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Zheng, Xiao edited this page Feb 21, 2017 · 1 revision

Overview

Intel GVT-g for KVM (a.k.a. KVMGT) is a full GPU virtualization solution with mediated pass-through (VFIO mediated device framework based), starting from 5th generation Intel Core(TM) processors with Intel Graphics processors. A virtual GPU instance is maintained for each VM, with part of performance critical resources directly assigned. The capability of running native graphics driver inside a VM, without hypervisor intervention in performance critical paths, achieves a good balance among performance, feature, and sharing capability.

Technique Specification:

A virtual GPU instance (vGPU) could be presented to guest VM as 2nd graphic acceleration card or as primary VGA card. By leverage the acceleration of vGPU in VM, Guests are powerful to run any intensive 3D/2D/GPGPU/Media workloads.

Highlights Features:

  • General:
    • Supported Linux distributions (64bit): Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL, SUSE, etc
    • Supported Windows guest: Windows7 (32bit, 64bit), Windows8.1 (64bit), Windows10 RedStore (64bit)
    • Supported total vGPU number <= 7
    • Single display with resolution up to 1920x1080p
  • 3D/2D:
    • OpenGL4.5 for Linux guest
    • OpenGL4.4 for Windows guest
    • DirectX9, 10, 11, 12 for Windows guest
  • Compute:
    • OpenCL2.0 for Windows/Linux guest
  • Media:
    • Intel Media Service Studio (2015R5)
  • Remote display protocol:
    • X11VNC for Linux guest
    • TightVNC, HP RGS, RDP for Windows guest

Tested 3D/2D benchmarks include: 3Dmark06, 3Dmark11, WebGL, Passmark, Unigine-tropics, Unigine-heaven, Phoronix 3D, Cairo 2D, etc Tested Media: Multiple thread decode/transcode for JPEG, MPEG2, H264, HEVC, VC1, VP8, etc Tested OpenCL benchmarks: LuxMark

Limitation:

  • We recommend to use qemu emulated VGA card (cirrus or qxl) as primary and KVMGT vGPU as 2nd VGA card. If you start guest VM with vGPU as Primary acceleration card, you will have no display on qemu SDL/VNC window. The only way you can connect to guest is to start remote display protocols' server like X11VNC server for Linux and TightVNC server for windows guest.
  • Now only guest-side remoting protocol is supported. Host-side remoting through SPICE is still under development

Host Requirement:

  • Host resource recommendation:
    • Intel Xeon (TM) E3 v4/v5 or Intel 5th/6th Generation Core (TM) processors with Intel Graphics processors
    • Linux distribution with KVM/VFIO mediated device framework
    • System memory >= 16GB (3 guest VMs), 32GB (7 guest VMs)
    • Graphic aperture size >= 1GB
    • Qemu version >= v2.8.0
    • Kernel version >= 4.10.0-rc7+

Guest Requirement:

  • Linux Guest VM resource recommendation:
    • System memory: 2048MB
    • Virtual CPUs: >= 2
    • Emulated vga device as 1st VGA card (cirrus or qxl recommended)
    • Intel vGPU as 2nd VGA acceleration card
    • Kernel version: 4.8 and up
    • Remote display protocol: X11VNC (Server)
  • Windows Guest VM resource recommendation:
    • System memory: 2048MB for Win7 (32bit, 64bit), 4096MB for Win8.1 (32bit, 64bit) and Win10 (64bit)
    • Virtual CPUs: >= 2
    • Emulated vga device as 1st VGA card (cirrus or qxl recommended)
    • Intel vGPU as 2nd VGA acceleration card
    • Intel HD Graphic Device Driver version:

      = 15.45.4590 for 6th generation = 15.40 for 5th generation (public driver will release soon)

    • Remote display protocol: TightVNC Server or HP RGS or Microsoft RDP

Known issues:

  • For Linux guest VM (Ubuntu, Fedora.. etc), qemu window (emulated VGA device) will be black (no display) if we force enable X11 to display on KVMGT vGPU as 2nd card (acceleration card)
  • For Linux guest VM kernel 4.10.x do not support KVMGT. Fix in progress.
  • Display fix to 1280x720p under Windows Guest Device driver 15.45.4590

Change logs:

2017 Feb: Initial release note

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