ESXi 7u2 - Searching cheap GPU for Passthrough

[SaveServer]

Hallo,
I bought a server with an Asus P10S-E/4L motherboard. And added an Intel Xeon E3-1245v5 with iGPU.
My goal was to passthrough the iGPU to a Windows VM.
Unfortunately, the iGPU cannot be used. I have already contacted the Asus support and unfortunately received the answer that the necessary hardware requirements are not met to use the iGPU even the board has a C236 chipset.
So I think, that there will no way to get the iGPU working on this board!

So I'm looking for a GPU that works well with ESXi 7u2 and is as cheap as possible. Graphics performance really doesn't have to be great. Even a Quadro 2000 would certainly suffice for me. It would also be nice if I could use the card for a few more years and it wouldn't stop working with ESXi 8 or Windows 11.

From what I've read so far, everything under a Quadro 2000, K2000, K2200, P2000 sometimes causes trouble.
Can you still recommend an 2000/K2000 or is it too old?
Or would a card from AMD be the better choice here anyway?
Which one would be best here?

 

[nk215]

If you pass-thru the PCI device to the guest VM then I don't see how ESXi version would stop support it. ESXi at that point no longer cares what you install on that particular PCI slot. It's the VM that would need the driver to support the old hardware.

Quadro 2000 would work for your case. It's about as cheap as you can get in the Quadro line. If Graphic performance is not doesn't matter than why bother with a GPU? Why wouldn't sVGA work for you?

 

[SaveServer]

It's the VM that would need the driver to support the old hardware.

Thank you for the explanation. Then ESXi should be no problem!
And Quadro K2000 is actually full supported in Win10.

If Graphic performance is not doesn't matter than why bother with a GPU? Why wouldn't sVGA work for you?

I am currently using the software GPU from ESXi for a Win10 and a Linux Mint VM. But with RDP, e.g. Youtube is jerky and in the Win10 VM I also have jerking when cutting videos. Here I hope for an improvement with a separate graphics card.

The only question is whether the iGPU Intel HD P530 could also be shared between two VMs, becaus it would have GVT-g?
Then an exchange of the mainboard might be worth considering.
Otherwise I would decide to put a Quadro K2000 alongside the Win10 VM and use the Linux-Mint VM with sVGA.

 

[TLN]

I was using Radeon HD8490 pretty successfully in the past. Never tried with 7.0, but I bet it will be okay. Small card, no extra power, display port. $20 on ebay.