Multi OS multi PC setup and GPU virtualization.

[cossie]

With the new hardware coming out these days I am thinking of upgrading my rig soon. However I am kind of stuck with what would be the best OS setup up for me.

 

I am an engineer as well as a data scientist and have programs that only run on windows. However Linux is just so much better for the data science stuff. Both programs use the GPU extensively.

I have used a dual boot before but found the constant switch to be annoying especially when training a model and just not having the programs on the other OS available.

What first came to my mind was WSL2 and their new update that lets you use the GPU within WSL. However the performance leaves a lot to be desired.

 

SR-IOV seemed perfect for what I had in mind but that doesn’t seem to be happening.

 

Using UnRAID like in the x gamers 1 CPU seems possible but I don’t know how easy it is switching gpu’s between VM’s (I do have an extra one from my old system).

Any input is welcome.

 

(if anyone also has a good way of switching between their main pc and their work laptop without having to switch a ton of cables around at the end of the day that would also be very helpfull)

[Bad5ector]

Switching GPU's in UnRAID is pretty straight forward. It will have a drop down of available cards you can use for each VM. I have found I had more luck with AMD vs Nvidia cards when it came to more than one card in the system, but that was a while ago and has probably been fixed since.

[cossie]

4 minutes ago, Bad5ector said:

Switching GPU's in UnRAID is pretty straight forward. It will have a drop down of available cards you can use for each VM. I have found I had more luck with AMD vs Nvidia cards when it came to more than one card in the system, but that was a while ago and has probably been fixed since.

thanks for the answer. do you know also know if unraid supports having multiple GPU's on one VM?

[Bad5ector]

I believe so, but honestly never tried. I'm currently in the office for 12 hours (damn you hurricane teddy!!) But I'm sure someone else here can confirm before I get home.

[Kilrah]

You can change GPU easily but my understanding is you need to shut down the VMs to do so, so if your apps need the GPU on both sides you don't gain much from a normal dual boot, you'd have to buy a 2nd GPU to really use both systems simultaneously...

[cossie]

Thanks Kilrah i have a spare GPU from my previous setup and since unraid has a trial version i can just try it out.