10 Box with Only 5 Boxes

[Boxcarwilli]

Would it be possible to use Virtual PC on a dual core box with dual graphics cards. As in, each virtual OS is dedicated one core and 1 vid card. This way you can still display 10 monitors if you want, and at least 5 and still use Synergy since each virtual PC has its own IP.

Has anyone done this? It shouldnt be hard to spec out a dual core box with dual monitors, dual hard drives and 2 gigs ram.

Is this even possible, as in, is the Virtual PC capable of 3D? Our sys admins just got in our new monster box, 16gb RAm for 32 Virtuals....cant wait to see how that runs (sorry, its not for gaming)

[Xzin]

Uhhh..

In theory yes.

In practice - probably not.

Most all VMs are piss poor at Directx9 / Open GL 2+ It is getting better, some of the recent developments are moving towards supporting this.

But I can't say with any certainty that it would work. As computer horsepower improves, this will certainly be the direction that I plan on taking. Theoretically, one could get an array of video cards, a super fast RAM based "hard drive" and a 8 core processor and run 8 copies of WoW on a single machine with max fps. The reality, for right now, is that the drivers for the video cards just don't support something like that for cutting edge games. Give it some time though.

I would love to see you test it though and see what your results are. I absolutely LOVE VMs - their functionality and flexibility is so incredibly useful. I just shy away from gaming with them for the time being but I do encourage you to test it and let us know what your results are - perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised.

[Boxcarwilli]

Ok, so I spent the last 1hr at work doing, uh, work...sure..

VM Ware with a MAC as the host....(the 4 boxer delight, maybe 5)

VMWare Fusion for Max OS X
running directX 8.1 right now, 9 soon, watch this vid below
http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/10/vmware-video-hints-at-full-directx-virtualization-in-os-x/

Buy pre order $40 right now, Public Beta Free Download (bottom of page)
http://www.vmware.com/beta/fusion/index.html


So, for a 4 boxer, you can literally configure a Mac Pro with Two 2.6GHz Dual Core (4 cores total) and 4 NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB (overkill yes, however Im not a mac guy, so I have no idea if you can put in any old vid car in there), 4GB Ram for $3,600. The MAC as the host and 3 winXP as the Virtuals (VM Fusion). Thats all on one HD, more $ for additional drives. That sounds TOO steep a price vs. running 4 seperate "do the job" but cheap win boxes. But, the bottom line....this seems doable right now as long as you also configure more HD's if that will even help with that bottleneck on a box this big.

NOTE: If you goto apples site you can have up to 8 cores on this box, and 8GB ram, but the vid card option was limited to 4...if it can do more than this is a possible 5 boxer hardware solution.



VM Ware with a PC as the host....

Read the bottom post, as of May 07, VM Ware for WinX as the host and running DirextX on clients doesnt seem promising
http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=628342&#628342

VM Ware Game Compatability List (seems outdated)
http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=392883

However, all the other posts I was reading says that there is work on progress with news yet to be announced. :( :shock: :shock:

[Xzin]

What DX is WoW written under? 8 or 9?

I read about this and saw some videos - early results were impressive. We all know WoW is not THAT intense of a game - there will come a point when the software is good enough and the hardware fast enough to run multiple WoWs per machine as cheaply as a $400 - $500 "just plays WoW" cost per computer we have now.

[Boxcarwilli]

What DX is WoW written under? 8 or 9?

I read about this and saw some videos - early results were impressive. We all know WoW is not THAT intense of a game - there will come a point when the software is good enough and the hardware fast enough to run multiple WoWs per machine as cheaply as a $400 - $500 "just plays WoW" cost per computer we have now.

OUCH, this cant be right, DX9 is needed for WoW, but it sounds like VMWare is close to this.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/faq/technology.html

[Xzin]

Considering DX 9 was released December 19, 2002 - pretty sure you need a computer from 2002 or newer to play WoW reliably. Not to say you CAN'T but still.

[Boxcarwilli]

Ya, I figured it came out long after that, like 2004, I was so wrong!

[Xzin]

So did I.

DX9 support in VMs is COMING, it just is not available yet with a degree of reliability one would expect. Nothing for DX10 yet of course :) Not that any games really support it anyway.....