Can one pass an Intel Arc GPU to a VM despite not yet being supported by Unraid?

[DigiMay]

Greetings! I couldn't decide on which more specific forum best fit this question, so I hope it's ok in General.

 

I'm considering picking up a Intel Arc A380 GPU to replace my failing Quadro P400, but I know Unraid doesn't yet have the kernel support for the Intel GPU. My question is can I still pass the GPU through to a VM for things like Jellyfin encoding and handbrake, if Unraid itself won't access it? 

 

If I did pass it through, would I need to get the iGPU working for unraid itself or can it run headless? 

 

Thanks

[Flatfire]

You should be able to pass it through by simply passing through the IOMMU group that contains it, to the VM of your choice. In general, Unraid doesn't need to have immediate support provided it can tell the hardware exists.

 

If you're using the A380 as your primary display output, and you need access to the local interface rather than just the web interface, you will need to set the iGPU as the default output in your BIOS. I'd recommend doing that anyways if you're passing the GPU through to a VM. Otherwise, Unraid will happily run headless.

[DigiMay]

Sounds great, thanks. I assumed it could pass through without support but I had no confirmation.

 

Yah, I could never get the iGPU working for quicksync but it should work as video out, so I think i'm good to go when I'm ready.

[SimonF]

On 2/2/2023 at 10:01 PM, DigiMay said:

Sounds great, thanks. I assumed it could pass through without support but I had no confirmation.

 

Yah, I could never get the iGPU working for quicksync but it should work as video out, so I think i'm good to go when I'm ready.

Yes you can I have an A770 running on beta drivers hoping for igpu support also

 

Edited February 4, 2023 by SimonF

[C4RBON]

I'm also considering getting an A750 or A770 to pass through to a Windows 11 VM on unraid.  On this page (updated February 8th), Intel states that virtualization is "not supported" for Arc GPUs:

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000093216/graphics.html

https://community.intel.com/t5/Intel-ARC-Graphics/Unable-to-use-Intel-Arc-A750-in-virtual-environment-Linux-vfio/m-p/14557393216/graphics.html

 

"Not supported" seems ambiguous...

1) It is not possible to pass through the Arc GPU to a VM? (this doesn't seem correct, as people have done it)

2) It is not possible to have multiple VMs use one Arc GPU? (I think this would require SR-IOV, which Intel doesn't list for Arc)

3) Intel won't support it meaning if you run into issues, they won't help you resolve it? (fair enough)

 

I'm guessing #2 and #3 are true, but my concern is if Intel can update the drivers that would make it technically not possible (#1) to pass an Arc GPU to a VM.  Is that something Intel could do?  I'm not sure what the interaction is between the drivers, hardware, unraid, VM, and windows.  This is my first foray into a passing a GPU to a VM.

 

My goal is to have a windows VM with a discrete GPU, and then use Sunshine to stream games at 1080p.  Arc A750 is attractive due to price and size (I need a 2 slot GPU).  I can tolerate driver issues, since I have multiple other computers to use.

[DigiMay]

On 2/20/2023 at 1:41 PM, C4RBON said:

"Not supported" seems ambiguous...

1) It is not possible to pass through the Arc GPU to a VM? (this doesn't seem correct, as people have done it)

2) It is not possible to have multiple VMs use one Arc GPU? (I think this would require SR-IOV, which Intel doesn't list for Arc)

3) Intel won't support it meaning if you run into issues, they won't help you resolve it? (fair enough)

 

 

Yep, I've managed to make it work with a few code-43 errors on windows 10 (resolved by upgrading to 11 and making sure the beta drivers were installed). It seems to be a case of 3, and possibly 2 since I only have the one VM I haven't tested. But I can get plex and jellyfin hardware encoding on the ARC, though it does require a monitor to be connected from what I can tell. Possibly, an HDMI dummy plug would work.

[Jumbo_Erdnuesse]

Do you have RBar enabled in BIOS?

[DigiMay]

I do yes