VT-d support on M7G

[BitMaster]

I always very much appreciated the ASUS motherboards, in fact, I always had an ASUS board powering my machines. Currently I'm looking for a new upgrade, and the Maximus VII Gene Z97 got my attention (in combination with the i7-4790k).

The idea is to have Linux as main operating system (as I really dislike Windows 😎 and use VT-d to enable PCIe passthrough to a Windows 7 VM to be able to play games with decent performance. I know that ASUS doesn't officially support Linux, but I'm hoping you could still say something about if it has any chance of succeeding. The main issue is that when I search for "asus vt-d support xen" people talk about DMAR-table issues regaring the BIOS. Raja already replied on overclock.net: "The Vt-D support was not full directed IO and all tests will not validate on the Z series chipsets in the past."

But somehow, this feature would surely not be introduced if it is impossible to support, right?

Long story short: The main feature for my new PC is VT-d.
In the case that VT-d doesn't have a great chance of succeeding on the M7G, could someone advise me an ASUS alternative? Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

[HiVizMan]

The WS boards are most likely to have VT-d support as they are aimed at the corporate market but having searched the product pages I can not find one that specifically states that it is supported.

[Raja]

Thats because the chipset does not officially support it either. Some of the tests will pass so some motherboard vendors will claim to have support, BUT if you search you'll find the same vendors have issues with certain Vt-d features also. We don't want to play that game.

For an ablsoute guarantee of Vt-d one needs to purchase a Q series chipset.

[HiVizMan]

Thanks Raja

[BitMaster]

Thanks for your answers! I've decided to go for an Asus CS-B, with a Q chipset. Someone posted that he got it working. I appreciate your stand against Intel to either properly support VT-d on the Z-chipsets or otherwise drop it altogether.

[armandohysko]

BitMaster wrote:
Thanks for your answers! I've decided to go for an Asus CS-B, with a Q chipset. Someone posted that he got it working. I appreciate your stand against Intel to either properly support VT-d on the Z-chipsets or otherwise drop it altogether.

Maybe you can help me answer the VT-d support question. I understand that Q87 chipset supports VT-d but looking through the CS-B manual there is nothing there to Enable/Disable VT-d in this motherboard. Does CS-B support VT-d?
Thanks chasin

[Raja]

No probs. If it worked 100% we could do it but unfortunately it doesn't.