A way to split one model across several devices to work together.
Think of a huge sofa stuck at the stairs. You split it into pieces. Then each friend carries one piece upstairs.
Model parallel does this for very big AI models. It helps when one GPU does not have enough VRAM, in training or inference.
GPU
Model parallel splits the model and places the parts on several GPUs.
VRAM
People often use it when one GPU's VRAM cannot fit the whole model.
Offloading
Offloading is the other fix for a too-big model — it moves parts away instead of splitting.
Inference
Very large models often need it to run inference smoothly.