Re: [Xen-users] Is there any ATI card, which works with VGA Passthrough and allows rebooting guest?

[Gordan Bobic <gordan@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 2014-01-21 17:14, Adam Ryczkowski wrote:
> On 21.01.2014 17:40, Gordan Bobic wrote:
> > On 2014-01-21 16:23, Adam Ryczkowski wrote:
> > > I'm planning to build a system that allows gaming on domU with
> > > VGA-passthrough.
> > >
> > >  Are there any graphics cards besides few expensive NVidia Quadro
> > > models, that are fully compatible with Xen VGA-passthrough, including
> > > rebooting the virtual guest?
> > >
> > >  I'd very much prefer to use ATI family then NVidia, with price <=
> > > $500.
> > Depends on the performance level you required. IIRC I had
> > marginally better luck with the HD6450/7450 card than higher
> > spec ones, presumably because it doesn't take auxiliary
> > power so putting it to sleep by removing PCIe power
> > works on it.
> Dear Gordan,
>
> thank you very much for an answer.
>
> Do you mean, that you are actually able to reboot the guest as many
> times, as you want, without any issues?
I only tried a couple of times, I was never going to use
that card longer term, so it could have just been luck. But
having said that I have _never_ managed to reboot the same
VM with a 7970 card without issues.

> > If you want to go faster and aren't afraid of a little
> > bit of soldering, get a non-Gainward GTX680 and remove
> > one resistor to make it into half of a Tesla K10, which
> > also works well for VGA passthrough purposes (yes, I
> > also use those).
> Do you have, by any chance, a link to the photograph describing which
> resistor to remove? As I understand, the "solution" depends on the
> motherboard manufacturer...
You need to remove resistor 3 as per the photos attached to this
post on EEVBLOG:
http://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/hacking-nvidia-cards-into-their-professional-counterparts/msg207550/#msg207550

That will turn it into a Tesla K10. Note that my experience
shows that Gainward cards (both my Gainward 680 Phantom and
Gainward 690) have issues when modified - they work fine on
bare metal but when passed through to a VM they seem unable
to output dual-link DVI modes, or anything over DisplayPorts.
My MSI GTX680, OTOH, works just fine.

While there may be non-reference 680 cards that are different,
I have not seen any.

> I've found tons of these on several forums, but they were about
> modifying GTX 690 into Tesla K10, not GTX 680.
Read the eevblog forum thread I linked above end to end (yes,
I know there are 60 pages), all of the available knowledge
on Nvidia modding that I am aware of is either there or linked
to from there.

I also made an attempt to start moving the info to a wiki on
wikia, so by all means, if you get it working, please put the
info on the exact mod you did on gpumod.wikia.com.

> Besides, many are
> poorly explained, and I didn't make out precisely if the modification
> really worked.
Read the eevblog thread. :)

> BTW Why non-Gainwart?
See above - I have experienced odd issues such as being
limited to only SL-DVI modes in a VM (but not on bare metal)
when using Gainward cards, so best to avoid them.

Gordan

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