mjorud Posted May 4, 2022 Share Posted May 4, 2022 Hi, I'm struggeling getting good performance out of my Windows 10 Gaming VM. I have read all posts regarding Gaming VM performance on this forum and on reddit... and tried most, if not all, tips and hints. This is my hardware: MB: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. WS C246M PRO CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz RAM: 32 GiB DDR4 GPU: GeForce RTX 3060 Ti I basically using this VM as a SteamLink host, streaming to my TV (Apple TV). This works fine and I can play a lot of games without any big issues, but I would think I would get more performance out of it. 3DMark Time Spy gives me Average Score: 7900 GPU Score: 10300 CPU Score: 3460 Looking at the average results on the 3DMark site the average is 11200, 13000 on GPU and 7700 on CPU. Passmark CPU Mark results in 7300 wheras the average is 13400. It seems that I get half of the CPU performance compared to bare metal. I do understand there is a bit of overhead, but half? So this is what I have done. I have pinned and isolated 2/8 3/9 4/10 5/11 to the VM. 0/6 and 1/7 are reserved to unRAID. I have tried different combination of pinning, memory, machine and BIOS. This is what the syslinux.cfg file looks like label Unraid OS menu default kernel /bzimage append isolcpus=2-5,8-11 initrd=/bzroot I have been playing with Tips & Tweaks and disabled NIC Flow Control and NIC Offload. CPU Scaling set to Performance. vm.dirty_background is set to 5% while vm.dirty_ratio is set to 10%. Updated from 6.9 to 6.10 RC5 without any change in benchmark results. This the the VM XML: <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> <domain type='kvm' id='4'> <name>SteamLink VM</name> <uuid>e416468d-a356-9244-1a24-796b26a8d360</uuid> <metadata> <vmtemplate xmlns="unraid" name="Windows 10" icon="windows.png" os="windows10"/> </metadata> <memory unit='KiB'>12582912</memory> <currentMemory unit='KiB'>12582912</currentMemory> <memoryBacking> <nosharepages/> </memoryBacking> <vcpu placement='static'>8</vcpu> <cputune> <vcpupin vcpu='0' cpuset='2'/> <vcpupin vcpu='1' cpuset='8'/> <vcpupin vcpu='2' cpuset='3'/> <vcpupin vcpu='3' cpuset='9'/> <vcpupin vcpu='4' cpuset='4'/> <vcpupin vcpu='5' cpuset='10'/> <vcpupin vcpu='6' cpuset='5'/> <vcpupin vcpu='7' cpuset='11'/> <emulatorpin cpuset='0,6'/> </cputune> <resource> <partition>/machine</partition> </resource> <os> <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-6.2'>hvm</type> <loader readonly='yes' type='pflash'>/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x64/OVMF_CODE-pure-efi.fd</loader> <nvram>/etc/libvirt/qemu/nvram/e416468d-a356-9244-1a24-796b26a8d360_VARS-pure-efi.fd</nvram> </os> <features> <acpi/> <apic/> <hyperv> <relaxed state='on'/> <vapic state='on'/> <spinlocks state='on' retries='8191'/> <vendor_id state='on' value='none'/> </hyperv> </features> <cpu mode='host-passthrough' check='none' migratable='on'> <topology sockets='1' dies='1' cores='4' threads='2'/> <cache mode='passthrough'/> </cpu> <clock offset='localtime'> <timer name='hypervclock' present='yes'/> <timer name='hpet' present='no'/> </clock> <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff> <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot> <on_crash>restart</on_crash> <devices> <emulator>/usr/local/sbin/qemu</emulator> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/> <source file='/mnt/user/appdata/vm-images/steamlink-vdisk1.img' index='3'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hdc' bus='virtio'/> <boot order='1'/> <alias name='virtio-disk2'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x08' function='0x0'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='disk'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='writeback'/> <source file='/mnt/user/vm-images/steamlink-vdisk2.img' index='2'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hdd' bus='virtio'/> <alias name='virtio-disk3'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x09' function='0x0'/> </disk> <disk type='file' device='cdrom'> <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/> <source file='/mnt/user/appdata/vm-images/virtio-win-0.1.217-1.iso' index='1'/> <backingStore/> <target dev='hdb' bus='ide'/> <readonly/> <alias name='ide0-0-1'/> <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='1'/> </disk> <controller type='usb' index='0' model='ich9-ehci1'> <alias name='usb'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x7'/> </controller> <controller type='usb' index='0' model='ich9-uhci1'> <alias name='usb'/> <master startport='0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x0' multifunction='on'/> </controller> <controller type='usb' index='0' model='ich9-uhci2'> <alias name='usb'/> <master startport='2'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x1'/> </controller> <controller type='usb' index='0' model='ich9-uhci3'> <alias name='usb'/> <master startport='4'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x2'/> </controller> <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'> <alias name='pci.0'/> </controller> <controller type='pci' index='1' model='pci-bridge'> <model name='pci-bridge'/> <target chassisNr='1'/> <alias name='pci.1'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/> </controller> <controller type='pci' index='2' model='pci-bridge'> <model name='pci-bridge'/> <target chassisNr='2'/> <alias name='pci.2'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/> </controller> <controller type='pci' index='3' model='pci-bridge'> <model name='pci-bridge'/> <target chassisNr='3'/> <alias name='pci.3'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x0'/> </controller> <controller type='pci' index='4' model='pci-bridge'> <model name='pci-bridge'/> <target chassisNr='4'/> <alias name='pci.4'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x0a' function='0x0'/> </controller> <controller type='pci' index='5' model='pci-bridge'> <model name='pci-bridge'/> <target chassisNr='5'/> <alias name='pci.5'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x0b' function='0x0'/> </controller> <controller type='pci' index='6' model='pci-bridge'> <model name='pci-bridge'/> <target chassisNr='6'/> <alias name='pci.6'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x0c' function='0x0'/> </controller> <controller type='ide' index='0'> <alias name='ide'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x1'/> </controller> <controller type='virtio-serial' index='0'> <alias name='virtio-serial0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/> </controller> <interface type='bridge'> <mac address='52:54:00:b5:f1:81'/> <source bridge='br0'/> <target dev='vnet3'/> <model type='virtio'/> <alias name='net0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x06' function='0x0'/> </interface> <serial type='pty'> <source path='/dev/pts/2'/> <target type='isa-serial' port='0'> <model name='isa-serial'/> </target> <alias name='serial0'/> </serial> <console type='pty' tty='/dev/pts/2'> <source path='/dev/pts/2'/> <target type='serial' port='0'/> <alias name='serial0'/> </console> <channel type='unix'> <source mode='bind' path='/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/channel/target/domain-4-SteamLink VM/org.qemu.guest_agent.0'/> <target type='virtio' name='org.qemu.guest_agent.0' state='connected'/> <alias name='channel0'/> <address type='virtio-serial' controller='0' bus='0' port='1'/> </channel> <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'> <alias name='input0'/> </input> <input type='keyboard' bus='ps2'> <alias name='input1'/> </input> <audio id='1' type='none'/> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'> <driver name='vfio'/> <source> <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x01' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev0'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x06' slot='0x01' function='0x0' multifunction='on'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'> <driver name='vfio'/> <source> <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x01' slot='0x00' function='0x1'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev1'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x06' slot='0x01' function='0x1'/> </hostdev> <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='usb' managed='no'> <source> <vendor id='0x1b1c'/> <product id='0x0c10'/> <address bus='1' device='3'/> </source> <alias name='hostdev2'/> <address type='usb' bus='0' port='1'/> </hostdev> <memballoon model='none'/> </devices> <seclabel type='dynamic' model='dac' relabel='yes'> <label>+0:+100</label> <imagelabel>+0:+100</imagelabel> </seclabel> </domain> I have also tried a fresh install of both W10 and W11 and both gives me a result of 7300 on Passmark CPU Mark both with and without a GPU passed through. The same as my W10 Gaming VM with GPU passed through. Looking at the unRAID Dashboard the pinned CPUs are getting a 100% load when running benchmarks. Is this the maximum performance I can expect to get out of my VM, or is it possible to squeeze more out of it? I'm thankfull for all tips and pointers. Best regards Quote Link to comment
ghost82 Posted May 4, 2022 Share Posted May 4, 2022 46 minutes ago, mjorud said: Looking at the average results on the 3DMark site the average is 11200, 13000 on GPU and 7700 on CPU Hi, this may sound a stupid question...I don't know much about bench tests, but did you consider that "the native test" runs on 12 threads and yours runs on 8? Or is it a single thread comparison? However, even considering this the gap seems too much..i440fx vs q35 machine type should make near no difference...did you run a latencymon test to see if you have irq conflicts? Quote Link to comment
mjorud Posted May 4, 2022 Author Share Posted May 4, 2022 Hi ghost82, True, the bare metal benchmarks I compare my results with are full 12 threads while I only use 8. Because of this I do expect a reduced results, but not as low as I get. I ran latencymon and my "system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts". I also ran WhySoSlow and all seems good except for "The highest measured SM BIOS interrupt or other stall was 156 microseconds. This is considered poor behaviour". Not sure if this really is a problem. Quote Link to comment
mjorud Posted May 5, 2022 Author Share Posted May 5, 2022 I did some more testing. Assigning all CPU/Threads to the VM I get a Passmark CPU score of 10200. That's a bump from 7300. 3DMark average score goes from 7900 to 8800. CPU score from 3460 to 4820. No change in GPU score. Not sure what kind of impact this does on the host. I assume that the host need some horsepower to run VM services and other services... Quote Link to comment
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