VM GPU Passthrough/Hardware Acceleration Question


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I'm having trouble figuring out exactly how this works. First, unsure if I'll use VM's on my new unRAID server I'll be building soon, but I would like to be able to if I decide to.

 

I understand that you can passthrough a GPU that you would then connect a monitor to physically on the server and use a VM that way, but can you passthrough a GPU to a VM so that it can utilize it so that it runs better, looks better, smoother framerate, if you only connect to the VM over the network, instead of being physically plugged into the passthrough'ed GPU's video output port?

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39 minutes ago, Iceman24 said:

I'm having trouble figuring out exactly how this works. First, unsure if I'll use VM's on my new unRAID server I'll be building soon, but I would like to be able to if I decide to.

 

I understand that you can passthrough a GPU that you would then connect a monitor to physically on the server and use a VM that way, but can you passthrough a GPU to a VM so that it can utilize it so that it runs better, looks better, smoother framerate, if you only connect to the VM over the network, instead of being physically plugged into the passthrough'ed GPU's video output port?

Depends on the specific GPU. Many detect what monitor is attached and only offer resolutions supported by that monitor, so if you have nothing attached, you may not get any output. There are dummy plugs you can get to fake the GPU into running properly.

 

You will still need to use a remote access program hosted on the VM like nomachine, RDP, teamviewer, logmein, gotomypc, or similar.

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Depends on the specific GPU. Many detect what monitor is attached and only offer resolutions supported by that monitor, so if you have nothing attached, you may not get any output. There are dummy plugs you can get to fake the GPU into running properly.
 
You will still need to use a remote access program hosted on the VM like nomachine, RDP, teamviewer, logmein, gotomypc, or similar.
Would the P630 integrated graphics in the Xeon E-2176G work for passthrough to a VM? What about if I wanted to pass it through to Plex docker for transcoding (which I don't often do), could it not be passed through to both simultaneously?
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4 minutes ago, Iceman24 said:
1 hour ago, jonathanm said:
Depends on the specific GPU. Many detect what monitor is attached and only offer resolutions supported by that monitor, so if you have nothing attached, you may not get any output. There are dummy plugs you can get to fake the GPU into running properly.
 
You will still need to use a remote access program hosted on the VM like nomachine, RDP, teamviewer, logmein, gotomypc, or similar.

Would the P630 integrated graphics in the Xeon E-2176G work for passthrough to a VM? What about if I wanted to pass it through to Plex docker for transcoding (which I don't often do), could it not be passed through to both simultaneously?

Depends on the motherboard and chipset for VM.  I don't think I've seen a successful case. Definitely not both a docker and a VM. Normally people use a recent Nvidia card for VM passthrough.

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Depends on the motherboard and chipset for VM.  I don't think I've seen a successful case. Definitely not both a docker and a VM. Normally people use a recent Nvidia card for VM passthrough.
Thanks. Chipset would be Intel C246. Motherboard would be one in the Supermicro X11 line, such as X11SCH-F, X11SCM-F, or X11SCA-F.
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