Independent referenceSource-traced · reviewed 10 September 2026

Software guide

CUDA is a stack, not a single version number

Most “Which CUDA do I have?” questions hide several different version checks. Start with the job you need to perform, then identify the layer that owns the constraint.

Reviewed 10 September 2026How we verify claims

Choose the document that owns the answer

[32][31][35][34]

The dependency chain

An application may bundle a runtime while another expects a system toolkit. A framework build may require a particular library or driver floor. The GPU then adds its own hardware-feature boundary through compute capability.

That is why two accurate version strings can differ without contradicting each other: they may describe different layers.

[5][32][41][42]

What this site will and will not do

We explain

  • which layer a version belongs to
  • which official document owns the check
  • how compatibility concepts relate

We do not claim

  • to inspect your machine
  • to provide official support or downloads
  • that a generic command is safe for every environment

Evidence trail

Sources used on this page

Source class describes ownership and form. It is not a reliability score.

  1. CUDA compatibility

    NVIDIA Documentation · Current documentation

    Official documentation
  2. CUDA Toolkit release notes

    NVIDIA Documentation · Current documentation

    Official documentation
  3. cuDNN support matrix

    NVIDIA Documentation · Current documentation

    Official support matrix
  4. TensorRT support matrix

    NVIDIA Documentation · Current documentation

    Official support matrix
  5. CUDA C++ Programming Guide, archived 12.6

    NVIDIA Documentation · 2024

    Official documentation
  6. nvidia-smi showing a different CUDA version

    NVIDIA Developer Forums · 2021

    Community example
  7. Different CUDA versions shown by nvcc and NVIDIA-SMI

    Stack Overflow · 2018

    Community example

Links reviewed for this local corpus on . An inaccessible link does not erase the claim record; it triggers source maintenance.