I have a question that I can’t find the answer to, and other people say can’t be done, but I have been running for months now but don’t really understand how it’s running.
I have a single PC with a Ryzen 1600 and a single Vega 56 running Windows 10. A few months back I installed a multiseat program called Aster (not sure if I should post links here but a search for “Aster Multiseat” pulls it right up). It allowed my fiancee and I to both use the computer at the same time through 2 separate workstations on our respective accounts. To my surprise, we can both run separate, demanding videogames at the same time. For example, I can run Battlefield V while she is running heavily modded Skyrim. I’m fact, both games run so well, you never would know the GPU is splitting the load.
Now, I have read quite alot (as well as watched the L1T videos) on the limitations and struggles of GPU resource splitting on virtual machines, SO-IOV, pass-thru, ect. So…how is this working so flawlessly in my case?
Part of my confusion is not knowing how Aster Multiseat works. I can’t find a good description or documentation on how the program is leveraging windows to allow the multiple simultaneous users on a standard Windows 10 install. It doesn’t seem to be a hacked RDP thing, and it doesn’t appear to be virtual machines, I can’t figure it out.
Would you guys have any insight to how my setup with Aster works?
From my short look at it, Aster looks similar to that russian program (I forgot the name of it Edit: It is called “BeTwin ES”, never throw away downloads!) that does basically the same.
I guess there is a lot of “Why don’t we just…?” happening in the programm, but I won’t argue with the results
No idea of how it really works, but if it uses the same Windows user account for both seats, Windows won’t care.
It might be running programs in borderless window mode since obviously fullscreen exclusive wouldn’t be available.
A Vega GPU is actually quite good and those older games at 1080p won’t be much of a challenge for it.
Rendering at 4K is 4X as much work, roughly. More complicated to run two games because of geometry and shaders. But if it all fits into RAM, I’d expect it to work well.
I’m more surprised that a Ryzen 1600 has enough CPU power to do it.
OK, I just realized how weird it is that I used to think six cores was amazingly powerful and now it seems low end.
MazeFrame, that does look similar! And seems about as sketchy as the Russian site I bought Aster from. But it all works, even if the UI looks like its from Win XP…
zlynx, it actually uses two separate Windows user accounts. You can have both desktops running side by side at the same time. But you may be on to something with the window mode theory. The program does require you to set your display to extended mode before enabling the program (requires restart). The program works somehow before login tho, as I will get separate login screens at each workstation on startup (all user accounts are available at both workstations).
And yah, both are running at 1080p so it’s nothing too stressful. I’ve been extremely happy with both the Ryzen and Vega. They each have proven to consistently punch above their weight, and take abuse. It does help that the 1600 is OC to 3.9 GHz tho.
Every other computer in our house is 4 core without SMT, so the Ryzen feels practically space age by comparison
