 apple
tensorflow-estimator 2.11.0 pypi_0 pypi
tensorflow-macos 2.11.0 pypi_0 pypi
tensorflow-metal 0.7.0 pypi_0 pypi
You will need to modify your code to use one of the legacy optimizers. e.g.:
model.compile(
optimizer=tf.keras.optimizers.legacy.Adam(learning_rate=1e-3),
loss=loss_fn,
metrics=["accuracy"],
)
Fix #2: Add conda-forge as a channel, pin the version numbers to avoid the pluggable architecture issue.
conda config --add channels conda-forge
conda config --set channel_priority strict
conda create -y --name cv
conda activate cv
conda install -y -c apple tensorflow-deps==2.10.0
python -m pip install tensorflow-macos==2.10.0
python -m pip install tensorflow-metal==0.6.0
python --version
conda list|grep -E '(tensorflow|numpy)'
You will get:
Python 3.10.8
numpy 1.23.2 py310h127c7cf_0 conda-forge
tensorflow-deps 2.10.0 0 apple
tensorflow-estimator 2.10.0 pypi_0 pypi
tensorflow-macos 2.10.0 pypi_0 pypi
tensorflow-metal 0.6.0 pypi_0 pypi
Fix #3: Don't add conda-forge, pin the version numbers way back to the last ones that actually worked:
conda create -y --name cv python
conda activate cv
conda install -y -c apple tensorflow-deps==2.9.0
python -m pip install tensorflow-macos==2.9.2
python -m pip install tensorflow-metal==0.5.1
python --version
conda list|grep -E '(tensorflow|numpy)'
You will get:
Python 3.10.9
numpy 1.22.3 py310hdb36b11_0
numpy-base 1.22.3 py310h5e3e9f0_0
tensorflow-deps 2.9.0 0 apple
tensorflow-estimator 2.9.0 pypi_0 pypi
tensorflow-macos 2.9.2 pypi_0 pypi
tensorflow-metal 0.5.1 pypi_0 pypi