Interested in building a virtualized gaming machine...


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Hey community!

 

I'll start things off by admitting that I'm not very savvy with this stuff at all, so this is probably a foolish endeavor. But I'm trying to do my homework and am very interested in making this work!

 

Years ago, something like 08 or 09, I learned about Virtual Machines and thought they were super cool. I didn't have the skillset to play around in Ubuntu, much less a more intimidating version of Linux. Nevertheless I installed Oracle's Virtualbox and tried hacking around with it in Windows. At the time I wanted to get my computer set up to play two instances of Titan Quest at the same time and couldn't wrap my head around why it wouldn't work (not that I ever even came close).

 

Anyways, things have come a long way since then and Linus and others have made virtualized gaming work! Now, I don't have that same girlfriend I wanted to play Titan Quest with anymore, but I do still have the desire to make local PC gaming on one machine work for fun, for when I have friends over, and for a really silly project pertaining to my New Year's Resolution!

 

(I completely acknowledge that I can make this work a lot more easily by just having two gaming computers. I'm interested in the challenge of trying to make this work and the perceived elegance of the end result.)

 

So, I'm wanting to build a virtualized gaming machine. The primary end goal is to have two gaming VMs that are roughly as powerful as my current gaming comptuer or better. Depending on what excess resources I have, I may end up also running other things like a Plex server or NAS, but Objective 1 is the gaming computers.

 

Here are the main hardware questions I have:

 

  • My current gaming computer has a ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 AMP! 4GB as its only video card. I game at 1080p and it tends to get the job done. However, a lot of what I've seen online suggests that Nvidia cards DO NOT play well with virtualization. Interestingly enough, Linus uses two Nvidia cards in his 2 gamers 1 computer video and things look really seamless and easy! I haven't found anything saying whether or not my current video card will work with passthrough. If I can, I'd like to use this as one of my video cards in my "server." Can anyone point to a yes or no in that regard?
  • Nowadays, buying a second unit of my ZOTAC GeForce GTX 980 AMP! would be a pretty weak purchase in terms of value. Is the promise of later being able to use SLI worth it? I'm imagining by the time I want to build a new system (after this 'server'), I'd be better off buying new (a) video card(s) one or two (or more) years from now. If I want to spend around $600 or less, what second video card should I look for to ace 1080p in a virtual machine? I want to consistently exceed 60fps in whatever game I throw at the VM! (Sometimes my current 980 dips below 60fps in some games.)
  • From what I've read, ~3-4 cores are generally what gaming computers need these days. I also want to run OBS Studio on one of my VMs so it will need at least a little more muscle. My current processor is a i7-4790K and it seems to have held the test of time well but I'm not sure it can handle this next project. Should I upgrade my CPU? How many cores should I give to my gaming VMs? Will running OBS make me want more cores?
  • For my project, I'll need to use a lot of webcams in conjunction with OBS. At least two but preferably three or more! How much does live capture from a webcam weigh on a CPU/cores? Is this a consideration when choosing CPUs?
  • Also, regarding USB devices... is it easier to use PCI usb controllers to separate devices and inputs? For the sake of consistency, I'd like to use the same kinds of keyboards and mice and webcams and so on but I could use different devices if it is necessary. Can a motherboard's individual onboard USB controllers be passed through?
  • Is it worth giving each of my VMs their own Ethernet port? Can I pass through a motherboard's second port? Can I pass through individual ports on a PCI controller?
  • Of course I want to select a motherboard and CPU that support virtualization/passthrough. I don't really know what I'm shopping for besides that, though. Of course I want the right socket for my CPU, whatever one I go with, and of course I want enough PCIe x16 slots for my video cards (from what I understand, x8 is not a drastic loss of performance if I end up settling for that). I've built a system before, but I don't know what features (besides what specifically I'm looking for) to select or avoid. Are there any motherboard features I want to look for? Do I just select the cheapest one that has all the features I know I want (and has okay reviews)? Is there any reason to opt for a server motherboard/rack mount enclosure?

 

Thanks a lot!

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As your cpu had onboard hd 4600 graphics you shouldnt have any trouble passing through an Nvidea gpu. Nvidea gpus only seem to be an issue when they are the only gpu in your system. (ie the gpu used for your unraid gui)

 

I would think your cpu would be okay as it has 8 threads at 4.0gz with boost to 4.4.  So 4 vcpus for each vm. But i am sure someone else here will have more knowledge on the cpu. I have only run one gaming vm with other "none gaming vms" such as osx running at the same time, so dont personally have the experience of running 2 gaming vms.

I would recommend 32 gigs of ram so you can give at least 12 gigs to each and have some left over for other duties.

 

As far as sli. I dont think this is possible yet in a gaming vm as far as i'm aware.

 

Yes onboard usb controllers can be passed through, but this would be unnecessary unless hot swapping is important to you. Invididual ports cant be passed through, its either the whole controller or individual usb devices.

 

I dont think it would be necessary to passthough ethernet ports (although this is possible)as it will run fine using virtual ethernet.

 

 

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As far as sli. I dont think this is possible yet in a gaming vm as far as i'm aware.

 

Regarding SLI, I've heard it's a headache with passing through (or that it doesn't work well) to VMs. What I meant was, if I got a second 980 like I currently have, I could put both cards in another system later on down the line in SLI. That's not too related to this current project. I didn't mean to imply that I wanted to run SLI with these gaming VMs.

 

Yes onboard usb controllers can be passed through, but this would be unnecessary unless hot swapping is important to you. Invididual ports cant be passed through, its either the whole controller or individual usb devices.

 

I'm interested in passing controllers through for the conveience of it. I also would like to use similar, if not the same, devices on my two gaming VMs and I imagine passing whole controllers would leave me with less guesswork initially and also down the line.

 

I dont think it would be necessary to passthough ethernet ports (although this is possible)as it will run fine using virtual ethernet.

 

I doubt passing through ethernet ports is "necessary" but I am assuming it might be better for random household stuff. For example, if I do Steam in-home streaming from one VM to another computer in the house, I think that might hog a lot of bandwidth that I'd rather have on its own port rather than sharing one with Plex, another gaming computer and whatever else.

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Fellow gamer, hello.

 

I started similiar project while ago. I'll sure follow your journey, even I am few steps ahead.

 

I had single Gigabyte G1 980ti (later referring just G1) and I kinda just wanted an excuse for second card. So, I remembered I saw Linus techtips video about 2 rigs in single tower and watched it few timesand decided to give myself excuse enough.

 

As I have X79 Mobo with 4930K, I have to sacrifice first pcie slot for old 7600GS which is gpu for host. Lga2011 cpus  don't have igpu, so little downside there. 6core/12thread is nice, though. U might remember Linus using old 9000-series card for same purpose in their video.

 

Currently I am having some crash problems with VMs I try to sort out, but I'll see them later.

 

About usb controller passtrough: check this thread http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=36768.0

 

Helped me a lot and I managed to do it the way I wanted.

 

I've come far myself, having exactly ZERO experience with Linux until I started tinkering this about month ago.

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It's too bad you don't have an iGPU, it looks like most MOBO's fastest PCIe slot is their first one and it also sounds like that's where you have to put your "throwaway" card.

 

Did you end up getting a second 980ti, or did you get a different second card?

 

Thanks a lot for linking that guide!

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It's too bad you don't have an iGPU, it looks like most MOBO's fastest PCIe slot is their first one and it also sounds like that's where you have to put your "throwaway" card.

 

Did you end up getting a second 980ti, or did you get a different second card?

 

Thanks a lot for linking that guide!

 

I got second  980ti (Second Gigabyte G1) so I can use natual Windows from different drive to run 980ti SLI. I have 1440p/144Hz monitor (Acer XB270HU) so I really can use all that power in new games. Like Division goes barely 60fps with single card all settings maxed and takes nice 5GB chink of vram.

 

Anyway, pcie 3.0 has really 1-2% difference when using 16x or 8x slot so I am good here even I had to use throwaway card like you said.

 

I still think it is better to sacrifice option for iGPU in favor of more cpu cores here. [email protected] pack quite a punch in single core performance and you can have six cores per VM. Or in my case 6+4 with 2 left hor host.

 

8 ram slots help too, currently I have 4x 8GB 2400MHz Dominators there so 12GB per machine (and rest for the host) is enough in most cases.

 

LGA2011 boards sure have their advantages here, but LGA115X boards sure offer enough to have decent 2 headed gaming rig.

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