Hello,

I’ve set up a Windows 11 VM with an NVMe drive and USB controller passed through. I haven’t passed through the GPU directly, since I was hoping to keep it available for Immich machine learning and Plex transcoding when the VM isn’t running.

The VM does detect the GPU and lets me install drivers, but when I try to test it—like running a game on Steam or launching 3DMark—it gets stuck on a blank loading screen and sometimes locks up.

Could this be GPU-related? Is it possible to run the VM while keeping the GPU available for Docker containers when it’s not in use, or do I need to fully pass it through?

On 3/23/2026 at 3:42 AM, lowellarent said:

Hello,

I’ve set up a Windows 11 VM with an NVMe drive and USB controller passed through. I haven’t passed through the GPU directly, since I was hoping to keep it available for Immich machine learning and Plex transcoding when the VM isn’t running.

The VM does detect the GPU and lets me install drivers, but when I try to test it—like running a game on Steam or launching 3DMark—it gets stuck on a blank loading screen and sometimes locks up.

Could this be GPU-related? Is it possible to run the VM while keeping the GPU available for Docker containers when it’s not in use, or do I need to fully pass it through?

"Is it possible to run the VM while keeping the GPU available for Docker containers when it’s not in use, or do I need to fully pass it through?" I would like to know this as well. I primarly use Linux as my OS but I need a VM that I can fire up with my Windows 11 Pro installation for when I want to play games. When I shut down that VM I want to be able to use the GPU for other things. Let me know if You get this answer please.