diff --git a/merlin/core/compat.py b/merlin/core/compat.py
index 4c70179e1..d372f8a73 100644
--- a/merlin/core/compat.py
+++ b/merlin/core/compat.py
@@ -13,13 +13,19 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 #
-HAS_GPU = False
 try:
     from numba import cuda
 
-    try:
-        HAS_GPU = len(cuda.gpus.lst) > 0
-    except cuda.cudadrv.error.CudaSupportError:
-        pass
 except ImportError:
     cuda = None
+
+HAS_GPU = False
+try:
+    from dask.distributed.diagnostics import nvml
+
+    HAS_GPU = nvml.device_get_count() > 0
+except ImportError:
+    # We can use `cuda` to set `HAS_GPU` now that we
+    # know `distributed` is not installed (otherwise
+    # the `nvml` import would have succeeded)
+    HAS_GPU = cuda is not None