Hi all,

I'm having trouble with a Windows 11 VM on my server. It's running on a bare metal NVMe drive.

The VM, which I previously used for gaming, now runs painfully slow. I'm unsure which change caused this issue, but I've tried reinstalling Windows, updating guest drivers and tools, and creating a new VM. I've tried following this guide too: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/134041-guide-optimizing-windows-vms-in-unraid/

I get CPU spikes, with qemu using upwards of 500% when the VM is idle. When I boot directly into Windows, everything runs great, so it's not a hardware problem. I've isolated the CPU cores to which my VM is pinned. I'm currently passing through a GPU, but the same happens with virtual graphics.

I've tried changing practically every setting on the VM to no avail. Any guidance would be appreciated.

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<domain type='kvm' id='1'>

<name>Windows 11</name>

<uuid>afb5d5e8-786a-2373-c7e4-5817520a5d90</uuid>

<metadata>

<vmtemplate xmlns="http://unraid" name="Windows 11" icon="windows11.png" os="windowstpm" webui=""/>

</metadata>

<memory unit='KiB'>16777216</memory>

<currentMemory unit='KiB'>16777216</currentMemory>

<memoryBacking>

<nosharepages/>

</memoryBacking>

<vcpu placement='static'>10</vcpu>

<cputune>

<vcpupin vcpu='0' cpuset='1'/>

<vcpupin vcpu='1' cpuset='7'/>

<vcpupin vcpu='2' cpuset='2'/>

<vcpupin vcpu='3' cpuset='8'/>

<vcpupin vcpu='4' cpuset='3'/>

<vcpupin vcpu='5' cpuset='9'/>

<vcpupin vcpu='6' cpuset='4'/>

<vcpupin vcpu='7' cpuset='10'/>

<vcpupin vcpu='8' cpuset='5'/>

<vcpupin vcpu='9' cpuset='11'/>

</cputune>

<resource>

<partition>/machine</partition>

</resource>

<os>

<type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-9.1'>hvm</type>

<loader readonly='yes' type='pflash' format='raw'>/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x64/OVMF_CODE-pure-efi-tpm.fd</loader>

<nvram format='raw'>/etc/libvirt/qemu/nvram/afb5d5e8-786a-2373-c7e4-5817520a5d90_VARS-pure-efi-tpm.fd</nvram>

<smbios mode='host'/>

</os>

<features>

<acpi/>

<apic/>

<hyperv mode='custom'>

<relaxed state='on'/>

<vapic state='on'/>

<spinlocks state='on' retries='8191'/>

<vpindex state='on'/>

<synic state='on'/>

<stimer state='on'/>

<vendor_id state='on' value='none'/>

</hyperv>

<kvm>

<hidden state='on'/>

</kvm>

</features>

<cpu mode='host-passthrough' check='none' migratable='off'>

<topology sockets='1' dies='1' clusters='1' cores='5' threads='2'/>

<cache mode='passthrough'/>

</cpu>

<clock offset='localtime'>

<timer name='hpet' present='no'/>

<timer name='hypervclock' present='yes'/>

<timer name='pit' tickpolicy='delay'/>

<timer name='rtc' tickpolicy='catchup'/>

</clock>

<on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>

<on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>

<on_crash>restart</on_crash>

<devices>

<emulator>/usr/local/sbin/qemu</emulator>

<controller type='usb' index='0' model='nec-xhci' ports='15'>

<alias name='usb'/>

<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x0'/>

</controller>

<controller type='virtio-serial' index='0'>

<alias name='virtio-serial0'/>

<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/>

</controller>

<controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'>

<alias name='pci.0'/>

</controller>

<interface type='bridge'>

<mac address='52:54:00:42:7b:77'/>

<source bridge='br0'/>

<target dev='vnet0'/>

<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='/run/libvirt/qemu/channel/1-Windows 11/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>

<tpm model='tpm-tis'>

<backend type='emulator' version='2.0' persistent_state='yes'/>

<alias name='tpm0'/>

</tpm>

<audio id='1' type='none'/>

<hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'>

<driver name='vfio'/>

<source>

<address domain='0x0000' bus='0x03' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>

</source>

<alias name='hostdev0'/>

<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/>

</hostdev>

<hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'>

<driver name='vfio'/>

<source>

<address domain='0x0000' bus='0x03' slot='0x00' function='0x1'/>

</source>

<alias name='hostdev1'/>

<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x0'/>

</hostdev>

<hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'>

<driver name='vfio'/>

<source>

<address domain='0x0000' bus='0x04' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>

</source>

<boot order='1'/>

<alias name='hostdev2'/>

<address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x06' 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-20250629-2249.zip

Edited June 29, 20251 yr by azserv

Update: the VM runs well in Safe mode with networking. Not sure what this could mean, though

Add this between the <clock> </clock>

Let me know if it helps.

<timer name='tsc' present='yes' mode='native'/>