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I would love to run Linux as my daily driver but the common story of Windows support, particularly in gaming (think VR support, anti-cheat engines, etc), is a significant contributor to not jumping over 100% to linux.

I know when running virtual machines you are able to share your CPU completely with the host and there is minimal (if any?) loss in CPU performance. You have to "enable virtualization in the BIOS" and both AMD and Intel have their versions of this.

So my thinking is; if I could have a Linux host, run Windows in a VM and share my CPU/GPU, I could effectively relegate Windows to being a dedicated API layer (essentially being the reverse of WSL2).

My specific case is I have a 5700xt GPU and a AMD 5900x CPU. I can't pass through the entire GPU as I don't have a second.

Do GPUs support such a feature? Is it something specific to one brand (AMD/Nvidia)? If it doesn't, why does it not exist?

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Yes, this exists, though it's vendor-specific (just like CPU virtualization) and it tends to be limited to a separate product line – both AMD and NVIDIA have separate "data center" or "virtualization-oriented" products. The audience seems to be mostly companies which use virtualization for centrally hosting everyone's workstations (i.e. thin client stuff).

Intel seems to be an exception here, as their GVT-g feature for CPU-integrated graphics appears to be officially available on pretty much all 5th-gen or newer CPUs (according to their official GitHub). It also works on Linux hosts.

(Though for NVIDIA, the necessary hardware seems to exist on some consumer GPUs as well, but is only accessible through a hack.)

Update: Intel GVT-g is GVT-gone, but the more common (and standard) SR-IOV is now available: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000058558/graphics.html

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  • Interesting, thanks for this. A shame it's locked to datacenter GPUs. I wonder if the upcoming discrete Intel GPUs will include some form of GVT-g!
    – David Alsh
    Commented Sep 12, 2021 at 7:56
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    @DavidAlsh this is guaranteed. Intel's history does not point to the deprecation of such features in up-coming products. Secondly, these discrete GPU solutions are also made to co-exist with Intel Integrated GPUs in dual-GPU configs: ranker.sisoftware.co.uk/… so the same support will also extend to the dGPU in use.
    – Dennis Mungai
    Commented Sep 12, 2021 at 8:05
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    @DavidAlsh I don't know 'enough' to get this running or post an answer but craft computing has done a bunch of work here youtube.com/watch?v=cPrOoeMxzu0 that might be a useful starting point
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Commented Sep 12, 2021 at 8:23
  • Also looks like Wendell at L1T is on talking about the same thing in this video: youtube.com/watch?v=IXUS1W7Ifys - I am glad I am not alone in wondering about this
    – David Alsh
    Commented Sep 12, 2021 at 13:41
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    @DennisMungai: In other news, they removed GVT-g in Gen11, although they did replace it with SR-IOV which is presumably a more standard way to achieve the same thing, so I guess that's something at least.
    – grawity_u1686
    Commented Jun 24, 2023 at 17:37

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