I want to change my GT210 for an AMD or an Intel Arc GPU so I can use PRIME and only have monitor plugged in the “host only GPU” when using Linux no matter whether I have my powerful GPU passed to the VM or attached to the host. With PRIME I will be able to use my GTX970 for rendering on Linux and displaying through the other GPU. Then when i set my GTX970 to vfio I can still use the same monitor output (from GPU2) and only switch monitor output when I want to display the VM or I can use Looking Glass.
Which of the 2 GPUs is better for host GPU? Intel A380 or AMD RX6400? Keep in mind that Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite has limited PCIe lane configuration. I believe that the secondary X16 slot only runs at X4 when the first is populated. And this card will populate the secondary PCIe slot.
Hi, since nobody replied here, i’d like to help by giving an opinion, mentioning the elephant in the room intel gpu’s are not there yet, though i can also say they’ve come a long way, so i’d say depends really if its cheaper perhaps get it. I would also bring GPU passthrough as possible reason to buy any of these, but seems like for none supports it, for that your only would be perhaps an amd rx550 or a gtx1050 or 1650.
Hope i helped clarify, feel free to ask any further questions, cheers.
What do you mean by “not being there yet”? Are the drivers not good enough on Linux. Or is PRIME not really supported correctly? The price of both is the same in my country.
As for PCI passthrough: I’m not gonna pass it through to a VM. I’m only gonna do that with my GTX970 or w/e I replace it with in the future (probably some AMD GPU). These (A380/RX6400) are for pure Linux host usage.
From pure features standpoint - the Intel A380 seems better because it has H264/H265/AV1 hw encoding while AMD RX6400 does not. Will I actually use it? Probably not. But it’s additional feature that may come in handy.
Performance is not really a deciding factor because it’s only gonna be used for media playthrough, general desktop usage.
The biggest deciding factor is whether PRIME works correctly or not (because I don’t wanna change my primary GPU in UEFI when I want to pass my gaming GPU to a VM or when I want to use it on the host. I want to always have the weak GPU set as primary). Will it work using PRIME with either NVIDIA or AMD as my powerful/gaming GPU (atm I have GTX970 but I don’t know what I’ll replace it with)?
And are there other driver issues under Linux under normal usage (non-gaming)?
You want to use Prime with two DGPU’s? Sorry i don’t about much that can help really, theres lack of information on this, about the state of intel dGPU’s even on linux i’d say they still are not perfect, but i mean this with info i got, i don t have an intel dGPU, so for your usecase might just do the job really.
As for prime, well i dont have solutions for you too, but can’t you use like scripts dynamic bind/unbind on the nvidia GPU and then use a KVM board to switch between video outputs of the gpus??
Yes I want to use PRIME with 2dGPUs. I know it’s not possible with 2 NVIDIA but I’ve found some threads on reddit and other forums in the past that suggest it’s possible with NVIDIA dGPU + non NVIDIA dGPU but the info is not really clear about that. Also Intel GPUs are new so info on them is non-existent. Also I was wondering if the PCIe4x4 will be a problem for either of them (RX6400 and A380. A380 in particular)
Not really. What I’m trying to avoid is having to switch my primary GPU in UEFI.
For example: atm if I want to use the GTX970 in Linux I have to set it as my primary GPU in UEFI and set my KVM switch to it. (If I didn’t have Gigabyte MB I’d have to physically swap GPUs). If then I want to use it in VM I have to set the other GPU (GT210/RX6400/A380) as my primary GPU in UEFI and set my KVM switch to it so Linux runs on it and bind my powerful GPU (GTX970 atm) to vfio.
Linux runs on whatever is set to primary GPU in UEFI. Which is why I want to permanently set my weak GPU (Intel/AMD) as primary so Linux always runs on it and then use my GTX970 through PRIME when I need to use it in Linux. Like you can do with Intel iGPU + NVIDIA/AMD dGPU.
Also I was wondering if the PCIe4x4 will be a problem for either of them (RX6400 and A380. A380 in particular)
Welp i am not sure, but i think it should be alright did you get a Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite? then i don’t see why not, worst case scenario would be way transfer slower speeds. Nothing else really.
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Well perhaps not the fanciest solution i watched this video with the title: “AMD and Nvidia Multi GPU Multi Monitor Setup on Linux” on youtube with
some search and basically what he did was switch displays, and yeah while both gpus were still connect to each output one would turn out to be the one rendering things, perhaps you can try this, if it works you can perhaps proceed to put a dummy adapter in there. but yeah mb i am being stupid tho… Srry i don’t even have two gpus on my main system to test it out …
I understood what you want tho is really fundamentally like an optimus system were the intel one is the main and the nvidia switching back and fourth you can perhaps do it with some advanced recompilation for PRIME, it should be the same concept as like switching outputs… BUT info online on that seems lacking. I can provide you links that might be interesting but from my point of view don’t seem like any further than some suggestions.
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