# Difference between thread\_inst\_executed metrics
**URL:** https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/difference-between-thread-inst-executed-metrics/217587
**Category:** Nsight Compute
**Tags:** performance-metrics
**Created:** [June 14, 2022, 10:50am UTC](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/difference-between-thread-inst-executed-metrics/217587 "2022-06-14T10:50:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@spraesi](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/u/spraesi)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2022, 10:50am UTC](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/difference-between-thread-inst-executed-metrics/217587/1 "2022-06-14T10:50:42Z")
Hi there - I was wondering what the difference between the metrics **smsp\_\_thread\_inst\_executed** and **smsp\_\_sass\_thread\_inst\_executed** is. I am guessing it is just the same?
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### Author:  [@Sanjiv.Satoor](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/u/Sanjiv.Satoor)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2022, 7:50am UTC](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/difference-between-thread-inst-executed-metrics/217587/2 "2022-06-27T07:50:40Z")
These two metrics are equivalent & the metric values are expected to be the same. But the metric collection methods for the two are different.
- **smsp\_\_thread\_inst\_executed** - data is collected through a hardware performance monitor on the GPU
- **smsp\_\_sass\_thread\_inst\_executed** - data is collected through software patching of the kernel instructions (this applies to all metrics which have “\_\_sass” in the metric name). This has a higher run time metric collection overhead.
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### Author:  [@spraesi](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/u/spraesi)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2022, 12:54pm UTC](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/difference-between-thread-inst-executed-metrics/217587/3 "2022-06-27T12:54:30Z")
Thank you so much! This is really good to know.
Is there a documentation on the specific metrics, which ones are hardware counters and such?
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### Author:  [@Sanjiv.Satoor](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/u/Sanjiv.Satoor)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2022, 2:32pm UTC](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/difference-between-thread-inst-executed-metrics/217587/4 "2022-06-27T14:32:14Z")
All metrics which have _“\_\_sass”_ in the metric name are software based. Other metrics can be based on some hardware and/or software metrics/counters. This detail is currently not included in the document.
Refer the [Metrics Guide section](https://docs.nvidia.com/nsight-compute/ProfilingGuide/index.html#metrics-guide) section in the ._Kernel Profiling Guide_.
The [Overhead sub-section](https://docs.nvidia.com/nsight-compute/ProfilingGuide/index.html#overhead) in the _Kernel Profiling Guide_ has a brief about different types of metrics.
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### Author:  [@spraesi](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/u/spraesi)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2022, 2:44pm UTC](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/difference-between-thread-inst-executed-metrics/217587/5 "2022-06-27T14:44:23Z")
Thank you so much!
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### Author:  [@mahmood.nt](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/u/mahmood.nt)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2022, 6:29pm UTC](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/difference-between-thread-inst-executed-metrics/217587/6 "2022-06-27T18:29:12Z")
You may want to look at this [topic](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/definition-of-sass-inst-executed), too.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [July 11, 2022, 6:29pm UTC](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/difference-between-thread-inst-executed-metrics/217587/7 "2022-07-11T18:29:12Z")
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