Optimized setup for gaming on Windows Server 2022
Optimized setup for gaming on Windows Server 2022
Hello, I hope this message finds you well. I’m a non-native English speaker and apologize for any mistakes. I’m planning to run a couple of virtual machines with GPU passthrough for games that work inside those VMs. I’m curious whether using the host during LAN parties will still allow smooth gaming performance. The hardware seems fine on Windows 10 Pro, but it doesn’t support GPU passthrough, which could affect the VMs running games. Thank you for your assistance ahead of time.
Great to hear! Core issues shouldn't be an issue with your setup. You're running a Ryzen Threadripper, which is solid.
Many games actively prevent VMs by blocking VMs, which is why most multiplayer players do it too. You'll need significant CPU and GPU power unless the games are very basic. Windows Server seems to be the least suitable platform for this task. Alternatives like Unraid, Proxmox, or random Linux distributions work better.
Server 2022 should act as the main host, while Windows 10 Pro runs on each virtual machine. You can still play games on Unraid even if the host occasionally performs certain tasks, as long as it’s not required constantly.
The system is designed for minimal weight to maximize VM performance. Could you share your specifications?
The latency will depend on how the connection is set up. Plugging in a monitor may introduce additional delays due to the display's processing and network path, potentially affecting performance.
This setup is going to be a challenge with a first-gen Threadripper. They performed quite poorly overall. You're thinking about running three VMs? Because of the card count, it's mainly limited to 8 cores—no hyper-threading. The latency is almost negligible.
It sounds like you're planning to use three virtual machines, running the games on them shouldn't be too complicated. You mentioned it could run without a GPU, though that would likely drop performance to around 5 FPS or less, which isn’t ideal for setup. It’s great that you’re considering lighter requirements—some systems only need basic specs. As for compatibility, you’ll want to check if anti-cheat software like Valorant supports running in a VM environment. On Unraid, you can temporarily disable VMs and anti-cheat will ignore them, which should work well.