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H81 Pro BTC VT-d Support?

Printed From: ASRock.com
Category: Technical Support
Forum Name: Intel Motherboards
Forum Description: Question about ASRock Intel Motherboards
URL: https://forum.asrock.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1131
Printed Date: 27 Jul 2024 at 3:52pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com


Topic: H81 Pro BTC VT-d Support?
Posted By: ADeityToBehold
Subject: H81 Pro BTC VT-d Support?
Date Posted: 30 Oct 2015 at 10:43pm
I was considering purchasing the H81 Pro BTC for my new Home Lab and was wondering whether it supports VT-d (Direct IO). I know the CPU (Xeon E3-1225V3) does and the manual includes it as a feature but I've had a bad experience with other manufacturers claiming to include it when in fact the BIOS or actual board does not.

TL;dr: Does the H81 PRO BTC support Intel VT-d?



Replies:
Posted By: ASRock Expert
Date Posted: 30 Oct 2015 at 10:48pm
The MBO supports it if the CPU supports it.

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990FX Extreme 9 MOD P1.70
AMD FX 8120 4GHz 1.25V
Thermalright HR-02
Patriot Viper 2x4GB 2133MHz
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
MSI R7970 TFIII 3GB
CORSAIR VX550W
LanCool K62 Dragonlord
ASUS Xonar D2X


Posted By: ADeityToBehold
Date Posted: 30 Oct 2015 at 10:51pm
Excellent. I've been searching for a PCI-E ridden, VT-d compatible board for a while ;)


Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2015 at 1:38am
Originally posted by ADeityToBehold ADeityToBehold wrote:

Excellent. I've been searching for a PCI-E ridden, VT-d compatible board for a while ;)


Wait a minute! According to Intel, the H81 chipset does not support VT-d. Check the H81 specs here (scroll down to the Advanced Technologies section):

http://ark.intel.com/products/75016/Intel-DH82H81-PCH" rel="nofollow - http://ark.intel.com/products/75016/Intel-DH82H81-PCH

The H81 chipset does not support any virtualization technologies according to the specs. Both the CPU and chipset must support VT-d in order for it to be available. We cannot assume VT-d will work unless both components support it.






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http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: ADeityToBehold
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2015 at 2:07am
Back to the drawing board I suppose.. I shall continue on my trek


Posted By: ADeityToBehold
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2015 at 2:27am
I might've found the solution, albeit a little more expensive: Q87M vPro. According to Intel, the Q87 chipset supports VT-d and the manual for the board suggests that it can be enabled. Do you guys think it viable?


Posted By: ASRock Expert
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2015 at 2:54am
Check this out:
http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-users/2013-06/msg00083.html
http://lists.xenproject.org/archives/html/xen-users/2013-07/msg00234.html


-------------
990FX Extreme 9 MOD P1.70
AMD FX 8120 4GHz 1.25V
Thermalright HR-02
Patriot Viper 2x4GB 2133MHz
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
MSI R7970 TFIII 3GB
CORSAIR VX550W
LanCool K62 Dragonlord
ASUS Xonar D2X


Posted By: ADeityToBehold
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2015 at 3:48am
Originally posted by ASRock Expert ASRock Expert wrote:

Check this out:
http://lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-users/2013-06/msg00083.html
http://lists.xenproject.org/archives/html/xen-users/2013-07/msg00234.html

This is most confusing.. the chipsets do not support VT-d yet VT-d works on some? I'd rather not take the chance if it's such a flaky issue so I'll probably stick with the Q87M vPro unless there is some more concrete data


Posted By: ASRock Expert
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2015 at 4:03am
I hope ASRock TSD will answer to You. Thumbs Up


-------------
990FX Extreme 9 MOD P1.70
AMD FX 8120 4GHz 1.25V
Thermalright HR-02
Patriot Viper 2x4GB 2133MHz
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
MSI R7970 TFIII 3GB
CORSAIR VX550W
LanCool K62 Dragonlord
ASUS Xonar D2X


Posted By: parsec
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2015 at 1:00pm
Yes the VT-d support is confusing, since Intel's own information is contradictory about this.

I wonder if VT-d support by the chipset is similar to which Intel chipsets support over clocking?

Only the 'Z' Intel chipsets officially support over clocking, but we now know how true that is given the non-Z OC feature and debacle that happened this year.

Finding VT-d support on boards that supposedly cannot support it seems to tell us that VT-d support is more dependent upon BIOS/UEFI support for VT-d, than the chipset itself.

If we check the manual of the H81 Pro BTC, we can see in the Chipset Configuration screen, there is an option to Enable or Disable VT-d:



Sorry about the H81 chipset warning, I should have looked at the board's manual, since that will tell us if VT-d is supported or not. I still think the CPU must support VT-d even if the board does, for it to be available. Note that Intel has VT-x support listed separately, so don't confuse the two.

I mainly wanted to warn about the H81 chipset apparently not supporting VT-d, since it is the chipset with the least amount of features in the 8 series, and with the most limitations on the extent of the features (only one DIMM per channel, four SATA ports total, only two SATA III, no RAID/IRST support, only two USB 3.0 ports, supports two monitors rather than three), and it is the cheapest of all the 8 series chipsets.


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http://valid.x86.fr/48rujh" rel="nofollow">


Posted By: ADeityToBehold
Date Posted: 31 Oct 2015 at 10:33pm
Originally posted by parsec parsec wrote:

Yes the VT-d support is confusing, since Intel's own information is contradictory about this.

I wonder if VT-d support by the chipset is similar to which Intel chipsets support over clocking?

Only the 'Z' Intel chipsets officially support over clocking, but we now know how true that is given the non-Z OC feature and debacle that happened this year.

Finding VT-d support on boards that supposedly cannot support it seems to tell us that VT-d support is more dependent upon BIOS/UEFI support for VT-d, than the chipset itself.

If we check the manual of the H81 Pro BTC, we can see in the Chipset Configuration screen, there is an option to Enable or Disable VT-d:



Sorry about the H81 chipset warning, I should have looked at the board's manual, since that will tell us if VT-d is supported or not. I still think the CPU must support VT-d even if the board does, for it to be available. Note that Intel has VT-x support listed separately, so don't confuse the two.

I mainly wanted to warn about the H81 chipset apparently not supporting VT-d, since it is the chipset with the least amount of features in the 8 series, and with the most limitations on the extent of the features (only one DIMM per channel, four SATA ports total, only two SATA III, no RAID/IRST support, only two USB 3.0 ports, supports two monitors rather than three), and it is the cheapest of all the 8 series chipsets.

Alright, I'll give the H81 a go in a few weeks when it  arrives along with the rest of my components and get back to this thread about how VMWare reacts to it... I can live without it but the emulated NICs (if there is no passthrough) may hurt performance if I ever upgrade to FTTP. Thanks for your quick responses btw :)



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