diff --git a/docs/build.md b/docs/build.md
index cfe42ebbf3197..8b16d1a358518 100644
--- a/docs/build.md
+++ b/docs/build.md
@@ -178,7 +178,11 @@ For Jetson user, if you have Jetson Orin, you can try this: [Offical Support](ht
   cmake --build build --config Release
   ```
 
-The environment variable [`CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES`](https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-c-programming-guide/index.html#env-vars) can be used to specify which GPU(s) will be used. The following compilation options are also available to tweak performance:
+The environment variable [`CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES`](https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-c-programming-guide/index.html#env-vars) can be used to specify which GPU(s) will be used.
+
+The environment variable `GGML_CUDA_ENABLE_UNIFIED_MEMORY=1` can be used to enable unified memory in Linux. This allows swapping to system RAM instead of crashing when the GPU VRAM is exhausted. In Windows this setting is available in the NVIDIA control panel as `System Memory Fallback`.
+
+The following compilation options are also available to tweak performance:
 
 | Option                        | Legal values           | Default | Description                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
 |-------------------------------|------------------------|---------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
diff --git a/ggml/src/ggml-cuda.cu b/ggml/src/ggml-cuda.cu
index b510777fb78f6..68605fff6dbb8 100644
--- a/ggml/src/ggml-cuda.cu
+++ b/ggml/src/ggml-cuda.cu
@@ -130,7 +130,22 @@ static cudaError_t ggml_cuda_device_malloc(void ** ptr, size_t size, int device)
     }
     return res;
 #else
+
+#if !defined(GGML_USE_HIPBLAS) && !defined(GGML_USE_MUSA)
+    cudaError_t err;
+    if (getenv("GGML_CUDA_ENABLE_UNIFIED_MEMORY") != nullptr)
+    {
+        err = cudaMallocManaged(ptr, size);
+    }
+    else
+    {
+        err = cudaMalloc(ptr, size);
+    }
+    return err;
+#else
     return cudaMalloc(ptr, size);
+#endif // !defined(GGML_USE_HIPBLAS) && !defined(GGML_USE_MUSA)
+
 #endif
 }