ESXi vs Proxmox (Speed)

wav3front

Member
Aug 31, 2024
38
2
8
Hi,

I recently migrated from ESXi (free) to Proxmox.

Before the migration, I run geekbench and crystalmark benchmarks.

On the same server (AMD 7313) and the exact same CPU configuration, the VM on ESXi reported a single-core score of 1745 and multi-core score of 9239.
The same exact vm on Proxmox reported single-core 1506 and multi-core 7766. Quite a large difference.

CPU type is "host". I have not made any other configuration changes.

This is expected? is proxmox generally slower than esxi?

Thank you
Alex
 
Proxmox, because it is based on Linux, has mitigations against Spectre vulnerabilities. I think ESXi did not. Lots of conflicting opinions on the internet about whether the performance decrease is worth the security fixes (lots of benchmarks on the internet also). Maybe try without the mitigations and test for yourself? Or just accept that modern hardware has issues that need to be fixed in software.
 
We have deployed newly installed VDI's with Nvidia vGPU and the overall performance is better.
Old: ESXi 7.0 with vSAN as underlying storage (Windows 10 ENT)
New: Promox 8.2 with CEPH as underlying storage (Windows 11 ENT)

Also migrated machines perform better in regards of latency and write speeds.
Migration of Windows machines is sometimes a little bit of struggle. (controller type / UEFI / TPM etc.)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Darkk and wav3front
This is the VM that was migrated from ESXI that performs slower.

1725309618225.png
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot 2024-09-02 at 23.45.26.png
    Screenshot 2024-09-02 at 23.45.26.png
    110.2 KB · Views: 6
And this is the VM I created from scratch on Proxmox, that performs better.


1725310413058.png
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot 2024-09-02 at 23.53.56.png
    Screenshot 2024-09-02 at 23.53.56.png
    109.5 KB · Views: 4
storage will be on dedicated qemu threads instead same qemu main thread.
+ switch vdisk virtio to scsi with io thread allowed by SCSI Single controller.

edit extra tip : switch to virtio scsi driver version v0.1.208 from 2021 because there is an issue after, hangs during high IO like 4k multi threads like Benchmarks.
 
Last edited:
And you can try to change machinetype from i440 to q35.
 
storage will be on dedicated qemu threads instead same qemu main thread.
+ switch vdisk virtio to scsi with io thread allowed by SCSI Single controller.
switch to virtio scsi driver version v0.1.208 from 2021 because there is an issue after, hangs during high IO like 4k multi threads like Benchmarks.
Found everything except this.

How do I use scsi driver 0.1.208?
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: wav3front
Do you have any source on this? Is this related to VirtIO block or VirtIO SCSI / single driver?
Haven't experienced any issues with newer versions than that, thanks!

@wav3front , all VirtIO versions are available here:

https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/archive-virtio/
Mainly VirtIO SCSI
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/r...device-system-unresponsive.139160/post-691337

It's unrelated to OP , just say as extra tip because advice VirtIO SCSI Single which allow qemu process per disk, afaik.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: VictorSTS

About

The Proxmox community has been around for many years and offers help and support for Proxmox VE, Proxmox Backup Server, and Proxmox Mail Gateway.
We think our community is one of the best thanks to people like you!

Get your subscription!

The Proxmox team works very hard to make sure you are running the best software and getting stable updates and security enhancements, as well as quick enterprise support. Tens of thousands of happy customers have a Proxmox subscription. Get yours easily in our online shop.

Buy now!