No Windows tax VPS—running Linux with GPU passthrough for remote CAD

Been running this setup on a Contabo bare metal box for 8 months. Host is Debian 12, single Windows 11 VM with RTX A4000 passthrough via vfio. Remote CAD over Moonlight + Sunshine. Latency to my apartment is 14ms.

Why not just dual boot? Need the Linux host running 24/7 for work stuff. Why not native Linux CAD? SolidWorks won't run. Tried Wine, failed.

Specs:

• Contabo BM-4 (Xeon E-2388G, 64GB RAM)
• RTX A4000 16GB, full PCIe passthrough
• Windows 11 IoT Enterprise (no Microsoft account)
• Looking Glass as fallback, but Moonlight is better

IOMMU grouping was clean, no ACS override needed. Vfio-pci binds at boot. VM starts via systemd service.

Downside: 180W idle. Upside: no $15/month Windows Server license from InterServer.

Anyone else doing this? Specifically the GPU passthrough on VPS-adjacent hardware?

Wah lau eh you really go all the way leh

The passthrough part can one ah? Contabo never kick you for running VM on their bare metal meh? Some provider see qemu process they sian already

Your electricity bill jialat or not

Ngl this is cursed but I respect it

You're basically paying for a 180W space heater to run one windows app

Honest q tho: have you costed this vs just renting a windows workstation from OVHcloud? https://www.ovhcloud.com/en/vps/ Their GPU instances are like €0.40/hr, you'd need 37.5 hrs/month to break even. If you're only doing CAD few times a week...

Also 16GB VRAM is overkill for SolidWorks, that's LLM inference territory. I run 7B models in 8GB quantized, you could probably split that A4000 and passthrough half to another VM for ollama or something

Wesh danfra

Le server حلو, incha'allah it stays up

But I look at your setup and I think... pourquoi ? You spend all this time on vfio, systemd units, the IOMMU dance, and you never try FreeCAD ?

I run FreeCAD on my Vultr VPS, no GPU needed, works with STEP files from clients. Passthrough is "cool" but maybe you like suffering ?

Incha'allah you find peace

FreeCAD is not SolidWorks. STEP import breaks constraints, assemblies explode, clients notice. Your Vultr VPS has no GPU because it does not need one, that is the point. 14ms Moonlight beats VNC into a crater. The 180W is the tax for actual work.