So I have been wanting to move onto Linux for a while now, but having a GTX 980 I feel it would be kind of a waste, as Linux does not really need such capabilities. There's also the thing that I don't want to lose muh vidya, and I feel dual-booting might be too much of a hassle.
Some time back I came across some info on GPU passthrough for VMs, and as I understand it, it is possible to run a VM on Linux with passthrough with very little performance loss. Since I have a multimonitor setup, I have been thinking of getting a smaller card that can drive 3 monitors for running Linux, and leave the 980 disabled for when I need to pass it through to a VM. Though I have never done something like this before so I don't know if its even viable.
Has anyone tried doing something like this in the past? Is it really as straightforward as it seems, or is it more hassle than dualbooting?
If you try dual-booting, but find yourself not booting to windows to game because you need the linux side to finish some long duration task, then the VM/passthrough route is worth it. Otherwise it's too much of a pain, just easier to reboot.
Elijah Richardson
Sell it and get something amd
Connor Hughes
I have a question that's somewhat related. If the GPU is disabled for Linux in order to use for GPU Passthrough, can I still use the ports on the GPU for the monitors?
Jackson Hughes
No
Leo Robinson
My two monitors are Display Port. Any 1151 motherboards that actually have 2 display ports on them?
Benjamin Fisher
I don't think I have ever seen a mobo with two ports for the integrated gpu.
Lucas Evans
If you do go through the pass through route, just remember nvidia gimps using the card. Wendell from Tek Syndicate goes into the shenanigans but I can't remember the episode. You can get it to work, I think, but it's not as easy as using an AMD - which has shitty drivers
Parker Ortiz
Is that a confirmed trap of am I safe?
Jayden Miller
afaik confirmed trap from /k/
Joseph Morales
...
Luke Mitchell
So nVidia cards lose more performance when passed through? I thought GPU passthrough allowed for giving the entire card to the guest machine and it wouldn't even be able to tell.
Nolan Bailey
Not performance, no. Nvidia detects that the GPU is being "passed through" so to speak and refuses to show any display. I cannot remember which episode on Tek Syndicate channel but I think it was a Wendell only episode in which he goes into the subject of doing exactly that which you want to do yourself.
It was a while ago, I might have been high, I could be mistaken, please no hate.
Liam Green
Seems to be just what I want to do. I will take a look. Thanks!
Alexander Davis
Use 3D acceleration, instead. Doing passthrough with a GPU in this manner makes it pretty clunky.
Jacob Powell
But would that work good for more demanding games? Like, playing a current year game on ultra settings, just to cite an example.
Tyler Jackson
At what resolution? IIRC VRAM is limited to 2GB, so if you're gaming past 1080p you will probably have to turn down texture quality.
I just suggested it because I looked into the same things you did and found that using the 3D acceleration in VMware Workstation worked better for me than passing through a GPU.
Jaxon Lee
You don't get out much do ya? Even dog shit hp crap boxes usually have two video outs.
Adrian Cruz
Is this really true? I see it mentioned a lot, but my GPU passthrough setup with a gtx 960 works just as fine as it does on bare-metal. Does it not apply to the 960?
Dylan Price
>Has anyone tried doing something like this in the past? Is it really as straightforward as it seems, or is it more hassle than dualbooting? I do GPU pass through with my dual GTX 980s in ESXi 6 U2
>just remember nvidia gimps using the card. It is easy to enable passthru and still have the drivers work. Add the following to your VMX file and the VM wont realize it is virtualized
hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = "FALSE"
If you need SLI to work, use DifferentSLIAuto 1.5
>So nVidia cards lose more performance when passed through? No
Do listen to the retard recommending SVGA. Use ESXi and add the setting I mention above and you'll be fine
Isaac Ortiz
It was an Nvidia driver parameter or something. It's old news.
Aaron Flores
It's true in ESXi, not anything else. It's a driver thing.
Joshua Gray
>hypervisor.cpuid.v0 = "FALSE"
Sweet. Thx user.
Owen Green
why esxi over unix + kvm?
David Thomas
pic 2
>I see it mentioned a lot, but my GPU passthrough setup with a gtx 960 works just as fine as it does on bare-metal. What hypervisor?
Grayson Richardson
Don't listen to this moron suggesting playing games in a VM over, at best, your GbE connection when 3D acceleration can do this: youtube.com/watch?v=EnaUPg6DGqg
Not to mention you require an entirely separate host to use ESXi. Stop spamming your stupid bullshit, dude.
Mason Bailey
Because it isnt shit?
>GbE connection I have dual 10GbE fiber poorfag
>Not to mention you require an entirely separate host to use ESXi. This is absolutely retarded. You run ESXi and pass through the USB controllers and GPUs and it acts just like a windows desktop, plus you can run all your other VMs in the background.
Noah Wright
Not op, but could you use integrated graphics to run the displays, and your dedicated card for gaymes?
Ryder Parker
>I have dual 10GbE fiber poorfag Are OP, retard? Fuck off. >This is absolutely retarded. You run ESXi and pass through the USB controllers and GPUs and it acts just like a windows desktop, plus you can run all your other VMs in the background. And now in order to control it you need the thick client or rely on the premature web client.
Shit solution. Why are you pushing this autism? ESXi is literally not for your workstation, that's why they make a separate product.
Gabriel Scott
I have another question regarding this one
So if I want to do gpu passthrough I must have a dedicated videocard for the vm? Can't I game on linux with the same videocard when the vm is not running?
Brandon Nguyen
>And now in order to control it you need the thick client or rely on the premature web client. Control as in keyboard and mouse? As I said, pass through the USB controller.
Control as in manage the host? Who the fuck uses the thick client or web client? You run vCenter like any sane person does.
>ESXi is literally not for your workstation lol no, GPU performance is shit, and why you pass through GPUs. Let me guess, you dont have VT-d on your shitbox
Julian Reed
>GPU performance is shit, SVGA
Brody Campbell
>Control as in keyboard and mouse? No, you fucking retard. >Who the fuck uses the thick client or web client? People who aren't paying thousands for a license or hundreds for a subscription? >lol no, GPU performance is shit, and why you pass through GPUs. Did you watch the video? Of course not, you're just an idiot. >Let me guess, you dont have VT-d on your shitbox They didn't make E5-2670v2s without VT-d, did they?
>People who aren't paying thousands for a license or hundreds for a subscription? Who the fuck pays for software? Its called a keygen.
>Did you watch the video? Of course not, you're just an idiot. Performance with SVGA will always be shit compared to pass through and you're limited to DX9 so enjoy your shit graphics. For fucks sakes to prevent video from stuttering you have to setup high latency sensitivity for the VM so it has reserved coars.
>They didn't make E5-2670v2s without VT-d, did they? If you didnt know vCenter has keygens I doubt you have 2670v2s at home.
Thats why, normally the drivers wont run in a virtualized environment. I didnt read the link but that is either not telling the VM it is virtualized or changing the device IDs to a quadro.
Adam Moore
enjoy your ban
Zachary Baker
I find that some games like Overwatch and gmod take a massive performance hit while others are perfect.
Adrian Scott
What's a good gpu to use for the machine itself? Obviously the vm would use a normal one, but I assume the focus for the main gpu would be free as in freedom drivers? Old ati card, or is there some third brand with free drivers?
Wyatt Hall
If you use ESXi there would be no need for a secondary GPU. Passthru the primary to the windows VM for vidya and just remote control the Linux VM with Workstation/VNC/whatever. Or if you really need native GPU performance for Linux, and can live with only one of the VMs running at once, you could pass through to both.
Alexander Myers
Don't listen to this retard.
Christopher Parker
that's a girl, r-right?
Wyatt Martinez
Does it matter? c:
Aaron Howard
>hey guise SVGA is fine, a GTX 980 can run a DX9 video game at 1366x768, that is totally native performance. Passing everything through Xorg totally wont make you take a massive performance hit, and who the fuck wants DX12. stay butthurt poorfag with no 10GbE fiber and no Xeons
no
Anthony Garcia
Aight nigga, lead the man down the path to your retarded autistic solutions. Have fun with your bullshit.
Adrian Russell
>playing any modern game with DX9 or OpenGL 2.1 >not retarded go show me doom 4 playing at 4K with ultra settings on your lolburg SVGA
Levi Thomas
I mean, I do have an ESXi host that I use for headless guests, but my question really was for virtualizing Windows and giving it a big gpu, while linux would have a smaller gpu assigned to it.
I understand then that while KVM does provide good bare metal performance, the workaround for using nvidia doesn't work?
Jackson Bailey
>while linux would have a smaller gpu assigned to it. If you dont need serious 3D the SVGA adapter would work fine for Linux.
>but my question really was for virtualizing Windows and giving it a big gpu see
Aaron Martin
I think he meant two DP ports.
Elijah Morales
Wanted to do GPU passthrough
I spent the extra money to get a 4670k Intel jewed me and took out VT-d
Aiden Gray
just get an hdmi > dvi converter
Jack Morris
>looked the archwiki page on GPU passthrough
Yeah, no.
Simpler to have my Windows separated from my Linux by having two machines.
Elijah Sullivan
Yeah, that's what I meant lol.
I mean, my mobo has hdmi and vga, but
>vga
Jace Gray
remember when we used to have jobs?
Colton Gomez
Is it possible for the VM in GPU Passthrough to just be in a window opposed to a whole separate monitor?
Daniel Baker
I don't think so, no.
The whole GPU is passed through to the VM, so the VM, so the only output is through the physical GPU that was passed through.
Josiah Gomez
Got it.
Are there any other options for people who prefer the super Linux UX but want their windows games that don't want to do GPU passthrough?
Would running Linux in a VM on Windows in fullscreen for media purposes be okay?
Jeremiah Barnes
Would X11 Forwarding be a good option?
Mason Green
Not that guy, but if you want as few headaches as possible (and the best performance) you run games on a native Windows install. After that there's GPU passthrough, with the whole hassle of setting it up and the GPUs that are passed through are unavailable to Linux. As for Linux in a VM on Windows - you can easily try that out if you want to check performance. You however lose much of the supposed extra security/stability, since you're running Windows as the host.
The simple way to do this shit is to just dual boot. With modern operating systems and a SSD you should be able to boot into another OS within 20s, easily.
David Jones
Why not just dual booting? You just learn to separate your gaming hours from your work hours.
Asher Davis
yeah like this
Ryan Peterson
prefer linux superior UX, not really for work.
Robert Anderson
Yup, they added it to 4690K and 4790K though.
Chase Powell
Can you do this with a AMD, ati card, and an old nvidia card? Running linux on the older card of course
Luke Perry
Yes. If you have two cards that use the same driver (ie. radeon/radeon fglrx/fglrx amdgpu/amdgpu), you will have to blacklist the driver on the passthrough card and make sure the vfio driver gets hooked to it before the main driver has a chance to.