Cheapest vsphere grid gpu without licensing costs from Nvidia

As the topic say, what is the cheapest Nvidia Grid gpu I can get to test out vgpu and "slicing" of a gpu to different vm's and still use nvidia driver with cuda in the vm?
(not assigning 1 gpu to 1 vm).
Trying to setup a lab here, do do a cheap poc that I can present at work.
The newest grid cards are not an option, as this is something I have to fund myself
I was looking at the Grid K1 and K2, as it seems they dont need a license to run a vgpu.
(Quote: NVIDIA GRID K1 and K2 GPUs do not require a license to run vGPU.)

However, I dont know if they are the cheapest option
I dont need much performance for the lab, just so I can present a poc for cuda accelerated workloads.
No video/graphics usage, only computational use.
Hopefully I wont need Horizon, or any other VDI solutions, as I want to keep the cost down for the solution I hopefully can present.
(Got vmug advantage, so licenses is not an option for the lab testing)

-Jannis

 

I was looking long time for this, but they are so old and now quite underpower.. I would prefer to go with like basic quadro m or p600 series. Much more performance and less cost overall.

 

can I slice a p600 to several vm’s without licenses from nvidia?

-j

 

No it's not supported. So you have to go with a direct assign of 1 card per vm. but even the cheapest quadro on ebay, in the Mxxx range will be better than a k1. And you can also go with plx or ioi pci spliter card to get full 4pcie 4x slot if you have a too small mb.

 

so you did not read what my scope was for choosing the grid k1/k2.
p600 will not help me setup a cheap poc.
I _need_ the grid functionality.
the k1/k2 are to show the flexibility and possibilities without the cost and licensing.
performance is unimportant to showcase the tech.

-j

 

The old K2's go relatively cheap nowadays, so i don't think its worth the effort to hunt for anything else.
Afaik they are the last cards that didn't require a license before they changed the model.

 

Sorry, when i see a used k2 on ebay at 2000$, i get 3x brand new p series or 4x mxxx series for same price or even lower.

 

yeah but why would you pay $2k if you can get it for a couple of hundred?

 

you can also turn a k10 into a k2 with a resistor swap for ~$50

Still weak compared to modern and can't use latest vsphere.

The youtuber who recently did the k10 to k2 conversion was using citrix.

 

$130... NVIDIA GRID K2 P2055 8GB PCIE GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR VIDEO CARD 180-12055-1005-A03 | eBay

I got one a bit more expensive just a few weeks ago so thats not a one time price...

 

I have a Grid K2 for VDI. Love it. It's more than what I need for light CAD and general GPU web browsing tasks.

It does use quite a bit of power and requires a cooling fan. I 3D printed a holder for an 80mm fan in the back because I don't think the 846 case fan was enough. The smaller dual-fan setup is too loud.

 

Is the 80mm fan sufficient? I was considering sth similar (less professional) since the small fan rig you can buy (25 bucks) really screams ...

 

Using furmak at 1024x768 on one of the computer (45 fps). The second GPU of the grid get up to 75+ C using 116 out of 117W max. The server is in the basement so it's relatively cool. I didn't try taxing both GPU. I don't think the 80mm fan would be able to cool 234W.

 

I chopped a 92mm fan to cool the k10 once like the titan-z worked well... other than that you need a baffled forced airflow situation.

 

The GRID K1/K2 cons:

As I now, GRID K1 and K2 driver (VIB) last supported in vSphere 6.5. No vSphere 6.7+ drivers.
I think, nVidia stopped the support for these cards forever... they moved to licensnsig ($$$$$$) GRID on selected Tesla cards.

Additionally, K1 and K2 vGPU not supported (no driver) in Linux guest VMs.

Any solution for problems above?

 

Can you manually load the VIB with community supported level of SW acceptance on 6.7+?

 

I assume you have seen Grid driver for Ubuntu and CentOS? - NVIDIA Virtual GPU Forums ?
At least some way to run with Linux guest (no CUDA).

But the 6.7 topic seems to be more problematic... thats unfortunate...