One CPU running a VMware setup on two computers.
One CPU running a VMware setup on two computers.
Hello, Yes you can achieve that setup with VMware. With the full workstation edition, you can configure the virtual machine to utilize one of your physical cards as the guest and the other card for the host. Just ensure your hardware supports this configuration and adjust the VM settings accordingly. Let me know if you need more details!
In general, the "bare metal" Linux VM options seem to be the top choice right now. VMware seems to support them, though I'm not entirely sure how much. It's unclear whether this applies to the desktop or server versions, or both. VirtualBox also works, but there are concerns about using the release version—it's quite buggy and unreliable.
I'm using Windows for the guest computer. My Workstation is meant for desktop systems, and I have the complete edition. Accessibility of software should work fine here. I'm considering VirtualBox but prefer VMware over it.
Determine how to configure VMware to utilize one of the available GPUs for your guest machine.
You can't achieve this using VMWare Workstation. Hardware-based passthrough depends on your device and its capabilities, plus your operating system's ability to handle it. Whether your system supports it varies—Windows, OS X, or Linux don’t. Your OS must be tailored for this functionality. It functioned for Linus because unRAID provided the necessary support. You can try VMWare solutions but will need to learn about ESXi, a specialized OS for virtual machines. There’s a free version that works without licensing, though it offers limited features (no smooth VM migration or cloning). You might use 2 Gamers 1 System with ESXi—see the guidance there. For a 4790K, your CPU likely supports PCI passthrough. If you're using AMD, your graphics card probably does. With Nvidia, expect more challenges ahead.