RTX 3080 Max-Q passthrough?

Software & Operating Systems Linux
1

Hi there,

I have been working on a Lenovo Legion 7 AMD with an RTX 3080 Max-Q GPU for the past months. My main operating system at the moment is Windows 11, mainly because there are a couple of things that simply did not work for a long time on Linux (speakers mainly). As time progresses, people have been developing the drivers this computer needs to properly run on Linux, and I am ready to do the move. I have tested Ubuntu 20.04 with the latest available kernel and everything works as expected, but there are a couple of apps that I really need that are only available on Windows, for example Photoshop, MS Office, OneDrive, etc. I use these tools for work and I can’t really replace them with anything else for the moment. So, my plan is to install Ubuntu as my host OS and have a virtual machine for all my Windows’ needs. I have tested Looking Glass in the past and it is a really nice solution, it will suite my needs, but I’m not 100% sure if it’s possible to have this GPU passedthough.

Does anyone know if that is even possible?

2

I’m also considering Gentoo or Arch, for the sake of customization.

3

If you pass the GPU to the VM, the host is headless, with no GPU/screen. Not very useful.

None of the uses you describe have any use for a GPU. Most desktop virtualization will present an accelerated or semi-accelerated virtual GPU to the guest, so for basic 2D/video purposes, it’s good to go. For light/occasional 3D acceleration it’s also pretty good.