VT-d support with Intel DX79SR MB and Intel i7-3960X CPU

[idata]

Hi,

I have an Intel DX79SR motherboard which according to Intel supports 'Intel

VT with Directed I/O' as per for the following Intel page: http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-030922.htm http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/CS-030922.htm

I also have an Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition CPU which also supports VT-d as per the spec on the Intel website pages: http://ark.intel.com/products/63696/Intel-Core-i7-3960X-Processor-Extreme-Edition-15M-Cache-up-to-3_... http://ark.intel.com/products/63696/Intel-Core-i7-3960X-Processor-Extreme-Edition-15M-Cache-up-to-3_... and here: http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced?VTD=true&MarketSegment=DT http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced?VTD=true&MarketSegment=DT

The X79 Express Chipset is supposedly VT-d supported too: http://ark.intel.com/products/64015/Intel-BD82X79-PCH?q=x79 http://ark.intel.com/products/64015/Intel-BD82X79-PCH?q=x79

HOWEVER VMware ESXi 5.1.0, 799733 displays the following in the advanced settings (where you set-up VT-d passthrough etc): "Host does not support passthrough configuration".

I realise the this MB is not on the VMware HCL, however I'm both confused and disappointed as to why VT-d doesn't show as supported.

Can anyone comment as to why VMware displays this message, when the Intel website information clearly states that this motherboard , CPU, and

Chipset support VT-d?

I have flashed the BIOS to the latest version (0553) and the virtualization support is enabled in the security tab of the BIOS. However it does NOT mentioned "VT-d" or "Directed I/O" in the BIOS, and from what I've seen elsewhere, true VT-d enabled boards display VT-d or Directed I/O in the BIOS...

Thanks

[idata]

Hello John. The early revision of your processor had and issue where the VT-d was not working. This issue was solved thru a BIOS fix. Some programs may not work with that fix and they may report as VT-d missing.

If you are experiencing this issue I recommend you to contact the Intel(R) customer support group and describe the issue to check on the available solutions.

Regards.

[idata]

Hi Victor,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes I looked into this issue some more and as you pointed out I found that the C1 Step CPU has this defect. I can see that it's since been "Retired and Discontinued" http://ark.intel.com/products/63696 ARK | Intel&# 174; Core™ i7-3960X Processor Extreme Edition (15M Cache, up to 3.90 GHz)

I tried the Intel CPU identification utility but it didn't provide any helpful information as to what version I have.

I'm hoping that I can clean the thermal paste off the CPU and then identify the CPU and go from there.

Thanks,

John