GPU passthrough guarantees with new hardware

User Support
1

I have two laptops, one is relatively new.
Both are with dGPU along with their intel’s iGPU.
On both of them I can’t passthrough their dGPU as the dGPU is in the same group as the CPU.

Are there any alternatives for these laptops, even if it will lower security profile for them or is it not possible to passthrough with them at all?

How can I make sure the hardware I’m considering to buy will support this feature?
Obviously the list of reported hardware that play well with Qubes are highly limited.

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How can I make sure the hardware I’m considering to buy will support this feature?

You can’t. All you can really do is ask people that got passthrough working what hardware they use.

For example, I can say that GPU passthrough on the new NovaCustom certified hardware is painless and quite easy.

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Most of the Laptops out there having their iGPU and dGPU hardwired together, and having only shared output connecors.

This alone, makes them impossible to do PCI Passtrough.

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This alone, makes them impossible to do PCI Passtrough.

Not true. If a laptop has NVidia PRIME Offload support (many do) and good IOMMU groups, this actually makes passthrough easier as you don’t have to have a completely separate display for e.g. your gaming VM, you can utilise PRIME.

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I would be very happy to see any working example for such.

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Ask and you shall receive :slight_smile:

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This is running with all my displays plugged into my iGPU.

I used this guide but using default dom0 kernel and without configuring Xorg and I just run apps with the commandline arguments seen in the screenshot.

https://neowutran.ovh/qubes/articles/gaming_linux_hvm.html

Arguments:

__NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __VK_LAYER_NV_optimus=NVIDIA_only __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia

I recommend using a Debian 12 qube for the following reasons:

  • It works
  • I tried using Arch, but for some reason had horrible framerate problems
  • I tried using Fedora but couldn’t get the drivers to work
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Worked for me using an external GPU over thunderbolt too :+1:

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You can, but it’s not rock-solid. If hardware you’re considering isn’t in the HCL, search generic linux gpu passthrough resources. If they can do it with no problems, you are likely to be successful with qubes as well. At the very least, you can find IOMMU groups of devices that way before going to a store or buying.

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Well, I have read those guides… but neither of those are actually mention the hardware they used.

So I’m still feel, you need to be very lucky to have all the parts working together. And assuming you don’t have your own hardware warehouse to find out (by trial and error) which mobo, CPU, VGA combo is the one :wink:

Nevermind. My new ‘gaming’ rig (Asrock B850 Pro-A, Ryzen 7 9700X, Asrock RX 9070 Challenger) is on the way, so I will try to run Qubes with VGA (PCI) Passtrough on it, and see (and report) if I have any luck with it.

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What about Intel GPUs?

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