Re: [Xen-users] Anyone using VT-d for GPUs on desktop/workstation?

[Peter Kay <syllopsium@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 B

"Mgr. Åimon TÃth" <toth@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> At the moment, I find ATI cards are NOT a recommendable
>> solution.
>
>That's really bad news for me. As far as buying modified cards go, I 
>could probably get a Quadro for less, due to shipping and import costs.
>
>But thanks for the info.

I think it would more accurately be true to say that VGA passthrough is still 
rather bleeding edge and there are issues with many configurations. Xen does 
not help itself here, as it's very difficult to troubleshoot passthrough, 
although it's otherwise a decent virtualization solution.

I only ever managed to get the Matrox G200e built into my S3210SHLC motherboard 
passed through in Xen and VMWare. Both a 6950 and 6450 were a complete failure 
and I did try a lot of configurations.

KVM is a different matter. Alex Williams is highly motivated to improve 
passthrough and there's more debugging available. I've been able to get both 
the 6950 and 6450 passed through to a Linux VM using both fglrx and radeon 
drivers. I haven't managed it in Windows 7 yet.

I'd personally prefer to use Xen for server virtualization above KVM - better 
tools and I like the idea of a type 1 hypervisor.

My advice, if you want the least hassle and have the cash, is to find someone 
who has a completely solid solution and buy an identical system. Otherwise 
you're probably going to have issues..

PK




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