AMDGPU Virtualization Support Updated

[phoronix]

Phoronix: AMDGPU Virtualization Support Updated

Radeon developers have issued updated patches for their AMD GPU virtualization support...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMDGPU-Virt-V2

[schmidtbag]

Kind of weird - you'd think this would be a feature they'd implement only in their FirePro GPUs.

[bridgman]

FirePRO cards sometimes use the all-open driver stack, particularly on servers. The ROCM HPC stack is all open source, for example.

[Karbowiak]

I for one wouldn't mind this becoming available on desktops tho. Even if it'll be gimped to only working with one VM at a time

Full Linux desktop, with a Windows VM available for gaming if a game doesn't work properly under Linux and/or Wine, without having to do passthrough and whatnots? yes please! <3

[Nille]

Which Desktopcards support this? Because i would to replace my GTX960 with a new one. Then i would run my Windows in a VM.

[juno]

Iirc they advertised GPU virtualisation for Tonga-based FirePROs. However, I'm not sure if this is the matter here.
bridgman can you confirm this works with radeon-cards, will we be able to feed multiple vm guests with one gpu?

[Holograph]

Kind of weird - you'd think this would be a feature they'd implement only in their FirePro GPUs.

If they were Nvidia, I'd agree. Perhaps they've realized that no, users won't buy the expensive GPUs even if you lock features out. Only professional users are going to buy the really expensive cards.

I used to do virtualization (just passthru with IOMMU) on a Nvidia GPU and then Nvidia disabled support for that in their Windows drivers (I was passing the card from Linux to Windows for gaming - just a single VM so a relatively simple situation) - they claimed it never had worked but lots of people could use it on the previous drivers and it broke for everyone on the newer drivers. Those of us who cared at the time either just gave up or we switched to AMD (I did the latter). Locking out features isn't going to sell the expensive cards. It's just going to piss off the power users. Now there probably aren't many people who were doing this in the first place, but there is still little to no benefit to locking features.

[schmidtbag]

If they were Nvidia, I'd agree. Perhaps they've realized that no, users won't buy the expensive GPUs even if you lock features out. Only professional users are going to buy the really expensive cards.

Understood, but isn't it features like this why you'd want to get a FirePro in the first place? Otherwise, why pay so much more for something that is sometimes physically identical to the desktop counterpart? Some FP models are literally just Radeon parts with a different BIOS; you can buy the Radeon equivalent and flash the FP BIOS, then get all the application-specific performance optimizations. I know not all models are like this, but some are. Sure, you do get a nice warranty, but considering the price difference and low failure rates these days, I'd rather just buy a few spare Radeon parts to act as a backup.

I'm not saying I prefer Nvidia's way of doing things, especially since they're quick to drop support for older models. But, at least if I were to buy a Quadro, I wouldn't feel like I'm being gypped (compared to GeForce). To clarify, I'm aware there are FP GPUs with features that don't exist on Radeon models.

Anyway, I'm not complaining, just a little confused. If people want to pay a higher premium for a GPU that doesn't really offer much beyond better customer support that's fine by me - getting fancy features like this on consumer-grade hardware is just one more reason to buy AMD.

[bridgman]

Iirc they advertised GPU virtualisation for Tonga-based FirePROs. However, I'm not sure if this is the matter here.
bridgman can you confirm this works with radeon-cards, will we be able to feed multiple vm guests with one gpu?

Please do not assume this will be available on consumer cards unless you hear us say differently.

[Nille]

Please do not assume this will be available on consumer cards unless you hear us say differently.

Whats why he/we ask you. For me it would be the "killer feature" why i have to buy a AMD card, but not enough for a FirePro