Playing games on a virtual machine?
Playing games on a virtual machine?
I was curious about the challenges of playing steam/windows games on a Linux-based virtual machine. Perhaps some of you have experience and can suggest a setup or let me know if it won't work. I understand some games have been ported to Linux but don’t run smoothly. My thought is to run my PC on Linux and use a VM for certain titles. I’ve heard various recommendations and ideas—thank you!
Absolutely, achieving top results is definitely achievable. Using GPU passthrough can significantly boost performance. I remember trying it around 2019—it required some adjustments, but it should now be much simpler.
well.. a second GPU to passtrough to the VM is a requirement, and past that there's looking glass to solve the rest of your problems.
Wow, it looks intriguing—I had no idea such great things were on the horizon.
The optimal choice in my view is a USB stick. Option 1: Windows 10/11 on an SSD with Linux permanently installed on a USB drive. Option 2: Linux on the SSD with Windows 10/11 permanently installed on a USB drive. Both work well and since applications and games run in RAM, performance impact is minimal. There are also very fast USB drives available today. https://www.kingston.com/en/usb-flash-dr...aveler-max What I mean is that virtual machines are no longer essential for this purpose. Many users haven't realized it yet, but you can install an operating system permanently on a USB stick.
However, it implies you need to restart the PC each time you wish to switch to another OS from the USB, similar to having both operating systems installed on the same machine.
Technically it differs from installing both on the same computer using either SSD or HDD. With SSDs/HDDs you usually keep a MBR somewhere on one drive, which remains consistent and lets you switch between operating systems. In my setup, the MBR resides on the USB drive I used for installation. This approach is more stable because it reduces the risk of sudden boot failures after updating GRUB. I installed FreeBSD on an EVO 850 SSD with 500GB, paired it with another HDD for backups using rsync. I also have two USB 3 sticks—one with Void Linux and another with Devuan. Starting FreeBSD simply requires plugging in the right USB, and it launches automatically through BIOS. To switch back to Devuan or Void Linux, just connect the appropriate USB and it will boot automatically. For reference, on this older system with only USB 2.0 support, booting from a USB stick took about three seconds, while shutting it down was just two seconds. With USB 3 and better hardware, speeds drop to under ten seconds for booting and shutdowns in around three seconds. If your motherboard supports USB 3 and has more powerful components, you could achieve boot times under ten seconds—similar to launching a virtual machine in VirtualBox. USB drives also ensure full compatibility with printers, gamepads, media, and other peripherals, avoiding the issues often seen with virtual environments.