VM Software Suggestions

[FireStormChiMerA]

hi guys, i need your help.. what is the best VM software (free or paid) in terms of performance relative to a physical machine. i have tried VM VIRTUALBOX but graphics performance is not good, even dragging windows around will show tearing. its like a graphics driver is not installed or the physical gpu is not utilized.. is there a need to install a driver for the physical gpu inside the virtual machine? i just want to try out virtualization coz i have seen LTT's video on it..

 

im on windows 7 64 by the way

[Sp1r1tus]

Hey @FireStormChiMerA

 

Graphics performance will always be an issue on virtual machines unless you have a true hypervisor (like VMware ESXi, Hyper-V, or Unraid) and can do graphics card pass-through to the virtual machine.

 

Most of the time the manufacturer of the software (VMware, Paralells, or VirtualBox) will just have an option where you can use some more RAM for a software-based graphics card.  I'm running Parallel's Pro on my Mac and virtualizing Windows 10 Pro.  I've given it 512 MB of Graphics Memory but the performance still isn't the greatest.  At the end of the day, my display adapter in Windows 10 says "Parallel's Graphics Adapter" and just shows how much memory I have given it.

 

The latest version of VMware Workstation Pro can do hardware passthrough it looks like with some tweaking but you are still sharing it with your main operating system.

 

Is there a particular use you are needing graphics performance for in a virtual machine?

 

Best of luck, hope this helped a little!

 

 

[FireStormChiMerA]

thanks for the reply mate.. i will look into these softwares.

 

nothing in particular.. just want to try different OS, play around.. hehe.. currently have vmware workstation installed with windows 10 and windows 8 embedded, much better than virtual box, and faster graphics with 2gb max allocation..

[dalekphalm]

On 1/18/2019 at 10:29 AM, FireStormChiMerA said:

thanks for the reply mate.. i will look into these softwares.

 

nothing in particular.. just want to try different OS, play around.. hehe.. currently have vmware workstation installed with windows 10 and windows 8 embedded, much better than virtual box, and faster graphics with 2gb max allocation..

Here's my suggestion:

 

1. Install a second GPU

2. Use PCIe Passthrough to hand off the 2nd GPU in entirety to the VM

 

VMWare Workstation Pro should handle this.

 

This way, your host OS (Windows 7) won't have any GPU resources taken away from it (Since it's not sharing the GPU anymore), and your VM gets full access to the 2nd GPU.

 

At that point, the only question is which GPU for the VM's? If you just want something basic, grab an HD 5450 or GTX 1030, etc.

[ServerHand]

While my use case is specialized (as a provider) I think you can take some of it and use it for your use case.

 

1) CentOS 7 as node

2) Virtualizor https://virtualizor.com/

3) Hardware (Either server at home, co-located, dedicated server.. I do not recommend running this on top of another virtualized platform.)

4) This is KVM-based setup. 

5) You can find installation docs here: http://www.virtualizor.com/docs/install/install-kvm/

 

Keep in mind, it might be a few bucks extra for the Virtualizor license.  I think $9/month for one server.

 

Another control panel I have tested is Virtpanel.  That one runs on Debian and pretty much configures everything, including network. 

https://site.virtpanel.com/

 

That one is a bit more expensive but gives you a separate hosted virtualization control panel that you don't have to host yourself.

 

Hopefully you like this use case.. it's not for everyone.  If you have a few extra bucks to spare for the virtualizor license, definitely worth it.  Even more worth it if you can get the virtpanel license.

 

Or you can just go ham, install CentOS / Debian yourself and run KVM 100% command line!

[Electronics Wizardy]

On 1/20/2019 at 8:13 AM, dalekphalm said:

VMWare Workstation Pro should handle this.

They allow gpu passthough on windows with vmware workstation now?

[ServerHand]

In case you're wondering, you can run Windows on KVM. 

 

You can also do GPU passthrough.

 

Link: https://blog.zerosector.io/2018/07/28/kvm-qemu-windows-10-gpu-passthrough/

[dalekphalm]

12 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

They allow gpu passthough on windows with vmware workstation now?

I may be mistaken about that - but I read that some people had gotten it working.

 

Seems like the OP may need a bare metal hypervisor instead then?