I know that this question is answered a lot in separate threads so I figured I would post the way to find in a single location.

 

This applies ONLY to Intel CPUs.

(If someone knows of a site that provides same information (as easily) for AMD CPUs, please feel free to post it.  The best I could find was a wiki page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IOMMU-supporting_hardware)

 

Go to this site:  http://ark.intel.com/

 

In the top right corner, type your CPU model # in the "Type Here to Search Products" box (it will autofill) and select your CPU (Note:  there are 2 search boxes.  You want to use the lower one):

 

 

This will bring up the details about your CPU.  Scroll all the way down to the section called "Advanced Technologies".  We are looking for a line item named "Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d)".  This is the instruction set that is required to passthrough devices (HD controllers, video cards, NICs, etc.) to VMs.

 

 

There are 3 possibilities that I have seen:

 

-  If this line is non-existent, your CPU does NOT support Directed I/O.

 

-  If this line exists and the value is "No", your CPU does NOT support Directed I/O.

 

-  If this line exists and the value is "Yes", your CPU DOES support Directed I/O.

 

As you can see in the pic above, my Xeon E5530 supports Directed I/O.

 

John

Good / Informative Post.

 

Intel VT-D Processor List

 

Is another way of doing it. If you are clicking through NewEgg and considering a purchase between a few choices... This provides a list with all their CPUs that support VT-D. That way you do not have to enter in each one individually.

I disagree 100% with your final statement. It's not down to purely CPU with Intel...

 

The chipset and motherboard, more specifically your EXACT bios revision, must enable it. The only way to know for sure is to either look around the net and see what other people have used or buy and try.

 

Asus are known for being particularly stingy with the vt-d features on their chipsets, god knows why. ASRock seem to have a fairly good reputation. But if you want it guaranteed then use a proper server grade board like a Supermicro or that ilk.

I'll make one final statement:

 

I see a lot of people ask "is my motherboard capable of passthrough?".

 

Motherboards are inconsequential.  All that matters is if the CPU supports VT-d.  Naturally, your motherboard would need to support the CPU in question.  However, motherboards are really not a factor in determining VT-d support other than which CPUs are supported.

 

Ouch!

This is dead wrong.

In order to use vt-d or IOMMU you need *all* three parts (CPU. mobo-chipset, BIOS) to support that feature...all of these are equally important...you miss one in your setup, you're not going to enjoy it.

 

Edit: ...oups, I'm late 

Late but correct sir!

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

 

Thanks guys.

 

Removed.