this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
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GPU passthrough requires two GPUs, a system with compatible components, a lot of caffeine and a lot of patience. Not something for someone who wants something that just works.
It only requires it if you want the host to have a gpu, too. Otherwise, single-gpu passthrough is very much possible
The chasm between "possible" and "click this option to enable" is vast.
That's the case with proper hardware passthrough either way. Just wanted to make it clear that running a VM doesn't automatically bring the need for two GPUs
My experience with single GPU passthrough on Proxmox to a media VM was pretty positive, especially for it being an old Nvidia card. Even as someone doing it for the first time, it just took about 10 minutes to figure out the passthrough itself and another ~15 to figure out some driver issues. And it's worked perfectly since then. All in all much better than what I'd expected.
And your hardware supports it. It's still a recent-enough thing that not all hardware does. My old laptop with a 1070 nVidia does not, for example. Sure it's not a new machine, but it's also not that old and is the sort of thing a self-hoster would typically be using as a makeshift server. My other systems are even older...
The GPU I used is actually a 1080, with a (rapidly declining in usefulness) Intel 4690k. But I suppose laptop vs desktop can certainly make all the difference. What I really want is GPU virtualization, which I've heard AMD supports, but I'm not about to buy a new GPU when what I've got works fine.
My understanding is that it's a combination of GPU and motherboard. It'll be great once this has been done long enough that 10yr old hardware supports it though.
GPU virtualization I haven't heard of - thanks! I'll look into that.
What I said especially applies for single GPU passthrough, minus the two GPU part, I say that because I've done that on Desktop.
Single GPU passthrough (for me) was a journey of misery where a series of bash scripts with crude busyloop synchronization kept me from having no display output and needing to restart my system to test my changes again.
It's probably the last thing I'd recommend for someone who wants something that works, unless you know something I don't.
And integrated GPU counts, so you could use the integrated one for the host and a discrete card for the guest.
That's a really nice option, yeah. No need for the extra expense when the CPU you use or are going to buy has an iGPU anyway