Questions about Windows Emulation for Gaming

Operating Systems & Open Source Linux
1

So, I recently discovered that my mobo (Sabertooth 990FX R2.0/FX-6100) has SVM (idk if that matters) and IOMMU support. So now I am interested in switching to Linux and virtualizing Windows for gaming. But first I have some questions.

  • Is it as simple as setting up a VM and enabling a setting? (read something about PCI Passthrough?)
  • Can I use any version on Windows I want? (running 7 now, wondering if I can use 8/8.1)
  • Do I need my Windows license key?
  • What kind of performance can I expect?
  • Which distro is good for this? (I am pretty comfortable with Manjaro)
  • Do I install all of my Windows drivers inside the VM?

And that's about all I can think of for now. Thanks in advance for any help.

2

No if you look at my post about KVM tuning, I had massive amount of help and still did not solve my PCI passthrough issues, I have also recently asked on stack exchange linux to seek more advice, Zoltan couldnt figure out what to do, I am unsure if someone like brenn or freq know what to do.

Any version will work, I think 7 will work better due to it been a specific OS over generic, But it will still work fine, Adding to this you WILL need a licence it works just like installing on bare metal, and because of this your performance should not be hit at all, to be fair it should be higher with the tweaks you can add and the drivers will work exactly as if bare metal again, just imagine this, Its a Windows PC in your linux box, but its on steroids, or it can be ;)

Any distro is good for this, but I have found success more with Mageia than anything, And I have not found a lot of success via GPU passing, You need to learn about Binding, Zoltan did explain it to me. Here is the post

Just be ready for breaking stuff, Although linux is all about fixing sometimes, Bt you will learn due to this.

I would have 2 drives for this, I have my SSD for Mageia, and my 500GB for my windows VMs, works well, and its still fast, its for gaming so more storage is better, but I am personally having a bare metal install tonight, I really wanna play Injustice haha so yeah xD

Just have a look through What if I Want Everything and Virtual Machine Tuning, KSM and QEMU

3

well,

i have a similar mobo (sabertooth 990fx gen3/r2.0)

it "supports" iommu, but it doesnt work. i dont know the exact technical details but for me, its not working. 

you can install windows on a virtual machine but you wont get any hardware acceleration.

your best bet would be to get a mobo wich is known to support IOMMU.

i wanna buy one too so if somebody has one wich is working, please tell me.

 
4

I have a 1TB Seagate and I just ordered a Kingston 128GB SSD, so I will be wating until that comes in to install Manjaro on before I try this. Just gonna make another partition on my 1TB drive for the Windows VM's until I am comfortable with everything. Thanks for the links man.

5

I believe asrock series works well, go for something used a lot, avoid ASUS. I have a G1 Sniper M3, works well for me but that is Z77 lol

try this to see if it outputs something 

$ egrep '^flags.*(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo
6

i dont have linux installed anymore atm. i wanna install the new Mageia 4.

damn, i liked asus stuff up until now... my old P5K-WS is still rocking in my sisters pc with a oc'ed q6600 @ 3.4ghz and i already bought it used!!

7

Old stuff may work, And go ahead and install it, I have it running, works like a dream apart from the PCI passthrough, but that can be solved :)

8

So basically you have to get PCI passthrough to work for desirable graphics performance?

9

so as far as i understand, you would need a gpu as a primary card in linux.

and a second gpu you have to disable in linux and passthrough to windows.

is that correct?

 

10

imagine it as this, when you run a unbind command, you are theoretically removing the GPU from the PCI-e slot and installing it (Binding it) to your VM, this would take out graphics, Now I am unsure if X will remain running if the GPU is binded, so iGPU is best left on for backup, Do amd have iGPU on FX? 

11

If iGPU is integrated graphics then no.

12

yup

13

Okay with that then I dont believe that you need iGPU and that x will go down when you bind, I cant say as I have not got my setup working GPU side, as long as you bind correctly X wont crash and it should be silky smooth transition

14

Guys, just wait for TS to make a video on this, I feel like it's inevitably coming soon.

Reason: SteamOS. Some games will just run a lot better from now on in the linux version, so people will want to have SteamOS or a better version of SteamOS like Sabayon's version, but at the same time, people will want to play their Windows games, and will want to use their favourite linux distro for the latest and greatest open source software for productivity and browsing and mailing and chatting and watching naughty pictures and whatever they may do, with enhanced safety, convenience and privacy. So one year from now, all the gamer channels will be making videos on how to install a linux host running two virtual containers in kvm on an untainted kernel with nftables, and one guest SteamOS and the other guest Windows, with PCI passthrough and the whole lot, and since TS is always about a year ahead of the rest, it's bound to be in the pipeline already...

Virtualization with hardware passthrough is fucking complicated because there are so many different hardware choices. Kvm is always the same, but the hardware is always different, BIOSes are different, chipsets are different, there are implementation differences between manufacturers, etc.... That's just the way it is. It's also inevitable, even the XBoxOne uses it natively. Can you imagine PC gamers not being able to use technology that the XBone uses natively already? Unacceptable lolz...

I just can't explain these things very well, I just write, but I'm not really formatting or shaping my posts, it's always on the fly, I don't really feel compelled to figure it out for other hardware than the one I'm running, and I'm very bad at tracing my steps, because I've been using linux waaaay to long (about 20 years!) to even realize the steps, I'm taking too much for granted, and I'm not a computer specialist, I don't have a feeling for the problems that beginning users might have, because it's too damn' long ago and because everything has changed since I was a beginning linux user, I've forgotten most of the hours and days and months of problem solving that I had to do in the beginning, and even if I would remember, most of that wouldn't be the best way to solve things with the modern-day linux anyways. I always assume that those that are interested, will do some research and find it out for themselves. You just can't expect a turnkey solution on any forum, just because it's different on every PC. So let Qain and Wendell figure it out for you, look where they tell you to look for solutions, and then try again.

15

Ah, I see. However I still may try it and see what happens. If anything breaks, YOLO.

16

so now i have a primary card (gtx 760)with my screens connected and the secondary card (gtx 780) in the third pcie slot.

how do i disable the card in Fedora so i can use it in the virtual machine?