# How to Create and Configure DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI GPU Droplets

DigitalOcean Droplets are Linux-based virtual machines (VMs) that run on top of virtualized hardware. Each Droplet you create is a new server you can use, either standalone or as part of a larger, cloud-based infrastructure.

## How to Use GPU Droplets

In general, you can manage GPU Droplets like non-GPU Droplets, but some features and requirements are specific to GPU Droplets:

[How to Create DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI GPU Droplets](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/gpu/create/index.html.md): Create GPU Droplets and choose the image, plan, datacenter, authentication method, and additional options.

[How to Use the Scratch Disk on DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI GPU Droplets](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/gpu/use-scratch-disk/index.html.md): Set up automatic mounting for the scratch disk on GPU Droplets.

[Enable GPU Metrics](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/gpu/enable-metrics/index.html.md): Install the NVIDIA Data Center GPU Manager (DCGM) and DCGM Exporter to enable health monitoring, diagnostics, and process statistics for NVIDIA GPUs on GPU Droplets.

[How to Tune Network Performance on DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI GPU Droplets](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/gpu/tune-networking/index.html.md): Configure TCP buffer sizes and jumbo frames on GPU Droplets to maximize network throughput.

[How to Configure Multi-Node GPU Droplets](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/gpu/configure-multi-node/index.html.md): Configure multi-node GPU Droplets, including some manual configuration for NIC addressing.

[DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI 1-Click Models](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/marketplace/1-click-models/index.html.md): 1-Click Models let you deploy third-party generative AI models on [DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI GPU Droplets](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/gpu/index.html.md) with no additional setup or configuration.

[How to Use NVIDIA Container Tools and Miniconda with GPU Droplets](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-nvidia-container-tools-with-gpu-droplets): This Community tutorial explains how to set up the NVIDIA container toolkit, run Docker for GPU workloads, and install Miniconda to manage Python environments on GPU Droplets.

## GPU Droplets vs Bare Metal GPUs

[DigitalOcean Gradient™ AI Bare Metal GPUs](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/bare-metal-gpus/index.html.md) and GPU Droplets both provide GPU-based compute resources tailored to AI/ML workloads, but they’re each suited for different use cases. Learn more about the difference between bare metal GPUs and GPU Droplets:

[Compare Bare Metal GPUs and GPU Droplets](https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/bare-metal-gpus/concepts/gpu-product-comparison/index.html.md): Learn the difference between bare metal GPUs and GPU Droplets to choose the product that suits your use case.