Can a Proxmox VM Feel Like Bare Metal? Dual 144Hz + GPU Passthrough + Low Latency

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procyonjs

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Aug 24, 2026
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Hi everyone,

I'm planning to build a new PC and use Proxmox as the host OS, with a Linux VM as my main daily desktop.

I haven't purchased the hardware yet, so I still have some flexibility with the build. However, I'm pretty much set on using an Intel Core i5-14600K as the CPU. I haven't decided on the GPU yet, and I'm specifically looking for something that works reliably with Linux and GPU passthrough. NVIDIA is an option, but I'm open to other recommendations if AMD or a particular GPU would make more sense for this setup.

My planned setup is roughly:

  • CPU: Intel Core i5-14600K
  • GPU: Not purchased yet / looking for recommendations
  • RAM: 32 GB DDR5
  • Host: Proxmox VE
  • Main desktop: Linux VM (Ubuntu, Pop!_OS, or similar)
  • Monitors: 2 × 144 Hz
  • Keyboard & mouse: Bluetooth
  • GPU passthrough is absolutely an option
I'm not really interested in gaming. My main use case is software development and normal desktop usage. However, latency is extremely important to me.

What I want is for the VM to feel basically indistinguishable from running Linux directly on bare metal. I don't want to feel additional mouse/input latency, sluggish window movement, reduced refresh rate, or any noticeable delay caused by virtualization.

Ideally, I want both monitors running at their full 144 Hz refresh rate with the same responsiveness I would get from a normal desktop installation.

My current idea is to passthrough a dedicated GPU to the Linux VM and connect both monitors directly to the DisplayPort/HDMI outputs of that GPU, rather than using SPICE, RDP, VNC, or another remote-display solution.

As far as I understand, in this configuration Proxmox isn't actually streaming the desktop—the VM controls the physical GPU and the monitors receive the signal directly from it. Would this allow the VM to provide an effectively bare-metal experience, including 144 Hz on both monitors and very low input latency?

I'm also wondering about the best way to handle the keyboard and mouse. Would passing through an entire USB/Bluetooth controller to the VM be preferable to passing through individual devices if minimizing input latency is the priority?

My main requirement is simple: when I'm sitting in front of the computer and using the Linux VM, I want it to feel like I'm using a normal physical desktop. If virtualization introduces noticeable input/display latency, even if performance benchmarks are otherwise good, that would be a deal-breaker for me.

For anyone running a similar Proxmox workstation setup:

  • Can a GPU-passthrough VM realistically feel indistinguishable from bare metal?
  • Can I reliably run two 144 Hz monitors this way?
  • Is there any noticeable mouse/keyboard latency?
  • Are there any particular GPUs you would recommend for Linux + Proxmox passthrough?
  • Is the i5-14600K a good choice for this kind of setup?
  • Are there any specific motherboard/IOMMU considerations I should keep in mind before buying the remaining hardware?
I'd especially appreciate experiences from people who actually use a passthrough VM as their main daily desktop, rather than only for occasional gaming or remote access.
 
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procyonjs said:
What I want is for the VM to feel basically indistinguishable from running Linux directly on bare metal. I don't want to feel additional mouse/input latency, sluggish window movement, reduced refresh rate, or any noticeable delay caused by virtualization.
Click to expand...
crazy idea- given your use case, why not start with a normal Windows/Linux desktop and run the rest of the vms in qemu? PVE isnt even desirable in your use case...
 
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procyonjs said:
I'm planning to build a new PC and use Proxmox as the host OS, with a Linux VM as my main daily desktop.
Click to expand...
Why? ProxmoxVE is not designed around this usecase. A workstation setup like the one linked by UdoB is mainly for people who want to contribute to ProxmoxVE development. If this isn't your usecase using your favorite distribution as daily driver together with virt-manager or VirtualBox for virtualization is for most usecases the more sensible setup.
 
Johannes S said:
Why? ProxmoxVE is not designed around this usecase. A workstation setup like the one linked by UdoB is mainly for people who want to contribute to ProxmoxVE development. If this isn't your usecase using your favorite distribution as daily driver together with virt-manager or VirtualBox for virtualization is for most usecases the more sensible setup.
Click to expand...

alexskysilk said:
crazy idea- given your use case, why not start with a normal Windows/Linux desktop and run the rest of the vms in qemu? PVE isnt even desirable in your use case...
Click to expand...

UdoB said:
Yes, it can work. But it increases complexity. Drastically, from my point of view.

Perhaps the "Dev workstation"-concept may be interesting for you?
Click to expand...
The main reason I want to use Proxmox isn't just to run a few VMs. I want to use the same machine as both my daily workstation and an independent homelab/server.

If I use Ubuntu as the host and run everything through KVM/QEMU, my daily desktop also becomes the foundation for all my services. If I break something while changing the kernel, GPU drivers, networking, etc., I could lose access to all of my VMs and self-hosted services.

With Proxmox, I can keep them separated:

Proxmox
├── Linux Desktop VM
├── Server VM/LXC (self-hosted apps)
├── Home Assistant
└── Other VMs/LXCs

So even if I completely break or reinstall my desktop VM, the other services keep running and I can still manage everything through Proxmox from another device.

I understand that the Proxmox host itself is still a single point of failure, but the idea is to keep the host minimal and stable and do all my daily work/experimentation inside the desktop VM.

That's why I'm considering the extra complexity of Proxmox + GPU passthrough, provided I can still get a near bare-metal desktop experience.
 
procyonjs said:
That's why I'm considering the extra complexity of Proxmox + GPU passthrough, provided I can still get a near bare-metal desktop experience.
Click to expand...
The point- you dont NEED pve to achieve your desired functionality, and USING pve for it involves uncomfortable compromises with user experience. But you do you :)

If it were me, and you havent yet purchased anything- I'd buy two machines- one for the workstation and one for pve. the pve machine can be a 10 year old 1L box from ebay. works fine for the purpose. it also allows you to sleep/turn off the hungry workstation and retain services.
 
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I run a (Linux) gaming VM with a (AMD) GPU (and USB) passthrough and it works great. As long as I give it a between a quarter to half the resources of the host (and don't stress the host with other things while gaming), I don't notice any latency issues. Most games don't benefit from more than 4-10 cores and 24-48GiB and PCI(e) passthrough (with ReBAR) is native speed anyway.
The storage layer is simply mirrored SSDs and gives good read IOPS and allows backups to PBS while gaming. I don't go through the trouble of passing drives as NVMe or hiding the fact that it is a VM, as I don't play competitive multiplayer games. In short: yes, it easily be done in the host hardware is big enough to prevent CPU/RAM/storage latency issues and you don't give too much to any single VM.

EDIT: I agree with everybody here that this is not what PVE was intended for and it's a waste of resources (to achieve good latency) to use it a a desktop (only). Personally, I came for PVE and will stay forever because of PBS. I run all my browsers in separate Linux VMs (a bit like QubesOS) and with SPICE video/audio is perfect without only 4 virtual CPUs and no GPU.
 
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procyonjs said:
The main reason I want to use Proxmox isn't just to run a few VMs. I want to use the same machine as both my daily workstation and an independent homelab/server.

If I use Ubuntu as the host and run everything through KVM/QEMU, my daily desktop also becomes the foundation for all my services. If I break something while changing the kernel, GPU drivers, networking, etc., I could lose access to all of my VMs and self-hosted services.

With Proxmox, I can keep them separated:

Proxmox
├── Linux Desktop VM
├── Server VM/LXC (self-hosted apps)
├── Home Assistant
└── Other VMs/LXCs

So even if I completely break or reinstall my desktop VM, the other services keep running and I can still manage everything through Proxmox from another device.

I understand that the Proxmox host itself is still a single point of failure, but the idea is to keep the host minimal and stable and do all my daily work/experimentation inside the desktop VM.
Click to expand...

Most distributions have nowadays btrfs together with something like snapper or timeshift integrated for this. With this you have snapshots of your system state and can always revert to an earlier point in time. I also wouldn't feel comfortable having all my services/Home assistant etc on the same device as my workstation. What if my workstation gets broken and now all my tax documents or family pictures are lost too?
And a virtualized desktop will always have some loss in performance compared to bare metal, no ways around it (nobody beats physics).
And since ProxmoxVE isn't really designed for running as a workstation os getting stuff like wifi, power management or DHCP can get complicated. Desktop distributions usually work out of the box.
If you want to do this non the less https://www.qubes-os.org/ might be of interest for you, I don't know about it's performance though. Please note, that it's NOT a Linux distribution but a XEN-based environment .
 
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I have a "headless" Debian LXC running with xrdp on a Ryzen 9 mini-pc (( AMD/ATI Rembrandt Radeon 680M builtin graphics )) that is responsive enough to play 8x animated GIFs / mp4 movies at once, even without /dev/dri passthru.

I connect to it over 2.5Gbit ethernet from a Mac with Jump Desktop, and have seen it do up to 12-16x animated at once with good interactive response if sized slightly smaller.

Honestly though, you would arguably have a more stable environment if you had a client/server arrangement. Put the proxmox server separate and connect to it (from another desktop or laptop) with remote-desktop tools such as Nomachine NX, RDP, even Sunshine/Moonlight.

As they say, " Horses for courses " - proxmox is good at being a server/hypervisor running 24/7. Desktop distros are (usually) good at what they put on the tin, so to speak - and you'll have more flexibility with desktop environment there.

Regardless of what you put in place, put everything on UPS and stand up Proxmox Backup Server + regular backup schedule.
 
Johannes S said:
If you want to do this non the less https://www.qubes-os.org/ might be of interest for you, I don't know about it's performance though.
Click to expand...
The performance is fine. For a workstation that is, not for a gaming machine. And - of course - it depends on the actual hardware.

The Mini-PC I am using in this very moment has a Ryzen 7 and 32 GiB Ram and I use two 4k displays with the integrated Graphic. This is my daily driver now, @home. Each active Xen-Domain consumes 2 to 6 GiB of Ram, so 32 GiB is the minimum for a vivid experience.

Qubes-OS is about security. I do highly recommend it for everybody who has anything to administrate and/or wishes to have a better isolation between tasks than just a separate browser-session. For me @home this absolutely starts with personal emails and private homebanking in a browser.
 
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