Gaming on a X8SIL-F. Is it hopless?


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Hi folks,

I've got an X8SIL-F with a Xeon X3440 and plenty of ram but no graphics card (other than integrated). That board was once popular around here, so I thought someone might be able to give me some advice. I'd like to setup a gaming VM. I know with hardware that old it won't be a world beater, but some quick research says the cpu is still fast enough to run many games (maybe on med or low). I'm looking for the best compatible graphics card. Has anyone had success with a similar setup or is this just a bad idea? Is the information below correct?

 

Some information I've come across while researching:

 

From the manual

Question: Does the PCI-E slots on the X8SIL/X8SIL-F/X8SIL-V, X8SIE/X8SIE-F/

X8SIE-LN4 or X8SI6-F motherboard support graphic cards?

Answer: Yes they do, but not Slot 6 and Slot 7 on the X8SIL motherboard.

This is due to Intel chipset limitations.

Also according the the manual slots 6 and 7 are PCIE x8 while slot 5 is x4. Slot 7 looks to be the only slot with an open end to potentially accommodate a x16 card.

 

From this website http://www.rootwyrm.com/reference/babydragon-hcl/

There is a 1GB/2GB addressable limitation for PCIe expansion cards due to the Intel 3420 chipset. This generally only affects graphics cards, but does affect some cards as detailed below. The PCI-Express layout of the X8SIL-F provides 2x PCI-Express 2.0 8 lane, 8x mechanical and 1x PCI-Express 2.0 4 lane, 8x mechanical. (Total 20 PCI-Express lanes in 3 slots hardwired 2×8 1×4.)

 

All Expansion Cards Listed on the VMware Hardware Compatibility List except as noted below.

 

All nVidia graphics cards with >=1GB of graphics memory are incompatible.

All ATI/AMD graphics cards with >=1GB of graphics memory are incompatible.

 

Thanks

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  • 11 months later...

In case someone else want to try this, I was able to pass through a MSI Computer Low Profile PCI-Express Video Card GT 710 1GD3H LPV1 in KVM. I don't think this motherboard supports interrupt remapping, so I needed to add the following to the go file, as mentioned here https://wiki.lime-technology.com/UnRAID_6/VM_Management#Help.21_Failed_to_set_iommu_for_container:_Operation_not_permitted. I tried this on ESXI first with no luck. This setup allows me to play some basic games through steam link. Now that I know it works, I might try a better card.

 

label unRAID OS
   menu default
   kernel /bzimage
   append vfio_iommu_type1.allow_unsafe_interrupts=1 initrd=/bzroot

 

EDIT - Encouraged by the success with the GT 710, I tried a XFX Radeon R7 360 2GB, which also seems to work fine. I can play newer games on low/med settings. I haven't done extensive performance tests though.

Edited by joeshmoe1
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