VmWare Multi head gaming system viable?

Level1Techs INBOX.deb
#1

Hey guys,

Love the channel and the community you are building here.

This question is more for Wendel:

I was reading up on VmWare ESXi and hardware passthrough and it got me thinking. I want to build a server that can host vms but still be able to game without having multiple systems. Is VmWare Multi head gaming system via hardware passthrough viable? Initial research indicates its possible but is easier/better supported with AMD GPUs

What would be your recommendations for hardware on this? Would you guys be interested in building something like this for LANs etc?

 

I know I could just run Windows with Virtual Box to fill this role, but the above is more or less a learning experiment to push what is possible.

#2

Xen or KVM may work better and would be more customizable than VMware.

And you will need IOMMU support on your motherboard and CPU and that opens whole other can of worms. 

And you will need two GPUs. One for the host and one for the the VM. Unless you want to ssh into your host machine.

#3

I realize the complexity and potential hardware requirements for this.

After further research I came across this:

http://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Multi-headed-VMWare-Gaming-Setup-564/

So it is possible to be done, I guess I just need to be prepared to foot the bill.

#4

If you go the VMWARE route you will have to pay for Vsphere or Worksation Xen and KVM on the other hand are free and open source

#5

There is definitely a free version of the Vmware HyperVisor;

http://www.vmware.com/uk/products/vsphere-hypervisor

 

#6

Yeah I run the free one at home for a test lab. Runs great on my old Core2Quad... well at least for my needs.