Do I need two graphic cards to run Unraid + Win10 VM?


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Hi everyone,

 

I've been using Unraid for quite a while in my server. Now instead of having 2 towers (one for my personal PC and another one for the server) I'm planning to merge everything into one single PC.

 

My idea is using a TRX40 board with Threadripper 3960X or maybe a X570 board with Ryzen 3950X. None of them has an integrated GPU. Then my GPU will be an NVIDIA 2070 Super, fully dedicated to the Windows 10 VM that will be my personal PC. So my question is: if my GPU is working exclusively for the VM, do I need a separated one for unraid/plex to work?

 

Thanks in advance for your help, and please let me know if I need to give more information.

Kind Regards.

 

Edited by kimsuwoo
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8 hours ago, Squid said:

If you want to have Plex do hardware transcodes, then yes

Thank you for your response.

I'm sorry that I don't know much about how Plex works. At the moment I have an integrated GPU in my current setup and Plex does indeed transcode movies when they need to be played at a different resolution than original. If I did not change any of the default options, is the transcoding being done by the integrated GPU or by the CPU itself?

 

To put it more simple, yes, I want Plex to do transconding, but I don't know if it does require a GPU to do the transcoding.

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Hi again!

 

I'm trying to add the GPU to the virtual machine but it does not appear on the list. When I check the tools tab of Unraid I see the graphic card is detected, but when I want to add it to the VM it is not on the list.

 

I'm checking now the 2 gamers, 1 tower video in Linus Tech Tips and he says you need two graphic cards, one for unraid to boot up and another one for the VM. I'm confused because the CPU I'm using for testing has integrated graphics and everything works if I do not add the graphic card at all. My guess was that Unraid would use the integrated graphics to boot up and I could add the GPU to the VM.

 

Some help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Edited by kimsuwoo
Additional info
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Solved the part in which I add the GPU to the VM (it was IOMMU disabled).

Now the problem is that the screen shows black when using the GPU (I'm testing with an NVIDIA GTX1060 6GB). I read somewhere else in the forum that you can't passthrough an NVIDIA graphic card as the only card in the system because Unraid uses it to boot up. Therefore I guess the answer to my initial question is that YES, you need 2 graphic cards unless you use an AMD card.

Can someone confirm this?

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I don't think Unraid requires a Graphics card itself to install but sometimes the BIOS will require one to finish its POST operation.  You should check to see if the MB BIOS has setting options about graphics cards and their usage.  So much of this type of stuff is so dependent on hardware/firmware itself.  (Years ago, one could find cheap PCI VGA cards that would work with Unraid but they are difficult to find as PCI slots are.)

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