diff --git a/backend/cpp/llama/grpc-server.cpp b/backend/cpp/llama/grpc-server.cpp
index 0d17141f83ea..883fbf8fac8e 100644
--- a/backend/cpp/llama/grpc-server.cpp
+++ b/backend/cpp/llama/grpc-server.cpp
@@ -467,6 +467,7 @@ struct llama_server_context
     bool all_slots_are_idle = false;
     bool add_bos_token      = true;
     bool has_eos_token      = true;
+    bool has_gpu = false;
 
     bool grammar_lazy = false;
     std::vector<common_grammar_trigger> grammar_triggers;
@@ -511,7 +512,10 @@ struct llama_server_context
         if (!params.mmproj.empty()) {
             multimodal = true;
             LOG_INFO("Multi Modal Mode Enabled", {});
-            clp_ctx = clip_model_load(params.mmproj.c_str(), /*verbosity=*/ 1);
+            clp_ctx = clip_init(params.mmproj.c_str(), clip_context_params {
+                /* use_gpu */ has_gpu,
+                /*verbosity=*/ 1,
+            });
             if(clp_ctx == nullptr) {
                 LOG_ERR("unable to load clip model: %s", params.mmproj.c_str());
                 return false;
@@ -2314,7 +2318,7 @@ static std::string get_all_kv_cache_types() {
 }
 
 static void params_parse(const backend::ModelOptions* request,
-                                common_params & params) {
+                                common_params & params, llama_server_context &llama) {
    
     // this is comparable to: https://github.com/ggerganov/llama.cpp/blob/d9b33fe95bd257b36c84ee5769cc048230067d6f/examples/server/server.cpp#L1809
 
@@ -2352,6 +2356,20 @@ static void params_parse(const backend::ModelOptions* request,
         add_rpc_devices(std::string(llama_grpc_servers));
     }
     
+     // decode options. Options are in form optname:optvale, or if booleans only optname.
+    for (int i = 0; i < request->options_size(); i++) {
+        std::string opt = request->options(i);
+        char *optname = strtok(&opt[0], ":");
+        char *optval = strtok(NULL, ":");
+        if (optval == NULL) {
+            optval = "true";
+        }
+
+        if (!strcmp(optname, "gpu")) {
+            llama.has_gpu = true;
+        }
+    }
+
     // TODO: Add yarn
 
     if (!request->tensorsplit().empty()) {
@@ -2445,7 +2463,7 @@ class BackendServiceImpl final : public backend::Backend::Service {
   grpc::Status LoadModel(ServerContext* context, const backend::ModelOptions* request, backend::Result* result) {
     // Implement LoadModel RPC
     common_params params;
-    params_parse(request, params);
+    params_parse(request, params, llama);
 
     llama_backend_init();
     llama_numa_init(params.numa);