After reading a lot of tutos on internet, 3 cup of teas and 2 days of intensive work, I finally managed to have a fully working gaming VM for my Linux system.

Everything began on friday when I got a stock Nvidia GT 630. I decided to install it on my first PCI port because I mainly play retro games on my linux. So I decided to install a Windows 10 VM with VGA Passthrough. I had to fully reinstall my main OS, Debian 8 Jessie but I did it!

http://imgur.com/a/aRGF9 -Sorry for the poor image quality-

This proves that Linux > Windows :D

Out of interest, why a virtual machine for linux on Win10? Why not just dual boot. I would have thought that native boot to linux would provide more power as it removes the VM layer.

So, wait, you're using VGA passthrough with a virtual screen? Interesting. I was planning on doing that with a separate monitor, but I may end up rethinking that now. Do you have instructions for what you did?

Also, that's not extreme, this is. Giving the VM a dedicated storage device (HDD/SSD) and GPU removes most of the performance loss, and using a VM removes the annoyance of having to reboot to Windows just to launch the few games that don't have native Linux binaries and don't work under Wine.

Maighstir said everything. You'll even be able to find some benchmarks that state a ~2% loss using a KVM instead of dual boot, it's not really important isn't it? source Just follow the Debian VGA Passthrough tuto on their wiki and install everything using virt-manager. It should automatically add a "spice server" and then you'll be able to hava a virtual screen under virt-manager. But I really suggest you that you use another screen or at least an hdmi switcher because spice & vnc can be really slow if you're not using proprietary drivers with your cards (I had an nividia + amd config so I installed the proprietary drivers from debain's repos but if you have AMD + AMD, you can't because you'll need open source drivers). Oh and before trying anything: don't try to passthrough an HD 7770 card. Never.

All right, so it's not really a virtual screen, but remote control. My old 20" 1600x1200 monitor is still in the plan then. Also, both my cards are AMD (Radeon 270X as main and Radeon 5750 for the VM).

Good luck for your config then ^^ Don't hesitate to ask me in pm if you got stuck somewhere

Ah, ok, so you have two separate Storage, and two graphics cards, one for each. Nice if you can afford it. Personally I find that shut down and start linux takes around a minute, although I do have separate SSD's for each.

Or, in my case, use an older GPU left from when the latest upgrade you made (I mean, the older card is just collecting dust otherwise, I might as well find some use for it since it still works). Dedicated storage isn't strictly necessary, but does add a bit of a boost and shouldn't be too expensive (and for us that builds our own computers, we likely have a couple older but working drives laying around with sufficient storage for the task - although I got an extra 256GB SSD specifically for that use whereas the main OS runs off an 128GB SSD with a larger HDD for storage).

Absolutely love the idea of passthrough. Sounds way way better than dual-boot.
Sadly not possible with bloody nvidia optimus.. Congrats and wish you a great time!
But why 10? ; p

I had no other iso available :/ But I'll reinstall it with Windows 7 asap ^^

Gimme screenshots!
And holy moses a nasa pc to play duke 3d? Intense ;P
ps: I like it! :D

That's pretty awesome, thanks for sharing.

I have similar hardware to Maighstir, so i'm interested to hear how that goes. I have a 270x and a spare 5850 from an upgrade.

Wow...that's cool :)

Slightly OT but which KDE theme is that? Looks pretty neat :)

whoa, that's pretty extreme, m8

you guys are going to eventually need this:

Desktop & Colors: Produkt
Apps Style: Plastic
And a custom icon that I took from internet for the app launcher
DUKE NUKEM FTW <3
I'm actually downloading a windows 7 iso because 10 is just almost unusable with kvm (and because 10 is a crap) and I'll post more screenshots and my full script (cause virt-manager sucks too). I may also make a simple gui in C++ to automatize everything if I have enough time....