What is CPU virtualization, and should I turn it on?

[i360Fantasy]

[NunoLava1998]

It's for virtual machines.

[Lurick]

To put it simply it allows you to run virtual machines on your computer, if you don't run virtual machines or have a need for it then it makes no difference.

[Husky]

It is needed to run virtual machines or Windows Sandbox which can be extremely useful. Even if you don't use those, you should turn it on anyway because AFAIK there are certain security features in Windows 10 (such as Core Isolation / Virtualization-Based Security / Memory Integrity) that require virtualization to be enabled.

 

Also there is no harm or performance loss in enabling it. I am not sure why it is disabled by default on a lot of motherboards.

[nick name]

7 minutes ago, Husky said:

-snip-

 

Also there is no harm or performance loss in enabling it. I am not sure why it is disabled by default on a lot of motherboards.

On Ryzen 3000 I wouldn't be surprised if there were performance losses with virtualization enabled.  There are on the 2700X.  

[nick name]

Something like BlueStacks (an Android emulator) require virtualization also.  

[Husky]

1 minute ago, nick name said:

On Ryzen 3000 I wouldn't be surprised if there were performance losses with virtualization enabled.  There are on the 2700X.  

Interesting...  Source? I am interested. I have tested on an i7 6700K and a Ryzen 5 2600 and the performance in Cinebench was almost identical with virtualization on/off.

[nick name]

1 minute ago, Husky said:

Interesting...  Source? I am interested. I have tested on an i7 6700K and a Ryzen 5 2600 and the performance in Cinebench was almost identical with virtualization on/off.

Just my own observations on my own rig.  But it could have also been how virtualization reacted with the ASUS Performance Enhancer feature and perhaps has been remedied.  Want me to run some tests for you? 

[i360Fantasy]

14 minutes ago, Husky said:

It is needed to run virtual machines or Windows Sandbox which can be extremely useful. Even if you don't use those, you should turn it on anyway because AFAIK there are certain security features in Windows 10 (such as Core Isolation / Virtualization-Based Security / Memory Integrity) that require virtualization to be enabled.

 

Also there is no harm or performance loss in enabling it. I am not sure why it is disabled by default on a lot of motherboards.

I saw someone said that there could be performance losses, is that true? if not shall I just enable it.

[Husky]

8 minutes ago, nick name said:

Just my own observations on my own rig.  But it could have also been how virtualization reacted with the ASUS Performance Enhancer feature and perhaps has been remedied.  Want me to run some tests for you? 

No need to run tests for me lol, just curious. You could be right about that ASUS Enhancement thing, because on both my tests the CPUs were OC'ed and locked to a specific frequency and voltage.

[Husky]

7 minutes ago, i360Fantasy said:

I saw someone said that there could be performance losses, is that true? if not shall I just enable it.

If you are worried about performance losses, do 3 Cinebench runs or something, then turn it on and run 3 tests again, then compare the results to check if there are any major performance losses. If not - then I would leave it on.

[nick name]

4 minutes ago, Husky said:

No need to run tests for me lol, just curious. You could be right about that ASUS Enhancement thing, because on both my tests the CPUs were OC'ed and locked to a specific frequency and voltage.

Yeah, the change in behavior I noticed (which led to loss in performance) was in voltages.  

[nick name]

18 minutes ago, Husky said:

No need to run tests for me lol, just curious. You could be right about that ASUS Enhancement thing, because on both my tests the CPUs were OC'ed and locked to a specific frequency and voltage.

It seems to work now.  No weird change in behavior with voltages and all clocks behaving as expected.  So it seems to have been all sorted out on the 2700X and the ASUS CH7 using Performance Enhancers.  

 

Though it did seem to cause a weird memory training failure on the first boot attempt after turning it on.  So I might have to test my RAM overclock with it on.  

[Mister Woof]

Iirc most people disable it for overclocking

[nick name]

27 minutes ago, nick name said:

It seems to work now.  No weird change in behavior with voltages and all clocks behaving as expected.  So it seems to have been all sorted out on the 2700X and the ASUS CH7 using Performance Enhancers.  

 

Though it did seem to cause a weird memory training failure on the first boot attempt after turning it on.  So I might have to test my RAM overclock with it on.  

I lied.  It reduces BCLK for whatever reason.