What’s a good, cheap, no external power GPU to buy for VMs? Want to chuck a few in my Dell R730 server to make my desktop VMs more usable. Right now have an old K620 for a Windows VM, seems like 1030s are a good bet since I have a bunch of low profile slots I otherwise have no use for.
Intel arc a380 would be a good option, especially if you’re interested in av1 encoding. I know asrock recently showed off a low profile a380, don’t know if it’s available yet tho
If you are debating on eventually doing a media server, Arc 380 is small form factor, no external power, crushes all encoding benchmarks, and only $150. Plenty of good used card options from a few generations back like some mid-tier gpus, but pretty future-proof as far as server performance if you have kernel 6.3+
Edit for anyone later: ARC sucks ass right now for gaming on linux as intel devs are 90% windows focused. Don’t take this advice for a desktop GPU
@JustEnoughDucks I am planning on getting an Intel Arc for my Jellyfin server at some point. Have an old Dell SFF with a 8700 that I think I’ll eventually stuff into a 2U chassis. It’s probably overkill for my VM server though, since the VMs really just need to not lag in desktop application work (aka IntelliJ) and play Youtube videos without obvious framing.
I think the best slot powered GPU you can buy right now is a second-hand RTX A2000, specifically the 6GB VRAM version. It’s too expensive brand new, especially the 12GB version. But you might be lucky enough to grab a used one on the cheap.
Nvidia Tesla P4. Under $100 for a new one on eBay. Comes with a low profile bracket.
If you’re running Proxmox, you can even get the official vGPU drivers running so you can split the card between multiple VMs.
@TrenchcoatFullofBats I think this is the winning answer. Looks like it’s about a 1060 6GB, which should be enough horsepower for several desktop VMs, and keeps open my full profile slots should I ever want to install something even more powerful in the future. vGPU support is also nice so I don’t have to juggle which VM gets which GPU.
They also only pull 75w, which is an added bonus.
You may want to check out Craft Computing’s YT channel - he did a few episodes (Piped link) in his Cloud Gaming series on these cards.
1030’s can be both low profile and passively cooled. They are cheap but their performance is quite low. I think it’s slower then modern integrated graphics. 1650’s are also available without external power.
On AMD’s side you can go for either a Radeon 460 or a Radeon Pro WX 5100. I think those 4 are your best options.
Edit: I think as someone else commented the RX 6400 might be the best option nowadays.
I have a RX 6400 in my r620 and it’s been good
@Nilz Do you know if the WX 5100 supports SR-VIO? Getting mixed answers about what if any AMD GPUs support it, but having VMs share a single physical GPU would be a perfect solution.
I’ve been using a Quadro P600 for encoding without issue. It seems to be able to handle everything I throw at it, though I never do any crazy multi-streams. I got it for about $80.
Edit: I was too excited to reply. I have no idea if it’s good for driving a normal desktop VM. Sorry if this isn’t helpful!
@Nugget Yeah an older Quadro like the P600 is the fallback option. Looks like they run about $50 used on eBay.
Actually I lied, according to the Dell manual the full profile slots have a connector that provides PCIe power though I’d have to buy a cable for it. Long term the answer might be to get a used V100 and dive deep into the vGPU rabbit hole (erp).
depending on your use case these are cheap and cheerful.
https://www.newegg.com/sapphire-radeon-rx-6400-11315-01-20g/p/N82E16814202416
Nvidia RTX 4090 ti.
Obviously a joke. I’d love to see some good suggestions here too ☺️
