KVM Support for Navi21 (v620)

[Lyky35]

Please add support for v620 and bring new life into this e-waste.

Thank You!
Regards

[krlc]

I second that! Such good hardware being underutilized, so much wasted potential.

[tkiblin]

I agree, we have some V620's sitting idle and this would be awesome to put them to use.

[jbrukardt]

Have multiple racks full of these from a cloud-gaming center that would be excellent if supported.

[neggles]

dupe of #1, see discussion there (tl;dr: "we're working on it but can't promise anything")

[amd-mwevers]

Hello, V620 is a datacenter GPU that AMD sells to cloud service providers and channel partners. We provide partners with closed source host software including KVM host drivers. Authorized AMD partners can get in touch with their AMD account reps to get access to host software for this device. AMD doesn't provide drivers or support for these GPUs outside of that context.

As a couple of other AMDers have noted in other threads, the product team is aware of the demand for KVM SR-IOV and passthrough drivers. AMD is trending towards open sourcing our software and drivers, so this request aligns with our general strategy. Unfortunately I can't make public statements about the timing or availability of KVM drivers for RDNA, but keep your eyes on this project for future updates.

[cebarks]

I found this which seems to suggest v620 is supported by GIM? or is the GIM that is mentioned in that the closed source version? https://rocm.docs.amd.com/en/latest/how-to/system-optimization/w6000-v620.html

[Lyky35]

Hello, V620 is a datacenter GPU that AMD sells to cloud service providers and channel partners. We provide partners with closed source host software including KVM host drivers. Authorized AMD partners can get in touch with their AMD account reps to get access to host software for this device. AMD doesn't provide drivers or support for these GPUs outside of that context.

As a couple of other AMDers have noted in other threads, the product team is aware of the demand for KVM SR-IOV and passthrough drivers. AMD is trending towards open sourcing our software and drivers, so this request aligns with our general strategy. Unfortunately I can't make public statements about the timing or availability of KVM drivers for RDNA, but keep your eyes on this project for future updates.

Thank you for taking your time to respond, this is far more than what we have gotten in years. We would really love amd if they allowed us (enthusiasts) to have some nice things for a change. I will, and many others will watch this repo with great expectations.

Regards

[nato444]

I have a large amount of V620s that would benefit from having KVM SR-IOV support. It would be great!

[cb88]

Hello, V620 is a datacenter GPU that AMD sells to cloud service providers and channel partners.

There is an enormous amount of "cloud" virtualization that occurs at the mid sized to SMB level. Ignoring entire markets is embarrassing. See the fall of VmWare after Broadcom ignored exactly this market. The small market is often where the mindshare for larger markets is gained. It's very likely entire larger corporations are ignoring this product because software isn't provided at the same level of openness and quality as the rest of AMD's offerings.

[jon-hotaisle]

@cb88 Not to get into a huge debate here, but Broadcom raised VMware prices, which was the cause of the fall. It had nothing to do with hardware being supported or anyone being ignored.

Mark also responded above. AMD isn't ignoring things.

[cb88]

@cb88 Not to get into a huge debate here, but Broadcom raised VMware prices, which was the cause of the fall. It had nothing to do with hardware being supported or anyone being ignored.

Mark also responded above. AMD isn't ignoring things.

It's a big picture issue dont' get caught up in nit picking. October 3rd, 2024... that is when this should have been up and available.

[nato444]

@amd-mwevers @amd-guangren Is there any ETA to share for KVM support for V620 GPUs? Or perhaps a general roadmap of some kind? Thanks!

[FlorianHeigl]

Hello, V620 is a datacenter GPU that AMD sells to cloud service providers and channel partners. We provide partners with closed source host software including KVM host drivers. Authorized AMD partners can get in touch with their AMD account reps to get access to host software for this device. AMD doesn't provide drivers or support for these GPUs outside of that context.

I am gonna just state the obvious here. I'm not writing this to be a PITA or to offend at all, but to put it out in clear words that need to be said.

• the apparent best way forward is for AMD to change this policy
• understandably, that should only be once these providers and partners don't rely on the card for competitive advantages any longer
• which, given the card's age, is likely already the case
• it is neccessary since until then there's no incentive to get into any relationship. If I have to go via channels to use a product, then I'd still be incentivized to go with the other vendor, where this is a much easier endeavour of just putting the money into their -very- open hands
• for AMD the proposition is different: does it want a much larger market share for free or not :-)

Time is ticking since now "the community" is already starting to really revive the Mi50 etc. ecosystem.
AMD should be a part of that move and support it while it's cheap and gets reputation up.

[amd-mwevers]

Hello,

The challenge with supporting V620 with KVM is that these devices were never supposed to be 'out in the wild' - they were sold to specific cloud customers and a few resellers who were provided closed source KVM host software to go with the devices. I understand that several hundred of these devices were sold via the grey market - for example, devices that were damaged in shipping which were meant to be destroyed, but were instead repaired and sold at retail - but it has never been AMD's intention that V620 be sold / supported as a retail product. While we want to make all customers happy, providing support for grey market retail products is not in the company's best interest. If you acquired the devices from a legitimate AMD reseller, that is a different story - please contact your reseller to get the closed source V620 KVM host driver. Radeon PRO V710 is actually in a similar situation as V620 but due to the larger number of smaller resellers, and the fact that they are in active production, AMD decided to make the MxGPU driver for V710 public.

The recently launched AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efQPFhZmhAo) was launched on October 27th via retail channels and is intended for enterprise AI and graphics use cases. It supports KVM only at the moment, although we are reviewing ESXi support. It does not support SR-IOV, but it supports other multi-user frameworks such as Windows Server multi-session and Docker containers.
A passively cooled variant intended for servers (Radeon AI PRO 9700S) was announced on Friday and is coming 'shortly'. https://www.techpowerup.com/343404/amd-plans-to-release-radeon-ai-pro-r9700s-and-r9600d-graphics-cards

I can't make any statements at this point about future SR-IOV support, I can only state that it is not present in the R9700S.

[FlorianHeigl]

Thank you for the nice reply. I understand the reasoning, of course. with regard to the Radeon AI PRO R9700, a good thing this will be a new product with this intention. I could find you and draw little circles i.e. on the marketing material for the Radeon Pro VII that promised the same use cases being successful product features. And it’ll not mention i.e. any extra software to make SR-IOV work. The cheapest way for AMD to prove they are serious about the next product is to not block users from fully using the last product. With that said, this should not imply that you need to do any product support for someone with a BIOS issue. Especially, what would you do if a few 10000 of those are in the used market. That’d represent millions of value and, again, the footprint and market relevance is something that AMD should put much more emphasis on. The MxGPU case especially. Why would I buy this over the competition? If I can see that i.e. ESXi is being considered when the other vendor has supported everything without disruption for a decade. Again, I understand the reasoning. But I also understand it has some flaws and that AMD needs to finally draw a line. Not regarding what old „crap“ from „grey sources“ is still supported. But a line that says ok from this date on, from this card onward we’ll support our lineup. So that i.e. everything that starts in AI or in W or in Pro or in V will have support for the following 10 things for a decade. So a customer knows their investment not just in the card, but in the ecosystem, the documentation etc. will be paying back generation after generation. So you’ll have customers buying generation after generation. People ask this since they (want to) associate a feature set with a brand and series. People like („us“) stupidly keep buying these half-legit pieces of hardware because we’re trying to find the spot where we can make that connection. Consider it an eval. If I don’t see downloadable software (do we really need to call that „support“?) that works with generation -1 or -2, I have no reason to believe that there will be the same for generation +2 or that my Radeon AI PRO R9700 will have good support for MxGPU 2.0 in 2030. Which means it’ll be worth less. Not just a better price/value. <3

…

Am 01.12.2025 um 16:35 schrieb Mark Wevers ***@***.***>: amd-mwevers left a comment (amd/MxGPU-Virtualization#6) <#6 (comment)> Hello, The challenge with supporting V620 with KVM is that these devices were never supposed to be 'out in the wild' - they were sold to specific cloud customers and a few resellers who were provided closed source KVM host software to go with the devices. I understand that several hundred of these devices were sold via the grey market - for example, devices that were damaged in shipping which were meant to be destroyed, but were instead repaired and sold at retail - but it has never been AMD's intention that V620 be sold / supported as a retail product. While we want to make all customers happy, providing support for grey market retail products is not in the company's best interest. If you acquired the devices from a legitimate AMD reseller, that is a different story - please contact your reseller to get the closed source V620 KVM host driver. Radeon PRO V710 is actually in a similar situation as V620 but due to the larger number of smaller resellers, and the fact that they are in active production, AMD decided to make the MxGPU driver for V710 public. I should mention also that the recently announced AMD Radeon AI PRO R9700 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efQPFhZmhAo) is the first PCIe GPU device AMD has launched to retail which is intended for enterprise AI (and graphics) use cases. It supports KVM only at the moment, although we are aware of the prevalence of ESXi in the enterprise market and this is being considered. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#6 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAVSVG25FZXKUTJCG4ZZWPL37RN3JAVCNFSM6AAAAAB6BXOEHWVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTKOJXGIZTGNBQHA>. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.