I am trying to select a GPU for use in a virtual server that supports VFIO. I know some of the Radeon cards have had problems with VFIO. Does any one know off the top of their heads which cards are good to go with VFIO?
Bellow is a list of GPU’s I am considering. I have heard the Radeon VII have VFIO problems (reset bug) but its fixed but maybe not fully…? Also not sure if the Pro VII has the reset bug…? I have heard Vega FE does not support VFIO as in AMD dropped the feature before launch…? I have no clue if the Pro Duo even supported VFIO ever due to its age…? Do any of the WX / W cards have any VFIO problems or are those good to go?
WX 7100 8Gb GDDR6 single slot $140
W5700 8Gb GDDR6 $179
WX 9100 16Gb $520
Radeon Pro Duo 16Gb GDDR5 $650 (Polaris)
Radeon Pro VII 16Gb $550
Vega FE 16Gb $245
Would anything like an RX 6800, 6900, 6950 be better / at a better price but still support VFIO? I am trying to get 16Gb VRAM but may be willing to go for 8Gb. The more VRAM the better as the card will be passed threw to multiple VM’s… One or two of the VM’s may be used for some light-medium gaming / VR stuff (probably not at the same time).
Are you looking for VFIO or SR-IOV?
For a simple VFIO, RX 6000 series should work great.
Vega has a well-known VFIO reset bug. Same as RX 7000 series. Avoid them.
Not sure about others.
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That is a good question. I believe 1 or two of the VM’s will be used for gaming as in a Windows and Staem OS VM (not at the same time).
It is my understanding at first glance that VFIO is better for that allowing the use of drivers and reduced latency. How ever multiple VM’s will be using the card. Not sure if VFIO can be used with SR-IOV or if multiple VM’s can use VFIO on the same card…? If this is not the case I guess I will require a dedicated gaming GPU. To be clear only 1 VM will be actively used at a time aside from one that will be the DVR for a surveillance system and the NAS functions or VM running the NAS functions will always be active. Other VM’s may be active but not actively in use so to speak and not for gaming.
Their will be 3 displays 4 cameras left and 4 right with the VM being actively used in the center. Eventually their may be an additional monitor above center as an extended display for the actively used VM. I was going to test TrueNAS, TrueNAS core and Qubes OS to see which worked best for this. The system will be used directly but also be a server. DVR (running in its own VM) / NAS with disk shelf and other things one of those things being a VM for gaming and general use. The system will probably be used for VR as well. It is equipped with 128Gb RAM and an 18 core Xeon.
It would be cool to run Steam OS on bare metal so I could use the SteamVR virtual desktop for all of the VM’s but I am not sure you can set up Steam OS to do everything I need the system to do. And I really dont want to set up a system I will game on to run VM’s vs set up a system to run VM’s and game on a VM. But a VR interface would be cool especially with the new virtual desktop interface built into SteamVR. I was highly impressed with it and I am not impressed easily. It is a game changer.
On thing I noticed about the W5100 I added to my main rig as a second GPU paired with a 6900xt to run my extended displays was that with the Pro driver I had the ability to emulate the EDID of any display connected to the W5100 on any output on the W5100. I could in theory own a single display but see 4 in a virtual desktop environment.
I was running all of my displays from a single GPU but my second 4k display was being forced to use 420 color instead of 444 and my main 4k display lost 10 bit output with a total of 5 displays 3 of which are 1080p.