I currently have a gtx 1060 6gb with the newest drivers
Is there a way I could also use an AMD gpu or would the drivers mess something up?
as an alternative is it possible to use an ‘older’ nvidia card that doesnt have support for the newest drivers
Like can you run 2 nvidia drivers for 2 different cards or do they have to be on the same driver version (and sorry if this is a nooby like question im still pretty new to linux and im really inexperienced with hardware)
Unless you’ve hard-coded your Xorg configuration (e.g. using nvidia-xsettings, which isn’t needed yet people think they have to use it because that’s what people do) then things will “just work”.
Im only trying to get an improved performance and also more stability because of the amd gpu since the last nvidia driver broke my system (if you remember the long thread) so I want to switch which will take time until I can replace my old nvidia gpu but its the first step
I also want to run a kvm with windows for a couple of games maybe that I cant play due to anti cheat
I have an Nvidia 2070 super (for GPU passthrough to a Windows vm) + AMD RX 560 for the Linux host.
As long as the vfio-pci options are set with the nvidia details in /etc/modprobe.d/vfio.conf there are no problems (otherwise Xorg will load the nvidia drivers breaking GPU passthrough)
Don’t forget to mkinitcpio -P after setting the vfio options.
Having an AMD + Nvidia GPU simplifies vfio - you can blacklist one set of drivers or the other.
Yeah, I’ve got an Rx580 and a GT710. I use optimus-manager to switch my X server between them as needed for performance purposes.
In a basic nutshell:
enable iommu=pt in grub kernel parameters
check your iommu groups you may need to install a kernel with acs patch like linux-zen or linux-vfio and enable pcie_acs_override=downstream in your grub kernel parameters
you may need to change which gpu is primary for your frame buffer either in your bios if you can or with video=efifb=off,vesafb:off in grub kernel parameters
set options kvm ignore_msrs=1 in /etc/modprobe.d/vfio.conf
this prevents windows blue screen on install
you don’t need to set the pci ids here if you use optimus manager because all that’s doing is preventing your graphics drivers and X from attaching to that card.
add vfio_pci vfio vfio_iommu_type1 vfio_virqfd in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf might want to get vendor-reset and add that in there as well. Regenerate initramfs with sudo mkinitcpio -P
install optimus-manager and optimus-manager-qt This is optional but I’ve found it convenient. You don’t have to worry about loading your vfio-pci drivers, blacklisting drivers, or black screen issues.
use optimus-manager to switch to host gpu. run virt manager vm, attach your guest pci/gpu, and enjoy. virt manager has managed devices these days and can load/unload the vfio-pci drivers by itself. If you designate your host with optimus it’s easy.
maybe I’ll write a guide with examples and reasons for each step one of these days. there’s a lot of guides out there that use different and or old info. As an easy example, all the guides tell you to enable amd_iommu in the grub kernel parameters there’s no need for that as it’s enabled for amd by default.
Thank you all for the replies!
I really appreciate it.
My next gpu will definetly be from amd then
I probably have to buy a new PSU first since my 400W PSU cant handle a new gpu anymore. or at least I think so.
Personally I go with EVGA / Seasonic PSU’s with 7 year / 10 year warranty (I currently run a Seasonic FOCUS Plus Platinum 850W)
It’s never worth going cheap on a PSU - if a cheap PSU blows it can take your CPU with it. More expensive PSU’s have circuitry to prevent that. This Seasonic PSU would be a good choice
