Ubuntu – How to make a VM use AMD IOMMU so I can use a 2nd Graphics card

So long story short, the only way an IOMMU will help you is if you start assigning HW resources directly to the VM. Just having it doesn't make things faster.

It would help to know exactly what Motherboard/CPU is advertising this feature. IOMMU is a system specific IO mapping mechanism and can be used with most devices.

IOMMU sounds like a generic name for Intel VT-d and AMD IOV. In which case I don't think you can multiplex devices, it's a lot like PCI passthrough before all these fancy virtualization instructions existed :). SR-IOV is different, the peripheral itself must carry the support. The HW knows it's being virtualized and can delegate a HW slice of itself to the VM. Many VMs can talk to an SR-IOV device concurrently with very low overhead.

The only thing faster than SR-IOV is PCI passthrough though in that case only one VM can make use of that device, not even the host operating system can use it. PCI passthrough would be useful for say a VM that runs an intense database that would benefit from being attached to a FiberChannel SAN.

Getting closer to the HW does have limitations however, it makes your VMs less portable for deployments that require live migration for example. This applies to both SR-IOV and PCI passthrough.

Default virtualized Linux deployments usually use VirtIO which is pretty fast to begin with.

Intel has made a mess of this as the Vt-d functionality can actually live on the chipset.

http://www.intel.com/assets/pdf/prodbrief/317312.pdf

The Q33 does not have it, but the Q35 does. The criteria for where Vt-d support lives is relative to where your memory controller is. With your CPU, it's not on die, so you have an opportunity to add Vt-d with a chipset upgrade. Chips like the Nehalam however, have integrated memory controllers, so all your memory related features are locked up in the CPU.

http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/datasheet/316966.pdf

1.3.12 Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (Intel® VT-d) (Intel® 82Q35 GMCH Only) Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O comprises technology components to support virtualization of platforms based on Intel architecture microprocessors. This document describes the chipset hardware components supporting I/O virtualization that are in the (G)MCH. Intel® VT-d is only supported by the Intel® Q35 Express chipset.

Maybe you can find a deal on a Q35 though I'm guessing it'll be more cost effective in the long run to upgrade both board and chip with an on die memory controller.