Gaming on linux on windows

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ODTech

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This is maybe suited more for the linux thread but i figured it's more relevant to gaming than linux.
I'm just writing this post because i'm so very chuffed after finding a solution to the gaming itch when my OS of choice is Linux and i don't want to keep two pc's and ontop of that steam streaming sucks donkey balls. I thought i'd share.

I stumbled on the following article which outlines passing through your physical GPU to a VM so that there are pretty much zero host OS overhead.

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Multiheaded-NVIDIA-Gaming-using-Ubuntu-14-04-KVM-585/

The above article didn't work for me as my hardware wasn't fully supported so i had to get my hands dirty to patch and compile a custom kernel as described in the following post. I followed the guide exactly, including running ubuntu 14.04 LTS as the kernel patches needed for my system only runs on a few kernel version.

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2262280

If you have fully supported hardware then no kernel hacking is needed and you can just roll with the latest distro. ASRock seems to be the board of choice as they are very linux friendly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuJYMCbIbPk
 
ODTech said:
Dual logging was never an option for me. I wanted access to both gaming and linux at the same time and this is the only answer.
Click to expand...

How long did it take you to figure this out and do all the changes before it all worked?
 
D1lb3rt said:
How long did it take you to figure this out and do all the changes before it all worked?
Click to expand...

3 or 4 days. It took so long because the answers needed if something in one of the guides doesn't work as expected wasn't easy to find. Also i tried several different setups.

I finalized everything yesterday, i have a pci-e sata controller, gtx 670 and a wless keyboard and mouse passed to the vm. I briefly tested dark souls 2 and it ran smooth as if i was playing it on the host.
 
I installed DOOM earlier and it is completely playable. It "freezes" once in a while for a second if a lot of enemies appear on screen at once but it did that when i was playing on a windows host too. It's a little bit worse now in the VM but i attribute it to not running the game from a SSD, something that will be fixed soon.

All other games i tested runs smooth.
 
ODTech said:
I installed DOOM earlier and it is completely playable. It "freezes" once in a while for a second if a lot of enemies appear on screen at once but it did that when i was playing on a windows host too. It's a little bit worse now in the VM but i attribute it to not running the game from a SSD, something that will be fixed soon.

All other games i tested runs smooth.
Click to expand...

Fine.png
 
Just some last comments in case there are some interest before i let the thread fade into obscurity.

After some upgrading i have the following hardware.
MSI Z97A Gaming 9 ACK (Not going to be overclocking. The board was cheap and i like the layout...
Intel i7-4790 (2 Cores and 2 Threads for host and same for guest)
8Gig DDR3 1600 RAM Split evenly between host and guest. (Still have to change/upgrade this)
Gigabyte GTX 670 2Gig OC for Linux Mint Host
2.5" 500Gig WD Hard Drive for Linux Mint host (Changing to SSD sometime soon)

Devices passed to guest directly or via controllers
MSI GTX980 Gaming 4Gig
Samsung Evo 850 256Gig SSD
3.5" 3tb WD Hard Drive for storage
Sunix SATA2600 PCI-e 2 port Raid controller
Sunix 2 port USB3.0 Controller
Killer onboard WiFi
Microsoft Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
Microsoft Xbox 360 gamepad
Windows 10 Home latest build and the latest NVIDIA drivers.

I wanted to post my passmark score but the program won't run on my system for some reason.
I get a respectable 30 to 60 fps in newer games depending on what's going on in the game.

Shadow Warrior 2 - 32 to 90+ when not fighting. My monitor can't go that high so it's probably capping at 60 in reality.
Mad Max - 30 to 59 fps.
Doom - 40ish the lowest it dipped was 27 after i got rid of the "freezing/stuttering" issue. This was right after windows 10 installation and i didn't notice right away that something was hammering the SSD and it was at around 90% in the performance monitor. Also the 4Gig RAM i have assigned to the VM doesn't meet the minimum. I derped and deleted the DOOM files shortly after by mistake so i havn't rechecked it. Still need to redownload the 60 odd gigs.

All in all it works really well and the performance i'm seeing is about the same as if i was playing on the host with Windows 10 and i'm loving it. I got the HDMI cable from the GTX going to the TV atm so i can do couch gaming with my pc without having to mess around with the host setup. If i want to play an rpg like Pillars of Eternity i just move the cable back to the desktop monitor.

If you go up to xeon processors with more cores you can build a multi seat lan box or share your gaming rig with your kid..

Edit: Bought a GTX 980 off carbonite and my benchmark game DOOM is running at a rock solid 60fps throughout.
Passmark Score: Around 4300
 
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