SYCL: fix multi-GPU system RAM exhaustion by using Level Zero allocations (#21597)

PMZFX · claude · arthw · web-flow · commit 9ed6e19b9d7e · 2026-05-14T13:39:14.000+08:00
* SYCL: fix multi-GPU system RAM exhaustion by using Level Zero allocations Replace sycl::malloc_device with zeMemAllocDevice for GPU memory allocation in the SYCL backend. sycl::malloc_device triggers the xe kernel driver's DMA-buf/TTM path which mirrors every VRAM allocation 1:1 in system RAM. zeMemAllocDevice uses the SVM/P2P path with no host staging. On a dual Intel Arc Pro B70 system (64GB VRAM, 64GB RAM), a 15.6 GiB model consumed 60 GiB of system RAM via sycl::malloc_device, causing OOM crashes. With zeMemAllocDevice, the same workload uses ~6.7 GiB of system RAM with no performance regression. All Level Zero calls include automatic fallback to the original SYCL allocation path if Level Zero interop is unavailable. * SYCL: address review feedback - remove try/catch, check device types, deduplicate - Remove try/catch from malloc/free/memcpy helpers, check backend and device type upfront instead (ggml_sycl_is_level_zero, ggml_sycl_is_dgpu) - Move shared helpers (is_level_zero, is_dgpu, free_device) to common.cpp and declare in common.hpp to eliminate code duplication - Use SYCL_CHECK(CHECK_TRY_ERROR()) for fallback sycl::free calls - Guard dev2dev_memcpy L0 path to dGPU-to-dGPU only, preserving the host-staged path for iGPU-to-dGPU transfers - Add Windows Level Zero SDK path detection (LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_PATH) in CMakeLists.txt (co-authored with @arthw) * SYCL: add build/runtime flags for Level Zero, address review feedback Implements the architecture suggested by @arthw: compile-time and runtime flags to cleanly separate Level Zero and SYCL memory API paths. - Add GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO cmake option (default ON). All Level Zero code is wrapped in #ifdef so the build works on systems without the Level Zero SDK installed (e.g. CPU-only CI servers). Both the loader library and headers are checked before enabling. - Add GGML_SYCL_ENABLE_LEVEL_ZERO runtime env var (default 1). Controls whether Level Zero or SYCL memory APIs are used. Only one API style is used per session, no mixing. If Level Zero is enabled but the devices don't support the Level Zero backend, it auto-disables with a warning. - Remove Level Zero code from dpct_malloc. It was unused (dpct::device_memory is not called anywhere in the backend) and used try/catch for flow control. - Update SYCL.md with documentation for both new parameters. Tested on Intel Arc Pro B70 (32GB), single-GPU and dual-GPU, with both GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO=ON and OFF builds. AI-assisted development (Claude). Code reviewed and tested on my hardware. * SYCL: unify Level Zero malloc/free call sites, address review feedback Move ggml_sycl_malloc_device to common.cpp alongside ggml_sycl_free_device. Both functions are now unconditionally available — Level Zero code is #ifdef'd inside the functions, not at call sites. All call sites use uniform SYCL_CHECK(CHECK_TRY_ERROR()) wrapping with no #ifdef blocks. Addresses arthw's review: wrap all malloc/free in SYCL_CHECK for stack traces on failure, eliminate duplicated #ifdef/else patterns at 6 call sites (-29 lines net). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> * SYCL: add Level Zero SDK to CI, fix device check and missed alloc paths Add Level Zero SDK installation to Ubuntu and Windows SYCL CI jobs so the Level Zero code path is compiled and tested in CI. Fix two bugs found during extended dual-GPU testing (no ONEAPI_DEVICE_SELECTOR set): - The Level Zero backend check was iterating all SYCL devices including CPU. The OpenCL CPU device caused Level Zero to be disabled for the GPUs, defeating the fix on multi-GPU systems. Added is_gpu() filter so only GPU devices are checked. - sycl_ext_malloc_device/sycl_ext_free (tensor reorder temp buffers) were still calling sycl::malloc/sycl::free directly, bypassing the Level Zero path. Routed through ggml_sycl_malloc_device/free_device for consistency with the other device memory call sites. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> * SYCL: address arthw review feedback on Level Zero memory API structure - Move ggml_sycl_malloc_device to static function in ggml-sycl.cpp; only ggml_sycl_free_device (used by common.cpp) stays in common.cpp - Switch both helpers to use g_ggml_sycl_enable_level_zero global instead of per-call queue backend checks - Remove #ifdef wrapper from global definition; always declare at 0, add #else branch in init block so it stays 0 when L0 not compiled in - Update init loop comment to explain GPU-only device check - CMakeLists: message(STATUS) before the if block; align option wording AI-assisted implementation. Reviewed and tested on dual Intel Arc Pro B70 (32 GB each): test-backend-ops OK on both GPUs, single/dual-GPU Q4_K_M and Q8_0 bench correct, zeMemAllocDevice GTT delta confirmed <5 MiB per 4 GiB allocation (vs ~4 GiB shadow with sycl::malloc_device). Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> * SYCL: remove unused cstdio/cstdlib includes from common.cpp Leftover from the deleted ggml_sycl_queue_supports_level_zero helper. Co-authored-by: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com> * Apply suggestions from code review Co-authored-by: Neo Zhang <zhang.jianyu@outlook.com> * SYCL: preserve Level Zero allocation path during early malloc * ci: fix Level Zero package conflict in Intel Docker build * ci: find Level Zero loader in oneAPI package step * ci: allow Windows SYCL package without Level Zero DLL --------- Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com> Co-authored-by: Neo Zhang <zhang.jianyu@outlook.com>
diff --git a/.devops/intel.Dockerfile b/.devops/intel.Dockerfile
@@ -5,8 +5,15 @@ ARG ONEAPI_VERSION=2025.3.3-0-devel-ubuntu24.04
 FROM intel/deep-learning-essentials:$ONEAPI_VERSION AS build
 
 ARG GGML_SYCL_F16=OFF
+ARG LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION=1.28.2
+ARG LEVEL_ZERO_UBUNTU_VERSION=u24.04
 RUN apt-get update && \
-    apt-get install -y git libssl-dev
+    apt-get install -y git libssl-dev wget ca-certificates && \
+    cd /tmp && \
+    wget -q "https://github.com/oneapi-src/level-zero/releases/download/v${LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION}/level-zero_${LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION}%2B${LEVEL_ZERO_UBUNTU_VERSION}_amd64.deb" -O level-zero.deb && \
+    wget -q "https://github.com/oneapi-src/level-zero/releases/download/v${LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION}/level-zero-devel_${LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION}%2B${LEVEL_ZERO_UBUNTU_VERSION}_amd64.deb" -O level-zero-devel.deb && \
+    apt-get -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" install -y ./level-zero.deb ./level-zero-devel.deb && \
+    rm -f /tmp/level-zero.deb /tmp/level-zero-devel.deb
 
 WORKDIR /app
 
@@ -109,4 +116,3 @@ WORKDIR /app
 HEALTHCHECK CMD [ "curl", "-f", "http://localhost:8080/health" ]
 
 ENTRYPOINT [ "/app/llama-server" ]
-
diff --git a/.github/workflows/build-sycl.yml b/.github/workflows/build-sycl.yml
@@ -50,6 +50,8 @@ jobs:
     env:
       ONEAPI_ROOT: /opt/intel/oneapi/
       ONEAPI_INSTALLER_VERSION: "2025.3.3"
+      LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION: "1.28.2"
+      LEVEL_ZERO_UBUNTU_VERSION: "u24.04"
 
     continue-on-error: true
 
@@ -71,6 +73,14 @@ jobs:
           wget https://registrationcenter-download.intel.com/akdlm/IRC_NAS/56f7923a-adb8-43f3-8b02-2b60fcac8cab/intel-deep-learning-essentials-2025.3.3.16_offline.sh -O intel-deep-learning-essentials_offline.sh
           sudo bash intel-deep-learning-essentials_offline.sh -s -a --silent --eula accept
 
+      - name: Install Level Zero SDK
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          cd /tmp
+          wget -q "https://github.com/oneapi-src/level-zero/releases/download/v${LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION}/level-zero_${LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION}%2B${LEVEL_ZERO_UBUNTU_VERSION}_amd64.deb" -O level-zero.deb
+          wget -q "https://github.com/oneapi-src/level-zero/releases/download/v${LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION}/level-zero-devel_${LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION}%2B${LEVEL_ZERO_UBUNTU_VERSION}_amd64.deb" -O level-zero-devel.deb
+          sudo apt-get install -y ./level-zero.deb ./level-zero-devel.deb
+
       - name: Clone
         id: checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v6
@@ -107,6 +117,7 @@ jobs:
     env:
       WINDOWS_BASEKIT_URL: https://registrationcenter-download.intel.com/akdlm/IRC_NAS/b60765d1-2b85-4e85-86b6-cb0e9563a699/intel-deep-learning-essentials-2025.3.3.18_offline.exe
       WINDOWS_DPCPP_MKL: intel.oneapi.win.cpp-dpcpp-common:intel.oneapi.win.mkl.devel:intel.oneapi.win.dnnl:intel.oneapi.win.tbb.devel
+      LEVEL_ZERO_SDK_URL: https://github.com/oneapi-src/level-zero/releases/download/v1.28.2/level-zero-win-sdk-1.28.2.zip
       ONEAPI_ROOT: "C:/Program Files (x86)/Intel/oneAPI"
       ONEAPI_INSTALLER_VERSION: "2025.3.3"
     steps:
@@ -127,6 +138,13 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           scripts/install-oneapi.bat $WINDOWS_BASEKIT_URL $WINDOWS_DPCPP_MKL
 
+      - name: Install Level Zero SDK
+        shell: pwsh
+        run: |
+          Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "${{ env.LEVEL_ZERO_SDK_URL }}" -OutFile "level-zero-win-sdk.zip"
+          Expand-Archive -Path "level-zero-win-sdk.zip" -DestinationPath "C:/level-zero-sdk" -Force
+          "LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_PATH=C:/level-zero-sdk" | Out-File -FilePath $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append
+
       - name: ccache
         uses: ggml-org/ccache-action@v1.2.21
         with:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -600,6 +600,7 @@ jobs:
     env:
       WINDOWS_BASEKIT_URL: https://registrationcenter-download.intel.com/akdlm/IRC_NAS/b60765d1-2b85-4e85-86b6-cb0e9563a699/intel-deep-learning-essentials-2025.3.3.18_offline.exe
       WINDOWS_DPCPP_MKL: intel.oneapi.win.cpp-dpcpp-common:intel.oneapi.win.mkl.devel:intel.oneapi.win.dnnl:intel.oneapi.win.tbb.devel
+      LEVEL_ZERO_SDK_URL: https://github.com/oneapi-src/level-zero/releases/download/v1.28.2/level-zero-win-sdk-1.28.2.zip
       ONEAPI_ROOT: "C:/Program Files (x86)/Intel/oneAPI"
       ONEAPI_INSTALLER_VERSION: "2025.3.3"
 
@@ -621,6 +622,13 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           scripts/install-oneapi.bat $WINDOWS_BASEKIT_URL $WINDOWS_DPCPP_MKL
 
+      - name: Install Level Zero SDK
+        shell: pwsh
+        run: |
+          Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "${{ env.LEVEL_ZERO_SDK_URL }}" -OutFile "level-zero-win-sdk.zip"
+          Expand-Archive -Path "level-zero-win-sdk.zip" -DestinationPath "C:/level-zero-sdk" -Force
+          "LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_PATH=C:/level-zero-sdk" | Out-File -FilePath $env:GITHUB_ENV -Append
+
       - name: ccache
         uses: ggml-org/ccache-action@v1.2.21
         with:
@@ -655,6 +663,13 @@ jobs:
           cp "${{ env.ONEAPI_ROOT }}/compiler/latest/bin/ur_adapter_opencl.dll" ./build/bin
           cp "${{ env.ONEAPI_ROOT }}/compiler/latest/bin/ur_loader.dll" ./build/bin
           cp "${{ env.ONEAPI_ROOT }}/compiler/latest/bin/ur_win_proxy_loader.dll" ./build/bin
+          ZE_LOADER_DLL=$(find "${{ env.ONEAPI_ROOT }}" "$LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_PATH" -iname ze_loader.dll -print -quit 2>/dev/null || true)
+          if [ -n "$ZE_LOADER_DLL" ]; then
+            echo "Using Level Zero loader: $ZE_LOADER_DLL"
+            cp "$ZE_LOADER_DLL" ./build/bin
+          else
+            echo "Level Zero loader DLL not found in oneAPI or SDK; relying on system driver/runtime"
+          fi
 
           cp "${{ env.ONEAPI_ROOT }}/compiler/latest/bin/sycl8.dll" ./build/bin
           cp "${{ env.ONEAPI_ROOT }}/compiler/latest/bin/svml_dispmd.dll" ./build/bin
@@ -695,6 +710,8 @@ jobs:
     env:
       ONEAPI_ROOT: /opt/intel/oneapi/
       ONEAPI_INSTALLER_VERSION: "2025.3.3"
+      LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION: "1.28.2"
+      LEVEL_ZERO_UBUNTU_VERSION: "u24.04"
 
     steps:
       - name: Clone
@@ -718,6 +735,14 @@ jobs:
           wget https://registrationcenter-download.intel.com/akdlm/IRC_NAS/56f7923a-adb8-43f3-8b02-2b60fcac8cab/intel-deep-learning-essentials-2025.3.3.16_offline.sh -O intel-deep-learning-essentials_offline.sh
           sudo bash intel-deep-learning-essentials_offline.sh -s -a --silent --eula accept
 
+      - name: Install Level Zero SDK
+        shell: bash
+        run: |
+          cd /tmp
+          wget -q "https://github.com/oneapi-src/level-zero/releases/download/v${LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION}/level-zero_${LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION}%2B${LEVEL_ZERO_UBUNTU_VERSION}_amd64.deb" -O level-zero.deb
+          wget -q "https://github.com/oneapi-src/level-zero/releases/download/v${LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION}/level-zero-devel_${LEVEL_ZERO_VERSION}%2B${LEVEL_ZERO_UBUNTU_VERSION}_amd64.deb" -O level-zero-devel.deb
+          sudo apt-get install -y ./level-zero.deb ./level-zero-devel.deb
+
       - name: ccache
         uses: ggml-org/ccache-action@v1.2.21
         with:
diff --git a/docs/backend/SYCL.md b/docs/backend/SYCL.md
@@ -720,6 +720,7 @@ use 1 SYCL GPUs: [0] with Max compute units:512
 | GGML_SYCL_GRAPH    | OFF *(default)* \|ON *(Optional)*     | Enable build with [SYCL Graph extension](https://github.com/intel/llvm/blob/sycl/sycl/doc/extensions/experimental/sycl_ext_oneapi_graph.asciidoc). |
 | GGML_SYCL_DNN      | ON *(default)* \|OFF *(Optional)*     | Enable build with oneDNN.                   |
 | GGML_SYCL_HOST_MEM_FALLBACK | ON *(default)* \|OFF *(Optional)* | Allow host memory fallback when device memory is full during quantized weight reorder. Enables inference to continue at reduced speed (reading over PCIe) instead of failing. Requires Linux kernel 6.8+. |
+| GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO | ON *(default)* \|OFF *(Optional)* | Enable Level Zero API for device memory allocation. Requires Level Zero headers/library at build time and Intel GPU driver (Level Zero runtime) at run time. Reduces system RAM usage during multi-GPU inference. |
 | CMAKE_C_COMPILER   | `icx` *(Linux)*, `icx/cl` *(Windows)* | Set `icx` compiler for SYCL code path.      |
 | CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER | `icpx` *(Linux)*, `icx` *(Windows)*   | Set `icpx/icx` compiler for SYCL code path. |
 
@@ -733,9 +734,10 @@ use 1 SYCL GPUs: [0] with Max compute units:512
 | GGML_SYCL_ENABLE_FLASH_ATTN | 1 (default) or 0| Enable Flash-Attention. It can reduce memory usage. The performance impact depends on the LLM.|
 | GGML_SYCL_DISABLE_OPT | 0 (default) or 1 | Disable optimize features for Intel GPUs. (Recommended to 1 for intel devices older than Gen 10) |
 | GGML_SYCL_DISABLE_GRAPH | 0 or 1 (default) | Disable running computations through SYCL Graphs feature. Disabled by default because SYCL Graph is still on development, no better performance. |
+| GGML_SYCL_ENABLE_LEVEL_ZERO | 1 (default) or 0 | Use Level Zero API for device memory allocation instead of SYCL. Reduces system RAM usage on Intel dGPUs by avoiding DMA-buf/TTM host memory staging. Requires GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO=ON at build time. |
 | GGML_SYCL_DISABLE_DNN | 0 (default) or 1 | Disable running computations through oneDNN and always use oneMKL. |
 | ZES_ENABLE_SYSMAN | 0 (default) or 1 | Support to get free memory of GPU by sycl::aspect::ext_intel_free_memory.<br>Recommended to use when --split-mode = layer |
-| UR_L0_ENABLE_RELAXED_ALLOCATION_LIMITS | 0 (default) or 1 | Support malloc device memory more than 4GB.|
+| UR_L0_ENABLE_RELAXED_ALLOCATION_LIMITS | 0 (default) or 1 | Allow SYCL/Unified Runtime Level Zero device allocations larger than 4 GiB. llama.cpp's direct Level Zero allocation path requests the relaxed maximum-size limit itself when GGML_SYCL_ENABLE_LEVEL_ZERO=1. |
 
 ## Compile-time Flags
 
@@ -819,7 +821,7 @@ Pass these via `CXXFLAGS` or add a one-off `#define` to enable a flag on the spo
 
 - `ggml_backend_sycl_buffer_type_alloc_buffer: can't allocate 5000000000 Bytes of memory on device`
 
-  You need to enable to support 4GB memory malloc by:
+  With the default `GGML_SYCL_ENABLE_LEVEL_ZERO=1`, llama.cpp requests Level Zero's relaxed maximum-size allocation limit directly. If Level Zero support is disabled at build time or runtime and the allocation goes through SYCL/Unified Runtime instead, enable support for allocations larger than 4 GiB by:
   ```
     export UR_L0_ENABLE_RELAXED_ALLOCATION_LIMITS=1
     set UR_L0_ENABLE_RELAXED_ALLOCATION_LIMITS=1
diff --git a/ggml/CMakeLists.txt b/ggml/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -249,6 +249,7 @@ option(GGML_SYCL                            "ggml: use SYCL"
 option(GGML_SYCL_F16                        "ggml: use 16 bit floats for sycl calculations"   OFF)
 option(GGML_SYCL_GRAPH                      "ggml: enable graphs in the SYCL backend"         ON)
 option(GGML_SYCL_HOST_MEM_FALLBACK          "ggml: allow host memory fallback in SYCL reorder (requires kernel 6.8+)" ON)
+option(GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO         "ggml: use Level Zero API in SYCL backend"  ON)
 option(GGML_SYCL_DNN                        "ggml: enable oneDNN in the SYCL backend"         ON)
 set   (GGML_SYCL_TARGET "INTEL" CACHE STRING
                                             "ggml: sycl target device")
diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/CMakeLists.txt b/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -39,6 +39,18 @@ if (WIN32)
         set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER "icx")
         set(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID "IntelLLVM")
     endif()
+    # Level Zero SDK path for Windows (only when GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO is enabled)
+    if(GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO)
+        if(DEFINED ENV{LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_PATH})
+            set(LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_PATH $ENV{LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_PATH})
+            if(EXISTS "${LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_PATH}")
+                target_include_directories(ggml-sycl PRIVATE "${LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_PATH}/include")
+                set(LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_LIB_PATH "${LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_PATH}/lib")
+            else()
+                message(WARNING "LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_PATH set but folder not found: ${LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_PATH}")
+            endif()
+        endif()
+    endif()
 endif()
 
 macro(detect_and_find_package package_name)
@@ -93,6 +105,23 @@ endif()
 
 target_compile_options(ggml-sycl PRIVATE "-Wno-narrowing")
 
+message(STATUS "GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO ${GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO}")
+if (GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO)
+    # Link against Level Zero loader for direct device memory allocation.
+    # Avoids sycl::malloc_device triggering DMA-buf/TTM system RAM staging
+    # in the xe kernel driver during multi-GPU inference.
+    find_path(LEVEL_ZERO_INCLUDE_DIR level_zero/ze_api.h HINTS ${ONEAPI_ROOT}/include ${LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_PATH}/include)
+    find_library(ZE_LOADER_LIB ze_loader HINTS ${ONEAPI_ROOT}/lib ${LEVEL_ZERO_V1_SDK_LIB_PATH} ENV LD_LIBRARY_PATH)
+    if(ZE_LOADER_LIB AND LEVEL_ZERO_INCLUDE_DIR)
+        target_link_libraries(ggml-sycl PRIVATE ${ZE_LOADER_LIB})
+        target_compile_definitions(ggml-sycl PRIVATE GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO)
+        message(STATUS "Level Zero loader found: ${ZE_LOADER_LIB}")
+        message(STATUS "Level Zero headers found: ${LEVEL_ZERO_INCLUDE_DIR}")
+    else()
+        message(WARNING "Level Zero loader or headers not found, Level Zero support disabled")
+    endif()
+endif()
+
 # Link against oneDNN
 set(GGML_SYCL_DNNL 0)
 if(GGML_SYCL_DNN)
diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/common.cpp b/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/common.cpp
@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@
 //
 
 #include "common.hpp"
+#include <sycl/backend.hpp>
+#ifdef GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO
+#include <level_zero/ze_api.h>
+#endif
 
 #include "ggml-backend-impl.h"
 #include "ggml-impl.h"
@@ -55,6 +59,20 @@ bool gpu_has_xmx(sycl::device &dev) {
     return dev.has(sycl::aspect::ext_intel_matrix);
 }
 
+static int ggml_sycl_get_env(const char *env_name, int default_val) {
+    char *user_device_string = getenv(env_name);
+    int user_number = default_val;
+
+    unsigned n;
+    if (user_device_string != NULL &&
+        sscanf(user_device_string, " %u", &n) == 1) {
+        user_number = (int)n;
+    } else {
+        user_number = default_val;
+    }
+    return user_number;
+}
+
 int64_t downsample_sycl_global_range(int64_t accumulate_block_num, int64_t block_size) {
   const int64_t max_range = std::numeric_limits<int>::max();
   int64_t sycl_down_blk_size = block_size;
@@ -66,6 +84,61 @@ int64_t downsample_sycl_global_range(int64_t accumulate_block_num, int64_t block
   return sycl_down_blk_size;
 }
 
+#ifdef GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO
+static bool ggml_sycl_use_level_zero_device_alloc(sycl::queue &q) {
+    return ggml_sycl_get_env("GGML_SYCL_ENABLE_LEVEL_ZERO", 1) &&
+        q.get_device().is_gpu() &&
+        q.get_backend() == sycl::backend::ext_oneapi_level_zero;
+}
+#endif
+
+// Use Level Zero zeMemAllocDevice to avoid sycl::malloc_device triggering
+// DMA-buf/TTM system RAM staging in the xe kernel driver during multi-GPU inference.
+// The decision is made from the queue and runtime env because large buffers can be
+// allocated before ggml_check_sycl() initializes g_ggml_sycl_enable_level_zero.
+void * ggml_sycl_malloc_device(size_t size, sycl::queue &q) {
+#ifdef GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO
+    if (ggml_sycl_use_level_zero_device_alloc(q)) {
+        void *ptr = nullptr;
+        auto ze_ctx = sycl::get_native<sycl::backend::ext_oneapi_level_zero>(q.get_context());
+        auto ze_dev = sycl::get_native<sycl::backend::ext_oneapi_level_zero>(q.get_device());
+#ifdef ZE_RELAXED_ALLOCATION_LIMITS_EXP_NAME
+        ze_relaxed_allocation_limits_exp_desc_t relaxed_desc = {
+            ZE_STRUCTURE_TYPE_RELAXED_ALLOCATION_LIMITS_EXP_DESC,
+            nullptr,
+            ZE_RELAXED_ALLOCATION_LIMITS_EXP_FLAG_MAX_SIZE,
+        };
+        ze_device_mem_alloc_desc_t alloc_desc = {
+            ZE_STRUCTURE_TYPE_DEVICE_MEM_ALLOC_DESC,
+            &relaxed_desc,
+            0,
+            0,
+        };
+#else
+        ze_device_mem_alloc_desc_t alloc_desc = {ZE_STRUCTURE_TYPE_DEVICE_MEM_ALLOC_DESC, nullptr, 0, 0};
+#endif
+        ze_result_t r = zeMemAllocDevice(ze_ctx, &alloc_desc, size, 64, ze_dev, &ptr);
+        if (r == ZE_RESULT_SUCCESS && ptr) {
+            return ptr;
+        }
+        return nullptr;
+    }
+#endif
+    return sycl::malloc_device(size, q);
+}
+
+void ggml_sycl_free_device(void *ptr, sycl::queue &q) {
+    if (!ptr) return;
+#ifdef GGML_SYCL_SUPPORT_LEVEL_ZERO
+    if (ggml_sycl_use_level_zero_device_alloc(q)) {
+        auto ze_ctx = sycl::get_native<sycl::backend::ext_oneapi_level_zero>(q.get_context());
+        zeMemFree(ze_ctx, ptr);
+        return;
+    }
+#endif
+    SYCL_CHECK(CHECK_TRY_ERROR(sycl::free(ptr, q)));
+}
+
 void release_extra_gpu(ggml_tensor_extra_gpu * extra, std::vector<queue_ptr> streams) {
     for (int i = 0; i < ggml_sycl_info().device_count; ++i) {
         for (int64_t is = 0; is < GGML_SYCL_MAX_STREAMS; ++is) {
@@ -75,8 +148,7 @@ void release_extra_gpu(ggml_tensor_extra_gpu * extra, std::vector<queue_ptr> str
         }
         if (extra->data_device[i] != nullptr && streams.size()>0) {
             ggml_sycl_set_device(i);
-            SYCL_CHECK(
-                CHECK_TRY_ERROR(sycl::free(extra->data_device[i], *(streams[i]))));
+            SYCL_CHECK(CHECK_TRY_ERROR(ggml_sycl_free_device(extra->data_device[i], *(streams[i]))));
         }
     }
     delete extra;
diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/common.hpp b/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/common.hpp
@@ -310,6 +310,10 @@ struct ggml_tensor_extra_gpu {
   optimize_feature optimized_feature;
 };
 
+extern int g_ggml_sycl_enable_level_zero;
+void * ggml_sycl_malloc_device(size_t size, sycl::queue &q);
+void ggml_sycl_free_device(void *ptr, sycl::queue &q);
+
 void release_extra_gpu(ggml_tensor_extra_gpu * extra, std::vector<queue_ptr> streams={});
 
 namespace sycl_ex = sycl::ext::oneapi::experimental;
diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/ggml-sycl.cpp b/ggml/src/ggml-sycl/ggml-sycl.cpp
