Future plans for motherboards supporting complete hardware in virtual machines
Future plans for motherboards supporting complete hardware in virtual machines
While setting up my new system, I aim to use pop_os as the primary operating system. Some games and tasks don’t work well on Wine or perform better in Windows, so having a dedicated Windows VM makes sense. If I build a solid PC—like a 3700x or higher—and a 2070 Super or newer, I’ll have full access to hardware without dual-booting hassles. At this stage, am I confident that all X570 boards will support hardware passthru for VM use? I’m not sure which features enable it, but I know not every motherboard is suitable for this purpose.
Your virtual machine operates on virtual hardware. The main concern is passing through a GPU, which requires an additional one on the host. If you enable pass-through, the GPU becomes exclusive to the VM. Generally, dual-booting is simpler and offers better performance.
You require a CPU with specific capabilities. A solid motherboard contributes to performance too. For Intel systems, ensure your processor supports VT-d. With AMD, enable IOMMU groups. Have you prepared instructions for configuring a Windows virtual machine? Keep in mind if your VM relies on graphics or heavy rendering, you’ll need two GPUs.
Most contemporary CPUs handle this task. I believe professional-grade GPUs don't usually do it.
Which PopOS release are you installing? I found a guide that might help: some procedures will vary for you, but most parts remain consistent. Nvidia uses vGPU while AMD employs MxGPU. These terms don’t mean the same thing. Neither NVIDIA nor AMD desktop cards support either method. You’d have to consider alternatives like a Tesla K10 and upgrade it to a GRID K2 to bypass licensing costs, or opt for an AMD Radeon MX Pro which comes with its own performance trade-offs. In short, you’ll likely need two physical GPUs to achieve the desired results.