| I might be outdated, but GPU virtualization does not allow you to use your display outputs on your graphic card. So for a workstation it isn't going to work as you would have to use another machine (sure, it could be a thin client) to remote desktop (introducing lag I wouldn't want on a worksation) to be able to get any video output. I also believe this requires AMDs or nVidias pro-line graphics cards. So I also used PCI passthrough. I have two GPUs that I pass through meaning that I can run two virtual machines with proper graphic cards (and then regular VMs as I please). The idea was that instead of dual-booting between two machines I run them both at the same time. To switch between them I just select another input on my monitors. Unfortunately though, it is not that simple. This gets easier for every year and it was about 2 years since I last played with this and setup my workstation so things could have changed a bit. But even for PCI passthrough you have to be very careful selecting your GPU, motherboard and CPU. The drivers need to play along and the CPU with motherboard need to be able to isolate everything adequately. Whether AMD or nVidia is best is/was up to debate, each GPU generation has its own quirks. For CPU you ideally you wanted a i7 or a non-entry-level Xeon to be as safe as possible, this is not a requirement but it is very possible that with a "regular" CPU you might not be able to pass through the devices you need to get it to work. More here: http://vfio.blogspot.se/2015/10/intel-processors-with-acs-su... Bottom line, it can work great but it is a lot to setup and even if you do your research you might end up in a situation where it just doesn't work. Oh, and the hypervisor you use might screw you, removing the very features you depend on. |
This may change now with looking Glass giving a fast way to share the frame buffer between host and guest, https://github.com/gnif/LookingGlass