I’m trying to figure out if it’s possible to set up VGA passthrough with the hardware I currently own. My CPU is an AMD A10-7850K, which has integrated graphics. That’s what I’d like to use for the host OS. My discrete GPU is a Sapphire 480X. I’d really prefer to use some sort of Debian (preferably a flavor of Ubuntu) just because I’m very comfortable using apt-get. I also want to be able to use a single HDMI cable from the motherboard connector for both the host and guest (I seem to remember a long time ago @wendell released a video where he was running Windows applications through a VM right on the host’s desktop - almost as if the programs were running natively). Can somebody who knows more than me tell me if this is possible?
P.S. - I don’t know the model of my mobo off the top of my head, but I can add it to this post when I get home from work. I know it’s made by MSI.
You might want to consider setting up your computer to dual boot Windows or Linux, meaning at startup you have the option to load either Windows or Linux. I don’t know for sure if can or can not passthrough pci slots for your type of motherboard and CPU, but I have read you get better performance and easier to setup with certain Intel CPU’s and motherboard’s. Also fellow post members have reported having better luck using Fedora instead of Ubuntu, it seems Fedora is more up to date than Ubuntu, so it seems to be a better choice when trying to passthrough any of the PCI slots. Also programs running almost as if they were native only works on certain Intel computers. I read on Redit AMD sub Redit that the is some kind on error or bug that crops up between the Linux Kernel and any AMD CPU, which affects the performance (running natively) between the hypervisor and the virtual machine.
I have found the add step of having to shut down my computer and than restart it when ever I want to switch operating systems with the dual boot option better than with all the headaches of messing a round with tying to passthrough the PCI slots. If you want to try the passthrough option the best advise I could give you would be to do a google search for instruction’s on your particular computer system.
Yeah, I actually came to the same conclusion myself. I have windows installed again, and I’m working on getting it all set up how I like. When that’s done I’ll install some derivative of Ubuntu on a seperate partition. Honestly, one of the main reasons I didn’t want to dual boot was because of how ugly the GRUB menu can be, but I just discovered that GRUB themes are a thing.