Hey guys, so like most of us I really want to switch off of Windows (to Linux) but the games are really holding me hostage. I have a triple boot right now with Windows, OS X (Hackintosh'd for a small challenge/project), and Mint but I find myself normally going to Windows because completely switching operating systesm can be rather annoying just to play a game. My question is, is using Xen/KVM & VGA passthrough to visualize Windows a viable option for gaming?
I've spent some time looking up the subject matter but haven't found much as far as gaming is concerned. I really don't know much about virtualization so I do also have some general questions. What sort of hardware would you need to do something like this (ie. Would you need a CPU with 8+ threads or a system with a lot of memory)? Also, the main reason I am interested in this is because it seems like switching between virtualized operating systems would be easier than having to reboot every time. However, is it really any easier/quicker (for instance, could you use snapshots)?
Thanks to anyone who helps me answer these questions, I really appreciate it!
i have wondered about this as well. i have a server running on citrix xenserver BUT the motherboard will not work with GPUs so i havent been able to test anything. if i ever build a new server (i will eventually) i plan on at least trying it. whats the worst that happens, it doesnt work and i have GPUs for a small low power build for the tv or something. my goal wouldnt be to have windows in a vm on the local system but remotely as say a virtual desktop where i can play games over network.
Hmm... very interesting. I'll give this a try soon.
Edit: I just found out the 3570k doesn't support vt-d... I would have sworn it did. A bit disappointing, but this will be something I'll keep an eye out for in my next build.
Edit 2: Considering selling my 3570k and go to a Xeon 1220...
even if your CPU supports, you motherboard may not. both must support it for it to work. so dig around for info on your board to verify it works before making that move
This is very possible. This is seen in a VDI for multimedia environments. Wendell made the comment previously, but server 2008 R2 upwards (perfected in 2012 R2), can install remotefx and rdp into server and run gpu intensive applications and get pretty good performance.
+1, many Intel boards are limited either by Intel (through the chipset) or by the mobo OEM.
Another aspect of this is that ever more games are being ported to linux. It really pays off to check steam from time to time whether or not your games have been ported to linux. Most of the games in my steam account are ported to linux, with only a few exceptions. New games that come out, will most probably come out natively on linux. So you'll be able to run more games on linux without using Windows. You have to take into account that a Windows kvm or xen container with VGA or PCI passthrough is a solution that became popular some 4-5 years ago in the computer enthusiast community, back then there were absolutely no (not one!) commercial games with a linux port. Things look completely different now, a lot has changed in 2014, a lot more will change in 2015. The tables have turned, Windows will not really be necessary any more by the time Windows 10 comes out, because Valve doesn't want Microsoft to re-DRM the games like they did with Windows 8 at first, they want to keep Microsoft's greedy little hands out of their distribution business, and they're going to do everything they need to to make sure the future of gaming is linux-based. When AMD releases the next generation of proprietary KMS-drivers (not requiring binaries, leaving the kernel untainted and never having to deal with kernel incompatibilities), probably together with the 300 series GPU's or shortly there after, but definitely before summer and thus before Windows 10 comes out, everything will accelerate enormously in my opinion. AMD has open sourced the tools that allow developers to target all the extra functionality AMD GP-GPU's have, it costs them nothing and they don't have to make exclusive game deals or anything, it's going to change a lot.
your big writeup that was linked in the first comment is my "blueprint" for what i am gonna do once i get my radeon GPU back from the dreadful RMA process (no one likes it) hoping i can get a GTX 970 passed in to a windows VM XD motherboard has support for it (at least there was a bios setting for IOMMU) and cpu supports it to (fx8350) so crossing my fingers
Yeah, I know my motherboard supports it. I've seen the option in my BIOS (which is why I thought the 3570k had vt-d). I also just google'd it to triple check. Thanks for the heads up though.