well I have been researching virtual machines etc, and discovered i need a second video card… Well I kinda knew that… anyways… i got a x370 tai chi, r7 1700 nvidia gtx 1070… I also have an old gtx 280 laying around. I read using 2 nvidia cards is less then ideal. I know little about AMD video cards (if that doesn’t say NVIDIA FAN BOY)…So I guess I am asking for what video card to put in this thing along side of my nvidia gtx 1070… is the RX 580 8gig AMD’S comparable to gtx 1070?
Let me know what you think. And… thanks.
For the host, if you’re doing no gaming, you can just get a GT 710.
The only problems that arise with getting 2 of the same card is their device IDs are the same. This is why you need 2 different cards. I’ve run with a 770 and a 1060 without problems before.
RX 580 8GB for the host OS will do well if you play any native Linux games. You will have to blacklist Nouveau though in the early steps. I’d go for a 1060 6GB if you want to have a Nvidia card for your host OS still capable of playing Linux native games.
ok so 2 gtx1070 for sli but different video cards for pass through. I almost bought another gtx 1070… so I can get a gtx 1060 for the linux host and use my gtx 1070 for my windows virtual machine then, without too much complications?
You will be 100% fine. 1060 is a GP106 chip while a 1070/1080 is a GP104 chip.
Do keep in mind though you will technically need the same power requirements as SLI to do 2 gamers, 1 CPU. Make sure you have a good PSU.
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You CAN use two cards that are the same model, but initial setup is a little different. You basically make a small script that runs on startup to bind the GPU to vfio based on bus ID rather than the device ID. The Arch wiki is a guide on this IIRC.
I used this for two identical sound cards once, but it works the same for GPU’s.
AMD wont work differently to NIVIDA nor will it to intel integrated graphics.
If you have an igpu then you can use that for the host. Also bear in mind that that if you use a weak gpu and a good gpu. Your experience in one of the os’s may suffer if you game on both. If you only play windows games, or low graphical usage games on linux that’s not a problem, but its just something to keep your eye open for.
Best of luck.