Facing no options to use batocera with a dual Nvidia card on a CRT setup? GPU passthrough tips for Linux are welcome.
Facing no options to use batocera with a dual Nvidia card on a CRT setup? GPU passthrough tips for Linux are welcome.
I own two GPUs – a 2070 Super and a GTX 980. My plan was to run modern games on the 2070 Super, then use the 980 for rendering and displaying retro games via Batocera. However, Batocera doesn’t support dual NVIDIA GPUs due to its distribution setup. Linux methods for disabling GPUs aren’t available here because of how it’s configured. I can’t run Windows either; the NVIDIA drivers cause crashes when setting super resolutions (required for CRT output on Windows) and Retroarch CRTswitchers, which are essential for smooth retro display. On a previous project, I tried virtualization and managed to run Batocera inside a VM using virt-manager, but GPU pass-through remained a hurdle. My last attempt involved binding the SSD to the passthrough driver, which broke my installation (Pop-OS). Now I’m uncertain about next steps. Continuing with Linux and virtualization is exhausting, and I’m worried about losing my 5600X for emulation. I’m considering selling one card or switching to a different model, but it feels like I’m stuck. I was advised to look into another PC build – the cost is high, and I’d only have a basic machine for emulation. Alternatively, I could try a different operating system or even install Pop-OS on another drive to see if that resolves the binding issue. Maybe swapping GPU slots or using a PCIe adapter with an off switch would help, so I could use standard Batocera without breaking things. My ideal solution would be a PCIE-to-PCIE adapter with a simple power-off button, letting me detach the 2070 Super safely and use regular Batocera.