[vfio-users] Laptop Feasibility Query - Dell XPS 15 9550

[Alex Williamson]

On Sat, 2015-10-10 at 16:13 +0000, Ethan Schoonover wrote:
> I've been meaning to build or buy a gpu passthrough capable system for a
> while and would like to get some advice on whether the new Dell XPS-15
> (9550) laptop is likely to support this.
> 
> The specs are here: http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd .
> Relevantly, the new XPS-15 comes with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M which I'd
> be using as the passthrough GPU for a windows VM running on an Arch host
> (which would thus be using Intel graphics). Additionally, it's a skylake
> mobile cpu and according to the Intel site does have vt-d support.
> 
> I've reviewed the spreadsheet here:
> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LnGpTrXalwGVNy0PWJDURhyxa3sgqkGXmvNCIvIMenk/edit#gid=2
> and
> find that there are some working configurations with mobile nvidia GPUs, so
> I'm assuming that this is in the realm of possibility.
> 
> I know it's impossible to say without hardware in hand, but do you think
> it's likely that the new Dell unit will (potentially) support my desired
> GPU passthrough? Are there any obvious show stoppers you can imagine?
> 
> I know this is a broad, vfio-noob type question. I do appreciate any advice!

Possible, yes.  Likely, no.  If you look carefully at the raw data in
the spreadsheet, there are many more failures with laptops than there
are successes.  If you would get the laptop anyway and want to try this
on it, great, but if getting this working is a requirement for that to
be a good laptop choice for you, your chances of success are slim.
Thanks,

Alex