This is my 2nd unRAID build. My 1st was based on a mini PC and used it mainly for hosting Docker containers and Home Assistant and freePBX VMs. It worked pretty well and was low power, but recently the only SATA died, so I had to throw the SSD into a USB enclosure in order to get the array started (array is a USB flash drive with absolutely nothing loaded on it and has an SSD data_cache pool and an NVME fast_cache pool), so I decided to build a new unRAID server.

The new unRAID server has a Intel Core 7 Ultra 265k and an RTX 5070, 64 GB DDR5 RAM, with array so far of 20 TB Exos x20 parity, 20 TB shucked WD, 18 TB Exos x 18, and an 18 TB shucked. 4 TB Samsung 990 Evo for cache pool 1 and 500 GB Samsung 870 Evo for cache pool 2, and a 2TB Samsung 9100 Pro passed through to a Windows 11 VM.

This is my first attempt at using a Windows 11 VM on unRAID (I've used virtualbox and VMware in the past) and I wanted to have a gaming VM. The OS installed on the passthrough NVME and the RTX 5070 is passed through to the VM. I had to make some XML fixes for Roblox to run on it for my kid, but was able to get Xbox games (Minecraft), Skyrim from Steam, and Fallout 3 and BioShock Remastered from gog working on it with very good results. There were some issues in the beginning with getting the GPU passthrough to actually display, but I was able to resolve that.

I decided to install Romm as a docker container and it worked well when I used the web browser on a separate PC to play my ROMs. However, when I tried to do this on the VM on the unRAID box, the ROMs would run like they were severely glitchy (very slow response from the gamepad and audio sounded like it was with a robotic sound effect). I have been moving my PLEX media files to this new server from my current Windows 11 Plex server (found unRAID a couple of years after setting Plex up), so I thought the glitching could be from me transferring the media files from the unassigned devices HDD (transferring the HDDs physically before moving the files is faster than going through the network). Even with the file transfer in progress, Room still worked perfectly fine on the Plex server PC, but glitchy on the VM.

If anyone has any troubleshooting advice, I would appreciate it as it seems to be a VM issue. I already had to troubleshoot the GPU passthrough, an NVME passthrough issue, Roblox crashing, and Fallout 3 crashing on this VM

Edited October 27, 2025Oct 27 by thewolf56

Here is my XML of the VM

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<domain type='kvm'>
  <name>Windows 11 Gaming</name>
  <uuid>e2b19b82-6a2b-94cb-8922-9eac8e7a1c51</uuid>
  <metadata>
    <vmtemplate xmlns="unraid" name="Windows 11" iconold="windows11.png" icon="windows11.png" os="windowstpm" webui="" storage="default"/>
  </metadata>
  <memory unit='KiB'>25165824</memory>
  <currentMemory unit='KiB'>25165824</currentMemory>
  <memoryBacking>
    <nosharepages/>
  </memoryBacking>
  <vcpu placement='static'>10</vcpu>
  <iothreads>2</iothreads>
  <cputune>
    <vcpupin vcpu='0' cpuset='1'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='1' cpuset='2'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='2' cpuset='3'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='3' cpuset='4'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='4' cpuset='5'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='5' cpuset='6'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='6' cpuset='7'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='7' cpuset='8'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='8' cpuset='9'/>
    <vcpupin vcpu='9' cpuset='10'/>
    <emulatorpin cpuset='0,11-12'/>
    <iothreadpin iothread='1' cpuset='0,11-12'/>
    <iothreadpin iothread='2' cpuset='0,11-12'/>
  </cputune>
  <sysinfo type='smbios'>
    <bios>
      <entry name='vendor'>American Megatrends Inc.</entry>
      <entry name='version'>4010</entry>
      <entry name='date'>07/21/2021</entry>
    </bios>
    <system>
      <entry name='manufacturer'>ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.</entry>
      <entry name='product'>PRIME Z890-P WIFI</entry>
      <entry name='version'>x.0x</entry>
      <entry name='serial'>xxxxxxxxxx</entry>
      <entry name='uuid'>e2b19b82-6a2b-94cb-8922-9eac8e7a1c51</entry>
      <entry name='sku'>SKU</entry>
      <entry name='family'>Z890 MB</entry>
    </system>
  </sysinfo>
  <os>
    <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-q35-9.2'>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/e2b19b82-6a2b-94cb-8922-9eac8e7a1c51_VARS-pure-efi-tpm.fd</nvram>
    <boot dev='hd'/>
    <smbios mode='sysinfo'/>
  </os>
  <features>
    <acpi/>
    <apic/>
    <kvm>
      <hidden state='on'/>
    </kvm>
  </features>
  <cpu mode='custom' match='exact' check='partial'>
    <model fallback='allow'>Skylake-Client</model>
    <topology sockets='1' dies='1' clusters='1' cores='10' threads='1'/>
    <maxphysaddr mode='passthrough' limit='39'/>
  </cpu>
  <clock offset='localtime'>
    <timer name='hpet' present='no'/>
    <timer name='hypervclock' present='yes'/>
  </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='pci' index='0' model='pcie-root'/>
    <controller type='pci' index='1' model='pcie-root-port'>
      <model name='pcie-root-port'/>
      <target chassis='1' port='0x8'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x0' multifunction='on'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='pci' index='2' model='pcie-root-port'>
      <model name='pcie-root-port'/>
      <target chassis='2' port='0x9'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x1'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='pci' index='3' model='pcie-root-port'>
      <model name='pcie-root-port'/>
      <target chassis='3' port='0xa'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x2'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='pci' index='4' model='pcie-root-port'>
      <model name='pcie-root-port'/>
      <target chassis='4' port='0xb'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x3'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='pci' index='5' model='pcie-root-port'>
      <model name='pcie-root-port'/>
      <target chassis='5' port='0xc'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x4'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='pci' index='6' model='pcie-to-pci-bridge'>
      <model name='pcie-pci-bridge'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x01' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='pci' index='7' model='pcie-root-port'>
      <model name='pcie-root-port'/>
      <target chassis='7' port='0xd'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x5'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='virtio-serial' index='0'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='sata' index='0'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x1f' function='0x2'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='usb' index='0' model='qemu-xhci' ports='15'>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x07' function='0x0'/>
    </controller>
    <interface type='bridge'>
      <mac address='52:54:00:12:00:00'/>
      <source bridge='br0'/>
      <model type='e1000'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x06' slot='0x01' function='0x0'/>
    </interface>
    <serial type='pty'>
      <target type='isa-serial' port='0'>
        <model name='isa-serial'/>
      </target>
    </serial>
    <console type='pty'>
      <target type='serial' port='0'/>
    </console>
    <channel type='unix'>
      <target type='virtio' name='org.qemu.guest_agent.0'/>
      <address type='virtio-serial' controller='0' bus='0' port='1'/>
    </channel>
    <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/>
    <input type='keyboard' bus='ps2'/>
    <tpm model='tpm-tis'>
      <backend type='emulator' version='2.0' persistent_state='yes'/>
    </tpm>
    <audio id='1' type='none'/>
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'>
      <driver name='vfio'/>
      <source>
        <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
      </source>
      <rom file='/mnt/user/isos/vbios/Zotac_RTX5070OC_Solid/Zotac_RTX5070_OC_Solid_modified.rom'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x03' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
    </hostdev>
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'>
      <driver name='vfio'/>
      <source>
        <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x02' slot='0x00' function='0x1'/>
      </source>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x04' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
    </hostdev>
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='pci' managed='yes'>
      <driver name='vfio'/>
      <source>
        <address domain='0x0000' bus='0x01' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
      </source>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x05' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
    </hostdev>
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='usb' managed='no'>
      <source startupPolicy='optional'>
        <vendor id='0x2357'/>
        <product id='0x0604'/>
      </source>
      <address type='usb' bus='0' port='1'/>
    </hostdev>
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='usb' managed='no'>
      <source startupPolicy='optional'>
        <vendor id='0x258a'/>
        <product id='0x010c'/>
      </source>
      <address type='usb' bus='0' port='2'/>
    </hostdev>
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='usb' managed='no'>
      <source startupPolicy='optional'>
        <vendor id='0x3554'/>
        <product id='0xf55d'/>
      </source>
      <address type='usb' bus='0' port='3'/>
    </hostdev>
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='usb' managed='no'>
      <source startupPolicy='optional'>
        <vendor id='0x3554'/>
        <product id='0xfa09'/>
      </source>
      <address type='usb' bus='0' port='4'/>
    </hostdev>
    <hostdev mode='subsystem' type='usb' managed='no'>
      <source startupPolicy='optional'>
        <vendor id='0x3554'/>
        <product id='0xf55e'/>
      </source>
      <address type='usb' bus='0' port='5'/>
    </hostdev>
    <watchdog model='itco' action='reset'/>
    <memballoon model='none'/>
  </devices>
</domain>

Edited October 27, 2025Oct 27 by thewolf56

Okay, I'm not sure why, but I figured out the issue. For some reason, enabling Vsync in the Romm browser window was the cause of the stuttering (not just video, but audio) and it was constant. It almost seemed like the old-school method of using slow motion with the certain NES controllers that would rapid press the start button to pause. I'm still not sure why that caused an issue with the VM with a passthrough RTX 5070 when it didn't cause an issue with the PC with an iGPU.