Adjust settings in your virtual machine to achieve a 120Hz refresh rate.
Adjust settings in your virtual machine to achieve a 120Hz refresh rate.
You can set up a virtual machine with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 144Hz display by adjusting your graphics settings in Windows. Make sure your graphics driver supports higher refresh rates and configure the display scaling to match your monitor’s capabilities.
You'll choose the client that matches your screen setup on Windows.
The VM interface goes through your system to the monitor. The monitor maintains its usual refresh rate, while the VM console isn't updating quickly enough. This happens because most users don’t require fast refresh rates for VM output, so performance is prioritized with lower frame rates. Since this depends on the client software, the best approach might be using a thin client or zero client device, connecting it to a monitor and linking to the VM—though even then, refresh rates typically stay under 60 FPS. Without advanced clients like VMware Horizon, you’d likely rely on RDP, which could introduce its own limitations.
With several GPUs available, there might be an option for distinct outputs. It's been a while since I checked VMware Workstation, but I recall they support GPU sharing. I'm not certain about their current setup for Workstation.
I believe it hinges on whether you can route the GPU straight into the VM. I've heard that the RTX 3000 line supports SR-IOV, which might allow this. But what you actually see would still come through the VM's console, since you can't send a separate display from another physical GPU directly—only assign it to use its processing power.
The idea centers around using a gaming VM similar to what Sog employs.
I understand this discussion is an older one, but I made this attempt. Generally, achieving good results requires a lot of effort, as mentioned before—if you're aiming for Linux or two Windows setups, one dedicated to gaming and the other for everyday tasks, dual booting is the best approach. My system has an Intel i5 8400 and a GTX 1070, so if you have an AMD graphics card, things might change. Nvidia discourages using consumer GPUs in virtualization environments. The most I could manage was setting up a hypervisor or using a Linux distribution like Debian, but Proxmox offers extensive guides. I had to install drivers such as VFIO and VFIO-PCI, adjust GRUB settings for IOMMU, and handle other configurations.
If your GPU is integrated, it could be useful for debugging since the GPU would be unavailable on your host OS. While possible, it adds significant complexity. There was some CPU slowdown and you couldn’t use all system RAM—though that’s manageable with 32GB and using 24GB for the VM (even that was a bit excessive). GPU performance was solid when passing through the hypervisor directly to Windows, almost matching native setup.
The main issue was occasional freezes, especially on YouTube, where it would freeze but keep audio. They’d stop briefly before resuming. In games, it also caused some freezing, though less often. The worst case was high refresh rates—Nvidia would cap at 60 FPS due to the VM detection, which was frustrating. I tried to bypass this by using a Linux VM, which worked well.
If you’re interested in a Linux VM, it’s performing nicely. I’m running Debian as the host OS and Fedora inside a VM. My GPU functioned without problems, supporting monitors at 1440Hz (180Hz) and 1080p (60Hz). I haven’t explored VRR yet, since I mainly play games on Windows.
For deeper help, check Proxmox documentation or look at videos by Jeff from Craft Computing.