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Pie in the Sky Build(s)

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  • 18-05-2016 4:14am
    #1
    MarkAnthony
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,934 ✭✭✭


    I'm not really seriously thinking about this build, but I am curious about how you'd go about it.

    Off the back of Linus' 7 gamers once CPU build would it be possible to build a machine with 2/3 way SLI (I know the 1080 suggests 2 way SLI plus a card for PhysX) and have it dual boot/configured in such a way that you could use it as a 3 way gaming rig OR a single rig with insane GPU power - ideally using 3 monitors - which again using swing arms could be pushed off to make 3 x 1 screen gaming set ups.

    I take it VR still can't use more than one card - even with the new line from nVidia.

    Slightly less Pie in the Sky is doing the same thing but just running one VM with 1 or maybe 2 GPUs - any thoughts there? I assume it would have to be 2 GPUs if both machines where going to be used for gaming?

    TIA!


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    #2
    Cuddlesworth
    Registered Users Posts: 13,986 ✭✭✭✭Cuddlesworth


    The concept behind that project is hardware pass-through. The VM's sit on a hypervisor which control's and shares access to the hardware, cpu, ram, various system buses. In 7 Gamers, they connected keyboards/mice and a graphics card directly through to the VM, so that it had direct control over the devices IO with no sharing.

    Considering the above, I don't think SLI would work in a VM because I believe that there is a motherboard component involved which is now considered commonplace enough that people have forgotten it exists. Plus SLI is quirky enough that I wouldn't recommend it anyway.

    Second is can the GPU's be mixed and matched. The answer is yes and I'm sure that you could script that to happen quite quickly assuming all the VM's could be shut down.


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    #3
    MarkAnthony
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,934 ✭✭✭MarkAnthony


    Thanks Cuddlesworth. To clarify though the cards would be used in SLI only when machine was in a single user state. The rest of the time it would be used as two or three discrete GPUs for each station.


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    #4
    Serephucus
    Registered Users Posts: 7,180 ✭✭✭Serephucus


    To do what you want, I think you'd have to dual-boot Windows and unRAID. I'm pretty sure I've read somewhere that SLI isn't supported through unRAID (I could be completely wrong) so you'd need to have Windows on its own for that.

    When using two machines through unRAID though it's fairly standard; Just pass them through as normal and make sure you have enough peripherals hooked up.


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    #5
    Cuddlesworth
    Registered Users Posts: 13,986 ✭✭✭✭Cuddlesworth


    Ahh, I get it now. That's actually not a bad idea. Quick reboot and you get a new type of Split screen behavior.


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