Hello, I have a crazy setup, and wanted to get some advice on a proposed build.
Right now, I manage IT for a flight school. We have a large full-motion flight simulator that was purchased some time around 2004.
The way the system works, there are 6 Windows XP computers networked together, each with a GeForce ti 4200 (from 2002!) running a highly customized copy of x-plane 7.6 (certified by FAA, cannot be upgraded)
You might suggest I just replace those with one modern computer that has 6 monitors attached, but here's the catch: X-plane can not run in multiple screens, there is one and only one video output per instance of the application. To add a second, third, etc. screen, you have to run it on a separate computer and provide the IP address to the main computer. Sounds silly, but that's the way it works.
Anyway, since the system is 10 years old, it is starting to exhibit hardware failure on some of the machines. I would like to update it to modern hardware, so I have three options:
- Pay the manufacturer $200k to replace the system (not gonna happen)
- Build 6 computers and set it up how it is now
- P2V the existing computers onto one kickass rig with 6 monitors, and display one virtual machine per monitor
I would like to pursue option 3 because it is the most future-proof in my opinion. I have set up a test environment, with VMware Workstation 10 on my laptop, and granted it is a 10 year old game, it actually runs pretty smoothly on the highest settings @1920x1080
So here is my question: Sure it works great on one virtual machine, but what about two VMs with 3D applications simultaneously? What about three or four? Thankfully only four screens need 3D accelleration, the other two are the 2D instrument panels.Can this be done? Can I run multiple 3D accelerated VMs simultaneously?
Assuming it is possible, what kind of hardware do I need to get this done? My proposed build:
- Intel Quad-Core i7 4770k Haswell
- Mobo with Quad PCI-E slots
- 1 or 2 SSD drives (data throughput might be a bottleneck and SSD should last longer than HDD)
- 16 GB Memory (2GB per VM, which is 8x as much as they have now!)
- Four nVidia dual-screen video cards (I'm stuck with VGA monitors and any cards supporting more are Displayport, not worth the extra hassle IMO).
One concern I had with this build is whether each VM guest needs a dedicated physical CPU core. In that case, I would likely go with an AMD Opteron processor and mobo combination.
One more thing, this version of x-plane does't like AMD cards, the game immediate crashes on launch but runs fine on nvidia cards. For VMware 3D acceleration, does it even matter what video cards I'm using on the backend, or does the guest not even see that, only the VMware drivers? Does VMware 3D acceleration work better on either?
Any input is appreciated. Thanks!