VT-d support on both the motherboard/bios and CPU

May 13, 2012

2 Votes

Status: Archived

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Current Alienware laptops (I'm not sure about desktops) use a motherboard that does not support the VT-d instruction set of the more advanced (non-bottom of the line) Intel CPUs. This is a bit of a problem as VT-d is required for using PCI passthrough to access the physical GPU in a virtual machine. Switching to a motherboard/bios that supports the VT-d instruction set, along with using a VT-d enabled Intel CPU (IE the i7 3720QM) would allow for accessing the actual GPU in a virtual machine, rather than an emulated one. This would allow for gamers who want to run games in virtual machines (such as games that only work on an older version of Windows, or running Windows in a VM while using Linux as a host OS using Xen or KVM) to be able to run games while using the actual GPU and it's drivers for the virtual operating system, rather than the emulated graphics card which is unsuitable for gaming. Please implement a motherboard/BIOS that supports VT-d in Alienware laptops so that it can be used to game or run applications that use the GPU in a Virtual Machine. This is something I have been looking for in a while, and it appears as if the only laptops that currently are availble that support VT-d are unsuitable for gaming.

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