GPU passthrough host card

Hey I’m not 100% sure I understand how this works, but I want to try VGA passthrough. Is the GPU available when not running VM for Linux? Do I need anything powerful for the host GPU? In other words can I just by the cheapest GPU for the host? Plan on using the same monitor with two displays

Nope. its a hard pass-thru.

Nope. The integrated one on the processor will suffice.

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I’m using a ryzen 1600 so nothing integrated, but okay thanks

For host graphics say a GT710 or AMD equivalent will be fine. Really any PCIe graphics that can output the resolution and refresh you want.

You may want to buy a switch for your video cable so you do not wear out your cables or monitor buttons. Also look into looking glass so you do not have to switch signals all the time. https://looking-glass.hostfission.com/

you can actually use nvidia_xrun to handoff, and similar for AMD guest cards iirc

this ^

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I stand corrected. Thanks.

it’s a little known feature, I wouldn’t run a windows VM at all with my current setup if it weren’t available, though

Wow. Lots of good information in here. One question I would ask, is the GPU passthrough worth it? It seems like I can get FFXV to run using Wine, and I am only lacking LoL after that for games I care to play. I can only hope there are linux versions of everything in the future.

depends on what you want to do really.

if you plan on using wine I recommend using lutris or Playonlinux to help keep things tidy and separated, and league works in wine fine last i checked

I plan on using Lutris based on the guide on here. I think League just blocked wine usage with their latest anti-cheat implementation.

ah, that’s a shame.

if they’re being aggressive on wine installs there’s every possibility that VMs are next

VMs were first apparently. It looks like the only way to make it work is with a VGA passthrough. I’m not sure how they are checking for that though.

VMware makes a lot more noise in the guest OS about being virtualized compered to xen or kvm, but they’re still detectable if you look for the right signs

yeah I was going to look at wendle’s guides on vga passthrough, but I was just going to install the vm he suggests. I think its xen…

use qemu/kvm, you’ll have a much easier time

I don’t think “easy” is in the cards for me. Doing an Arch install tonight.

Looking back at this, I think I missed something, does looking glass mean I don’t require a second cable running from my machine to the monitor? Was thinking about the GT 710 and the RX580. I’d like to run some games native in Linux, but I think running windows as a shell inside of linux is okay also.

Correct, assuming that you buy an EDID plug. HDMI versions that do 1080p60 are available for like $1.50 USD on eBay. Once the GPU detects a display then you also could create a custom resolution.