5

I have a Dell tower server near my TV at home which functions as a media server, web server, etc. It runs VMware ESXI 6.0.

I'd like to be able to install a graphics card in the server, connect it to my TV, set up a Windows VM and play video games on it.

Note that I'm not trying to play games over a remote connection, like through vSphere Client, VNC or otherwise. I'd like to directly connect the graphics card to the TV and play that way.

Is this possible? If so, how can it be done?

2
  • 1
    Nvidia and Steam both of products that can do this. The Nvidia product requires the host to have a Nvidia card. As pointed out, ESXI can be used, but there are much better ways to achieve your goals.
    – Ramhound
    Nov 12, 2015 at 17:35
  • 1
    Steam and nvidia do gaming optimised streaming. KVM is a better comparison.
    – Journeyman Geek
    Nov 12, 2015 at 23:33

2 Answers 2

11
+50

Sort of.

If you have VT-D support, and have your video card passed through, you can

Puget systems has an example build here and while there's much too much to include in my answer, here's the salient points.

Your motherboard and processor matter. I've heard reports that regular mainstream boards may have vt-d disabled, and K series processors may not. Check your processor and motherboard. I'd boot into a linux livecd to check if your processor supports vt-d (proc/cpuinfo should have that?) and google if people have done that with the same model of server.

Puget had issues with nvidia cards so went with AMD. This may be an ESXI issue rather than an nvidia issue (nvidia cards seemed to work fine with KVM), and they did it with 5.5 This is finicky and your milage may vary.Check up the specific video card and ESXI version before buying a card, or test it with an existing one.

So, yeah, its possible, but it requires a fair bit of homework to pick the right parts, and testing to get it all working. At this point, if everything is compatible, and meets requirements then you can pass through a video card or 4 to a VM.

6
  • Most unlocked processors don't have some of the more advanced virtualization options enabled. Likewise the processors that are difficult to overclock do. There are variety of reasons why Intel indicates this is the case, which has been covered in numerous articles on differences between those products, I won't link to any specific article since that is outside of the scope of this great answer.
    – Ramhound
    Nov 12, 2015 at 17:31
  • Look like my processor supports VT-D but I have a NVIDIA card. I'll try it (can't hurt), but looks like AMD might be where I'd need to end up.
    – user201262
    Nov 12, 2015 at 19:02
  • The problem with Nvidia PCI Passthrough is in fact an Nvidia problem: They code their drivers to not work on passed-through cards unless the cards are the higher end $1,000 USD cards. You can work around this limitation by removing (replacing on some cards) a particular resistor the card uses to determine it's hardware PCI Device ID. The card then presents itself as a different model and the driver opens up the increased capability. The reason that Linux KVM works for passthrough is that KVM is more capable of truly fooling the guest OS into thinking it's a real machine, it's just difficult.
    – Tim G
    Nov 16, 2015 at 17:04
  • (Supplemental note: it doesn't make the card better, just enables features of the video chipset; you still have the same chip and the same vram.)
    – Tim G
    Nov 16, 2015 at 17:06
  • I intent to test this on an old system which has a Radeon 5870 card and and a now-ancient Q6600 CPU. I know perfectly how the system runs directly with OSes installed so I'll just test through ESXi. I know about the Passthrough problems with nV and I also intent to test how this can be fixed. I'll report back the results.
    – Overmind
    Mar 1, 2018 at 11:23
-2

Yes, but importantly you need two graphics units of some sort or another. One for the Host and one for the Guest.

Normally I wouldn't include videos in answers but Linus Tech Tips recently did a very concise video on how to run virtualized gaming. 1 System 2 players. The concept is the same for what you want.

Video

2
  • 1
    I assume that the serial port serves as 'a graphics card' ion this case. After all there is no need for the host OS to use graphics. All you need is the ability to telnet/ssh/serial_connection/Some_other_network in.
    – Hennes
    Nov 12, 2015 at 15:37
  • 3
    If you are going to use "LTT" to reference somebody you best be sure everyone knows who "LTT" is. I doubt it is "Libya Telecom & Technology" a ISP in Libya.
    – Ramhound
    Nov 12, 2015 at 17:32

You must log in to answer this question.