Hey,

I'm running a KVM following Space Invader One's best practices for setting up a gaming VM and as of recently, I'm having GPU issues with my VM. The only real change I made was switching the motherboard, and going from non-UEFI to UEFI. 

I disabled C-States and enabled virtualization in BIOS settings as suggested.

System Specs
 

Motherboard

ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. ROG CROSSHAIR VIII DARK HERO , Version Rev X.0x
American Megatrends Inc., Version 4201
BIOS dated: Tue 26 Apr 2022 12:00:00 AM PDT

 

Graphics Card

AMD 6600XT (Not using GPU BIOS dump)

 

CPU

AMD 5950X

 

RAM

32GB

 

Cache Drive for VMs (domains) - NVME

Cache Drive for App Data - SSD

 

VM Config:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<domain type='kvm' id='4'>
  <name>Unraid Support Log</name>
  <uuid>285853cd-56aa-0ff6-edd7-684704245625</uuid>
  <metadata>
    <vmtemplate xmlns="unraid" name="Windows 10" icon="windows.png" os="windows10"/>
  </metadata>
  <memory unit='KiB'>17301504</memory>
  <currentMemory unit='KiB'>17301504</currentMemory>
  <memoryBacking>
    <nosharepages/>
  </memoryBacking>
  <vcpu placement='static'>18</vcpu>
  <cputune>
    <vcpupin vcpu='0' cpuset='6'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='1' cpuset='22'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='2' cpuset='8'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='3' cpuset='24'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='4' cpuset='9'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='5' cpuset='25'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='6' cpuset='10'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='7' cpuset='26'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='8' cpuset='11'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='9' cpuset='27'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='10' cpuset='12'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='11' cpuset='28'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='12' cpuset='13'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='13' cpuset='29'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='14' cpuset='14'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='15' cpuset='30'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='16' cpuset='15'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='17' cpuset='31'/>
  </cputune>
  <resource>
    <partition>/machine</partition>
  </resource>
  <os>
    <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-7.1'>hvm</type>
    <loader readonly='yes' type='pflash'>/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x64/OVMF_CODE-pure-efi.fd</loader>
    <nvram>/etc/libvirt/qemu/nvram/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx_VARS-pure-efi.fd</nvram>
  </os>
  <features>
    <acpi/>
    <apic/>
    <hyperv mode='custom'>
      <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='9' threads='2'/>
    <cache mode='passthrough'/>
    <feature policy='require' name='topoext'/>
  </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/domains/xxxxxx/vdisk1.img' index='3'/>
      <backingStore/>
      <target dev='hdc' bus='virtio'/>
      <boot order='2'/>
      <alias name='virtio-disk2'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x0'/>
    </disk>
    <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
      <source file='/mnt/user/isos/Windows/Windows10_x64_en-US_IoT-ENT.iso' index='2'/>
      <backingStore/>
      <target dev='hda' bus='sata'/>
      <readonly/>
      <boot order='1'/>
      <alias name='sata0-0-0'/>
      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>
    </disk>
    <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
      <source file='/mnt/user/isos/virtio-win-0.1.240-1.iso' index='1'/>
      <backingStore/>
      <target dev='hdb' bus='sata'/>
      <readonly/>
      <alias name='sata0-0-1'/>
      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='1'/>
    </disk>
    <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'>
      <alias name='pci.0'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='sata' index='0'>
      <alias name='sata0'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='virtio-serial' index='0'>
      <alias name='virtio-serial0'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/>
    </controller>
    <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>
    <interface type='bridge'>
      <mac address='52:54:00:40:be:1a'/>
      <source bridge='br0'/>
      <target dev='vnet3'/>
      <model type='virtio-net'/>
      <alias name='net0'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/>
    </interface>
    <serial type='pty'>
      <source path='/dev/pts/0'/>
      <target type='isa-serial' port='0'>
        <model name='isa-serial'/>
      </target>
      <alias name='serial0'/>
    </serial>
    <console type='pty' tty='/dev/pts/0'>
      <source path='/dev/pts/0'/>
      <target type='serial' port='0'/>
      <alias name='serial0'/>
    </console>
    <channel type='unix'>
      <source mode='bind' path='/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/channel/target/domain-4-xxxxxxxx/org.qemu.guest_agent.0'/>
      <target type='virtio' name='org.qemu.guest_agent.0' state='disconnected'/>
      <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='0x0d' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
      </source>
      <alias name='hostdev0'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x06' function='0x0'/>
    </hostdev>
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'>
      <driver name='vfio'/>
      <source>
        <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x0d' slot='0x00' function='0x1'/>
      </source>
      <alias name='hostdev1'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x08' function='0x0'/>
    </hostdev>
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'>
      <driver name='vfio'/>
      <source>
        <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x06' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
      </source>
      <alias name='hostdev2'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x09' function='0x0'/>
    </hostdev>
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'>
      <driver name='vfio'/>
      <source>
        <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x10' slot='0x00' function='0x3'/>
      </source>
      <alias name='hostdev3'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x0a' function='0x0'/>
    </hostdev>
    <memballoon model='none'/>
  </devices>
  <seclabel type='dynamic' model='dac' relabel='yes'>
    <label>+0:+100</label>
    <imagelabel>+0:+100</imagelabel>
  </seclabel>
</domain>

Diagnostics attached.

 

Edit: To clarify, my graphics will stutter/freeze randomly while audio continues. If I check the dashboard in Unraid, in the past I'd get CPU spikes around the same time it was freezing. Don't know if that was purely coincidence - but I didn't see anything obvious in the logs.

bad-logs-diag.zip

Edited September 26, 20232 yr by Unraid_Student

Checking this thread now to see if its the cause - because its similar where one CPU core will spike, then the next core, etc.
 

 

Issue still remains after disabling WSD

Okay. so have an update here. Updated to the latest Unraid today which addressed freezes when using a 2.5GB Realtek Card (which my computer had). Updating Unraid and running previous configuration made it SLIGHTLY more stable, but the remaining steps taken returned my PC to a normal condition.

 

A.) Reverting to old bios (one version back, v4602) using Flashback method. First I re-installed the current bios using Flashback. Then I waited, and installed the old version, just to make sure it was as clean of a process as possible.

B.) Once the BIOS was fresh, I realized that any tinkering I did in the past would be gone, and allowed me to focus on the only 2 settings that matter (from a fresh, default config).

• IOMMU Enabled
• SVM

C.) When creating VM, changed Virtio-net to Virtio, added my passed through GPU (with paired Audio Controller under Sound Card) and set my machine type to i440 7.2, installed, allowed Windows Update to grab WHQL drivers for display and network - then I received Black screen (known bug on my machine - i440fx does not like default WHQL from windows)

 

Note: I also did not VFIO bind GPU under "System Devices". Under "VM Settings" I have the following:
PCIe ACS Override: Both
VFIO allow unsafe interrupts: Yes

 

 

D) After driver installed and black screen - force stopped machine, changed from i440 to Q35. Windows login now displays when starting machine.

E.) CPU Pinning settings remained the same - isolating cores for VM specifically and allowing Unraid 2-4 cores.

F.) VM Ram was set to 32GB, I've read going beyond has iffy results.
 

G.) Ran a download test and wiggled my mouse around and everything is smooth again!

 

 

It could've been only one of the things from A-G, but something did it and I just wanted to document the process in case any one else encounters this issue. Thanks Unraid team for latest update, and forcing me to rethink the whole process resulting in a smooth download/network experience.

 

 

 

Edited December 2, 20232 yr by Unraid_Student