GPU passthrough for dual monitors setup

Hello everyone,

 

I am new here, so please have a little bit of understanding that my technical knowledge is a bit limited. I am coming from the synology world... and I have 3 days of experience with UNRAID 🙂

I am looking for some advice with regards a possible setup for my server.

 

Hardware:

- Intel Core i7 6700K 4GHz LGA 1151 - Skylake

- Motherboard ASUS Z170-K

- Onboard graphics Intel HD 530

- 16Gb DDR4

- Multiple hard drives, but not relevant right now.

- optional: Very old GPU Asus 6600 LE - might not support passthrough

 

Here is what I am trying to achieve:

- Have unraid run a Windows (preferred) or MacOS for my daily tasks - with dual monitors - extended desktop mode.

- On the VM: No gaming, no video/photo editing - just normal MS Office stuff, MS Teams, Web browsing, youtube, etc.

- On Unraid: Docker with Radarr, Sonarr, Transmission, Plex (light - no 4k, max 1 steam at a time), nextcloud, hassio.

 

What I tried so far:

- install the old GPU (6600LE) - set bios settings to consider this the main GPU - for unraid

- install a Windows VM - tried to get the intel 530 passthrough using some of the instructions on this forum. I did manage to get it working but only with one monitor on DVI - HDMI and VGA are not sending any signal to the second monitor.

- try to install the intel 530 drivers -> DVI also stops working.

- in this process, i also noticed some Kernel errors when connecting the monitor to the old card.

 

So, what I have in mind is to give up on trying to:

- passthrough the intel onboard graphics card - too complicated for me

- use the old 6600 GPU

and instead to buy a cheap GPU which allows me to be easily passthough for a windows VM.

 

What I had in mind was this:

- buy a GT 710 https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/B07489XSJP/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A8KICS1PHF7ZO&psc=1

- have it configured to passthrough for my dual monitor win10 vm

- use the intel onboard graphics for plex and the rest of the docker containers until the current GPU supply chain crisis is passing

- later on (when I will have money) add an NVIDIA Quadro to take over the PLEX workload.

 

My concerns:

- will the onboard GPU be enough to take care of some Plex streaming without huge performance issues?

- will I be able to make the dual monitor setup in win10 VM work with a GT 710?

 

Many thanks