Hyper-V in Windows 8.1. Performance Dip?

[TheMarius97]

So I've discovered the option of using Hyper-V on Windows 8.1.

As I'm doing an IT-apprentice I've used Hyper-V before to build a small virtual business.

 

Now my question is: Will there be any performance hit to the host operating system (leaving aside the resources that the VMs use of course)?

 

Thanks for answers.

-Marius

 

[Ingram]

Short answer is yes: since Hyper-V is a hypervisor, it is at very core of the whole operating system which is an extra layer between you and the hardware (although, hypervisor is VERY close to hardware). This means that the system you are referring to as "host" is actually also a guest which is nearly equal to the other guest operating systems you are running alongside with that system. The architecture illustration might explain it better than I can.

 

However, Microsoft has made the process of enabling Hyper-V quite seamless and unless you know where to look, most of the times you really can't tell that there is a hypervisor running (which is the point). So depending on your usage - you might not even notice the difference. I don't have any numbers to back this up so feel free to conduct your own tests.

 

General advice: If you like and use Hyper-V, keep it enabled. However, if you aren't using it at all or are experiencing problems, better turn it off. Also when diagnosing hardware issues, I'd suggest turning it off, because programs such as CPU-Z and Aida64 are known to display invalid output on some values when hypervisor is turned on.

[TheMarius97]

General advice: If you like and use Hyper-V, keep it enabled. However, if you aren't using it at all or are experiencing problems, better turn it off. Also when diagnosing hardware issues, I'd suggest turning it off,

I don't have it running right now, but I'd like to experiment with it. But I could just turn it off and the system would return to normal?

[GoodBytes]

I don't have it running right now, but I'd like to experiment with it. But I could just turn it off and the system would return to normal?

As long as you don't start a VM in Hyper-V you will not, or should not, face with any performance degradation.