For years I’ve had a dream of building a rack mounted PC capable of splitting its resources to host multiple GPU intensive VMs:

  • a few gaming VMs
  • a VM for work that can run Davinci Resolve and Blender renders
  • an LLM server
  • a Stable Diffusion server
  • media server

Just to name a few possibilities…

Everytime I’ve looked into it, it seemed like the technology just wasn’t there yet. I remember a few years ago Linus TT took a shot at it, but in the end suggested the technology (for non-commercial entities) just wasn’t in a comfortable spot yet.

So how far off are we? Obviously AI focused companies seem to make it work, but what possibilities exist for us self-hosters who might also want to run multiple displays in addition to the web gui LLM servers? And without forking out crazy money for GPU virtualization software licenses?

  • Takumidesh@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Right, but who has the resources to rent compute with multiple GPUs, this is a gaming setup, not office work, and the op was talking about racking it.

    All of those services offer an inferior experience to being at the hardware, it’s just not the same experience. Seriously, try it with multiple 1440p 144hz displays, it just doesn’t happen work out well, you are getting a compromised product for a higher cost. You need a good GPU (or at least a way to decode multiple hvec streams) in in the client, and so, you can run a standard thin client.

    ‘low latency’ is a near native experience, I’m talking, you sit down at your desk and it feels like you are at your computer(as to say, multiple monitors, hdr, USB swapping, Bluetooth, audio, etc, all working seamlessly without noticeably diminished quality), anything less isn’t worth it, since you can just, use your computer like normal.

    • jet@hackertalks.com
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      6 months ago

      Remember the original poster here, was talking about running their own self-hosted GPU VM. So they’re not paying anybody else for the privilege of using their hardware

      I personally stream with moonlight on my own network. Have no issues it’s just like being on the computer from my perspective.

      If it doesn’t work for you Fair enough, but it can work for other people, and I think the original posters idea makes sense. They should absolutely run a GPU VM cluster, and have fun with it and it would be totally usable

      • Takumidesh@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Yea I do, you brought up that local isn’t always the option.

        I desperately want it to work for me, i just can’t get it to work without spending thousands of dollars on hardware just to get back to the same experience as having a regular desktop at my desk.

        • jet@hackertalks.com
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          6 months ago

          Okay. Do you want to debug your situation?

          What’s the operating system of the host? What’s the hardware in the host?

          What’s the operating system in the client? What’s the hardware in the client?

          What does the network look like between the two? Including every piece of cable, and switch?

          Do you get sufficient experience if you’re just streaming a single monitor instead of multiple monitors?