Does Unraid need a graphics card (GPU)? And if not, why do so many users have a powerful graphics card installed?
Unraid servers are often used not only as storage or application servers. With Unraid you can, for example, set up virtual machines with their own graphics card and thus play games on a single PC with several people at once. Linus Tech Tips has already shown that this is possible:
Unraid does not require a graphics card
To answer the question posed in the title of this article: no, Unraid does not need a GPU. Unraid does not even need an integrated GPU (iGPU). As long as everything runs smoothly, you control the server entirely through the web UI. But if something goes wrong, you are stuck: without a GPU there is no log output on the screen. That is why you should always keep a GPU installed, so you can connect a monitor if an error occurs.
What are the applications for a graphics card in a Unraid server?
There are at least four reasons why many Unraid builds include a GPU. Since Unraid has KVM capabilities, many people pass the GPU through to a virtual machine and use the system for gaming. There are certainly cryptocurrency miners that use Unraid as their operating system. Plex offers the ability to transcode video files using a GPU for remote viewing. Or you may be a video producer who wants to archive files in a more efficient codec without burdening your workstation. Finally, certain research applications such as Folding@home can harness the power of a GPU to solve real-world problems and contribute their part to science.