RAPIDS Docs

This site uses Just the Docs, a documentation theme for Jekyll.

Search

RSN 53 - RAPIDS 25.10 consolidates Docker images to single tag per CUDA major version

Author RAPIDS Ops
Status

In Progress
Topic Platform Support Change
RAPIDS Version v25.10
Created 24 September 2025
Updated N/A

Overview

Starting with RAPIDS v25.10, RAPIDS is consolidating Docker images to use a single rolling tag per CUDA major version instead of maintaining separate tags for each CUDA minor version. This change simplifies image selection and reduces maintenance overhead while maintaining compatibility within CUDA major versions.

Changes

New Tagging Strategy

RAPIDS will now publish Docker images using the following naming convention:

<RAPIDS_VERSION>-cuda<CUDA_MAJOR_VERSION>-py<PYTHON_VERSION>

For example: rapidsai/base:25.10-cuda12-py3.13 instead of rapidsai/base:25.10-cuda12.9-py3.13.

Available tags for each release can be found at https://hub.docker.com/r/rapidsai/base/tags

What This Means

  • CUDA 12: The cuda12 tag will point to the latest supported minor version for that RAPIDS release.
  • CUDA 13: Only cuda13 tags will be published, and point to the latest supported minor version for that RAPIDS release.

Impact

Users installing with conda or pip are unaffected. With this change, Docker users will always get the latest supported CUDA minor release for the selected major version.

Compatibility

  • CUDA Minor Version Compatibility: CUDA is designed for application binary compatibility within major versions, so this change maintains compatibility.
  • Driver Requirements: The main constraint remains the NVIDIA driver version, which must meet or exceed the minimum required for the CUDA version. CUDA Compatibility ensures that all compatible drivers from the same major series (driver 525 or newer for CUDA 12) are supported. See details on Forward Compatibility for supported hardware.

Migration Timeline

  • RAPIDS v25.08 and earlier: No impact. Existing minor version tags will continue to work, and no major version tags will be created for historical releases.
  • RAPIDS v25.10: Both CUDA minor version tags (e.g., cuda12.0, cuda12.9) and the new major version tags (e.g. cuda12, cuda13) will be available. Users should migrate to the new major version tags (e.g., cuda12, cuda13).
  • RAPIDS v25.12 and later: Only major version tags will be published (e.g. cuda12, cuda13).

References