@Zoltan So if I am reading you correctly your recommendation is to skip the whole pass through process and just wait to see what happens with the games being available on the Steam OS and go from there?
And to just build as Robust of as Linux machine as I can to get me by for a few years? (which this was part of my intention with the build)
My build specs are posted in the bottom of the first post to this thread. I know you have much experience with this kind of stuff so your input here is wanted and would be very well received.
Lots of good info passed back and forth, the OP of the thread took down the video he made but I'm pretty sure he's still around and would have some input if you went the direction he did using openSuse.
The thing I'd add to the thread so far is that the selection of the host OS is just as important to me as the GPU or devices you want to pass through, the underlining Linux OS has a lot to do with just how many hoops you'll have to jump through to successfully pass any device to the guest with in my opinion distros using the latest Linux kernel like openSuse, Fedora, Arch, etc being the easiest to accomplish the task....but it is just my opinion.
@blanger Thanks for the info, that's the thread I was looking for but could not find. As for the distro, whatever makes it easier is good for me, as I'm not necessarily tied to one or the other. I have just been enjoying mint 17.2 cinnamon thus far for ease of use and setup, even on the wife's Macbook Pro. I would just like to hear more from @Zoltan about the idea of pass through, as his recommendation of just waiting is what I kind of had in mind. But to be safe I would still get hardware that is capable of the pass through setup in case it is still needed and Steam OS is a flop.
There is a lot of information here and much to consider.
The quoted text above in the link was the primary motivation that got me interested in GPU pass through, while it sounds like @Zoltan has changed his opinion now but I think the info and usage is still valid, but again it is just my opinion. As I've stated before in other threads once I accomplished the pass through and had a stable working VM I would never consider going back to running Windows on a bare metal install, if you want to run Linux as your primary OS but need the connectivity of Windows for games and applications that won't run on Linux like Adobe products to me there is no better way to accomplish this task, for me I would just never go back to a bare metal Windows install because after accomplishing it Windows on bare metal becomes totally unnecessary.
But I'll say it again it is just my opinion which is worth about 2 cents...lol
I follow exactly what you're saying and take it one step further. Just a handful of days on Linux so far and I have no desire to ever run windows on bare metal again (or at all). So the VM use greatly appeals to me, just want to make sure I have all the facts to make an informed decision. If I could wait for steam as @Zoltan says I can in the meantime get the PC up and running sooner with less hassle and cost for hardware, etc. But I'm not against the idea at all, on the contrary I'm quite fascinated by the whole thing.
Unfortunately for most of us a Windows computer is a necessity, Linux as good as it is and as good as it's going to be in the future just doesn't provide all the connectivity even with Wine and POL (play on Linux), Steam has a very large hill to climb with developers and publishers to convince them that AAA titles need to be Steam compatible, but as stated before around here on the forum if a AAA title will run on Steam it will run on Linux without Steam, so what we are basically talking about is AAA titles on Linux using Steam as a front end. That aspect might be appealing to console gamers but to people who already run Linux to me there is not much advantage to running the Steam OS....but again it is just my opinion based on my limited knowledge. :)
Yes I agree 100%, maybe I should have worded it a little different. What I was implying was, that if Steam goes well with the game developers making the big titles for it, then I can run said games on Linux. So there would be no need for Steam OS or better yet no need for Windows and all will be great and open source in the world of my PC :)
Even if they are successful it will be years IMHO before you will see AAA games developed with Steam as the primary distribution method, developers will always publish to the highest volume sales which is the Windows environment, that is not likely to change because the sales are going to be the greatest where the greatest number numbers of PC gamers exist which is Windows.
This is why I say that Steam/Valve will have a tough hill to climb, will there be ports to Steam/Linux? sure there will be but it won't be in the foreseeable future the primary goal of game developers it will just be another avenue for sales, like exclusive X-Box titles MS pays the developer for the exclusive rights to off set the profit a multi-platform game would create, they do this to drive console sales, if Valve/Steam is willing to pay developers for exclusive games then that will be a game changer and promote a more rapid adoption of the Steam platform, without it....well I just don't see much changing when the Steam OS goes live....again just my opinion.
Mind if I hijack the thread a bit by joining in on the questions?
Currently I'm dualbooting, but I'm considering changing to Linux entirely and keeping Windows on a VM as guest. I have some Linux games and 2 that unfortunately aren't in any way compatible with Linux (GTA5 and Assetto Corsa, NFS may follow when it's released). I know my CPU supports VT-d and my motherboard has it enabled, so that's all ok. It's the graphics cards that I'm not sure about.
I have a pair of MSI GTX770s (the 4GB versions). Seeing as I can't get them to do SLI in Linux, can I use one for the host and one for the guest or would it be too difficult with 2 identical cards? If it's too difficult with identical cards, I'd probably get a 390 or so for Windows (mainly because my Windows games are more demanding than my Linux games, for the latter a 770 should still suffice).
Good questions @CaptainChaos, and please feel free. By all means the more people involved here the better. That's not a thread jack, as a matter of fact I had in mind (2) R9 390's so you beat me to it.
I know @blanger had put some links to stuff and in something I was reading late last night it covered the work around when you have two identical cards, but right now off the top of my head I'm not sure where I saw it. I will see if I can dig it up, but not making any promises. Will have to scroll through my history I had a lot of different tabs open reading up on this stuff.
It's a shame about the one thread from here that the youtube video is no longer posted.........
Another question I have for anyone who knows, does Linux support cross fire?
2 identical cards isn't a issue at all I run 3 R9 270x cards, the issue would be the Nvidia drivers being used in the guest (windows) since they look for virtualization and if found refuse to load giving windows a error, you can use Nviidia cards for pass through but you must fool the driver by hiding that you are virtualizing which comes with a small performance hit in the guest....check out @Vassili62 post above.