does any older win server support pci passthru for VDI?

[Twice_Shy]

So i'm trying to research (on a hobby level for now) doing something like the VDI virtual gameservers for more than one user, streamed, similar to whats been done by Craft Computing and linus tech tips (cant remember if they did the same thing).

I was going to first experiment with proxmox but it sounds like hyper-v has also been used. I wasnt sure whether the pcie passthru ability is something that goes back a long time (and would work with older versions of server, which might be suited for my archaic hardware to learn on/experiment with) or the last few years only.

 

[mattventura]

"VT-d" is the exact term Intel uses to describe this. You'd need to make sure the motherboard supports it, but even an LGA1366 Xeon should have it. How old is your server?

 

[Twice_Shy]

It's not yet chosen i'm just using recycler grade stuff, I have an ivy bridge board with VT-d support but not the cpu yet. Probably start with that. What I wasn't sure is which versions of windows server will allow me to do VDI type application. Or if the new paravirtualization that seems possible with certain newer nvidia cards like I think the 1080 or later (I don't have an exact list) can split a gpu two or four ways, I believe that was a hyper-V only ability (not on proxmox) making me curious to try building both ways.

I havent had to touch windows server since 2003 and I doubt that would work even if I find my old disc tho. :^) The specific thing i'm looking for is the kind of low latency "suitable for gaming" compression even if i'm not using it for gaming. I remember things like TightVNC back in the day for the remote side.. modern solutions like what was it Moonlight and such seemed lower lag and the modern passthru supports 3d applications and CUDA pass thru which I don't think was doable back in the day with something like vmware though I could be wrong.

 

[CyklonDX]

I would recommend getting intel desktop board, with cpu with igpu that has sriov support. (i915)
This will get you started, if you want better/more performant config you can either passthrough whole gpu/s, or get gpu with sr-iov support.

Hyper-V approach is only usable on newest versions of windows, and 3090. (for whatever reason it is allowing 3090 to be split into multiple instances - sr-iov like -- this doesn't work with any other kvm setup just windows - you can only do passthrough)

For nvidia cards - all Turing can be sr-iov unlocked - going as far as old as kepler.
You should keep in mind that performance is almost always split equally. (more vram the better - there are some 2080/Ti mods with 44-48GB of vram specifically meant for this)

(P40 and P100 are ok options for server environment, server wise -> anything from sandy bridge and above - there were major changes to feature set, and became far less buggy - but need to have proper rev. of cpu's some cpu's have bugged vtd/vtx)


In terms of amd side of things ... you can have some drivers and sr-iov support from rocm suite (but card support is limited, and no way to enable it on consumer grade cards - for now.) You can passthrough all cards. AMD cards are harder to passthrough since they have more tricks up their sleves with internal pci links - but its not that big deal)

 

[Twice_Shy]

Well at least that answers that. I'll have to postpone experiments with hyper-v until I can afford a 3090+ and a comparable computer then, and I wasnt aware of the sr-iov thing but now i'm reading about it - thanks for informing me. Hopefully I will revisit this topic in 12-18 months.

[EDIT:] Correction, some searching around I discovered two interesting things - vgpu should also work under proxmox, and it supports alot lesser card than only 3090's. Proxmox vGPU - v3 - Wim van 't Hoog Proxmox 7 vGPU - v2 - Wim van 't Hoog The original vGPU scripts supported down to a 1080, which I thought I remembered hearing or reading, but didn't have the URL handy, and now someone updated things to support even 900 series (which i already have a 970 in a pinch). And it's not only hyper-v that runs it apparently - the only question will be who runs it better, proxmox or hyper-v?

Perhaps when I get a chance to set up a windows server install I can experiment and find out. If anyone can share my original question/if they know if any earlier versions of server also support vGPU (which I have a running version of instead of Server 2022, which I do not have access to more than a time limited evaluation and didnt want to buy more just to learn if I could help it) - more curious if it's something thats linked to original hardware support (if it works on a 970 gtx which was already out 2 years at the time of Server 2016) or specific to the newer GRID drivers, vgpu unlock script and similar.