Are Gaming VMs Fast? KVM/VFIO Benchmarks vs Native Install
Channel: BlandManStudios
Date: 2021-05-03

Time Stamps:
0:00 Intro
0:54​ Hardware Setup
1:14​ Software Setup
2:22​ Benchmarks
2:43​ Benchmark Results
7:00​ My Proposal

Full Benchmarks Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQUC1DAUmtw
Latency Tests Video: https://youtu.be/Ol9O3Jow740

Today is KVM/VFIO/Gaming-in-a-virtual-machine benchmarks day

In this video I am using the benchmarks listed below to compare performance in a Native Windows 10 install to a GPU-enabled virtual machine running on a Linux host. 

If you're unfamiliar with any of those words:
KVM stands for Kernel-based Virtual Machine. It is a part of Linux that lets us run other operating systems as a virtual machine. 
A virtual machine is when you run another operating system as a program on your computer that already has an operating system. This can let you run multiple different operating systems at the same time. 
An operating system is a set of software that handles all the common tasks your programs depend on, like managing your computer's hardware. Popular operating systems include: Linux, Windows, and macOS
VFIO stands for Virtual Function Input Output. Is a part of Linux that allows virtual machines to communicate directly with hardware like sold state drives and graphics cards.
This is all awesome because it can let us play games (or other graphics intensive programs) that are available on almost any operating system without needing to reboot. It also allows us to add new operating systems without needing to modify our hardware settings (partition tables, etc)

Its hard to boil these definitions down so if it still doesn't make sense let me know in the comments and maybe I can make a video like "VFIO in simple terms"

Benchmarks in this video:
CrystalDiskMark: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CrystalDiskMark
3DMark TimeSpy: https://store.steampowered.com/app/496100/3DMark_Time_Spy_benchmark/
Unigine Valley: https://benchmark.unigine.com/valley
Unigine Heaven: https://benchmark.unigine.com/heaven
Unigine Superposition: https://benchmark.unigine.com/superposition

Thanks for watching/reading!

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