Optimize computer for gaming and developpment

[Luciéd]

Hallo, I were introduced to proxmox by a friend and I like it alot but I am kinda of noob.

I am a software developper that likes AI and games and to create things and I also like gaming so my goals come from that.

I like that I can make my computer into several VMs and CT so I can develop websites for fun and let them run without using too much power on my machine while I am at work or sleeping or host a game server.


My current setup is that I run proxmox on one SSD, my VMs on another and storage on the third, my thought here is that proxmox needs its own read/write cycle, so does my VM in a amptempt to make it faster.

The problems and thoughts I face now is:
1. I am using Samba on a CT to share some files between my VMs and other computers on the network, how does proxmox works when its uses samba locally? Am I using up alot resources from my network card that prevent me to game with lover latency for example?

2. My windows VM knows its a VM, how do I fix this? Everything is pass through, can't now game for example New World.
I wish to make my Windows VM unnaware that it is a VM.

3. My guess but I am not sure that windows store app data locally, is it possible to store games on the samba server and game the same games on several VMs to save space. My goal/wish is to only install the same game once.

4. I want to connect to my computer remotely and game on it from example my summer cottage, is SPICE good for this or should I use something else when I am not in the same LAN or is it enough to make my client to the same LAN?

5. I accidently upgraded to Windows 11 and hardware like mouse and headset working worse and starting time alot longer. I think I will just make a Windows11 from scratch instead in a VM and remove the VM that got upgraded.

 

[Dunuin]

My current setup is that I run proxmox on one SSD, my VMs on another and storage on the third, my thought here is that proxmox needs its own read/write cycle, so does my VM in a amptempt to make it faster.

Proxmox isn't writing that much. So from a performance perspective this isn't really beneficial.

2. My windows VM knows its a VM, how do I fix this? Everything is pass through, can't now game for example New World.
I wish to make my Windows VM unnaware that it is a VM.

That will always be a fight against the anticheat tools. see for example here: https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/i-need-help-pls.131912/
But as far as I undestand it, hiding virtualization usually means more emulation and less paravirtualization and therefore worse performance.

3. My guess but I am not sure that windows store app data locally, is it possible to store games on the samba server and game the same games on several VMs to save space. My goal/wish is to only install the same game once.

Not sure how well that will work. Especially with new titles that expect you to have a fast NVMe SSD so textures won't pop in. Using SMB could heavily increase latencies because of the additional overhead and network stack. ZFS with deduplication could help, but your machine doesn't sound like it would be great for ZFS.

4. I want to connect to my computer remotely and game on it from example my summer cottage, is SPICE good for this or should I use something else when I am not in the same LAN or is it enough to make my client to the same LAN?

I got best results with parsec especially for gaming or media consumption (low latency and not that much artifacts).

 

[Luciéd]

Proxmox isn't writing that much. So from a performance perspective this isn't really beneficial.

But it is reading or does it stop most after boot? I am not sure how hardware work just imagine it like threads in code being handled by CPU cores.

That will always be a fight against the anticheat tools. see for example here: https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/i-need-help-pls.131912/
But as far as I undestand it, hiding virtualization usually means more emulation and less paravirtualization and therefore worse performance.

Yes for some game like PUBG that installs anticheat software I can accept but it felt like New World made the same conclusion very fast like they saw my bios that VM was enabled.

Not sure how well that will work. Especially with new titles that expect you to have a fast NVMe SSD so textures won't pop in. Using SMB could heavily increase latencies because of the additional overhead and network stack. ZFS with deduplication could help, but your machine doesn't sound like it would be great for ZFS.

I got a Rydén 9 5950X which I think is a good cpu but maybe its ZFS uses other resources? Is it possible to mount the same partition to different Windows VM instead?

I got best results with parsec especially for gaming or media consumption (low latency and not that much artifacts).

Thanks I will look into that, parsec is that something you setup in both proxmox and clientside? SPICE from what I could see already was integrated into proxmox, is it the same for Parsec? (Wonder how complex it is to setup)

Thank you alot for your quick response!!

 

[Dunuin]

But it is reading or does it stop most after boot? I am not sure how hardware work just imagine it like threads in code being handled by CPU cores.

A crappy old HDD would be fine for the PVE system disk. If a HDD can easily handle it, it shouldn`t be demanding for a modern (non-QLC cached) SSD.

I got a Rydén 9 5950X which I think is a good cpu but maybe its ZFS uses other resources?

Durable Enterprise SSD with power-loss protection (preferable mirrored or with parity data), lots of (preferable ECC) RAM, no HW raid, some CPU power. Also make sure to upgrade the firmware of your 980 Pro or it might die within a few months.

Is it possible to mount the same partition to different Windows VM instead?

No, this will corrupt the data on it. You could google for "9p" or "virtfs". No idea how bad the overhead is and it doesn't look like the most stable solution yet...

hanks I will look into that, parsec is that something you setup in both proxmox and clientside?

Yes: https://parsec.app/

SPICE from what I could see already was integrated into proxmox, is it the same for Parsec? (Wonder how complex it is to setup)

No, you need to run the parsec server from within the guestOS. Benefit is that it can use the NVENC encoder of a passthroughed Nvidia GPU for hardware accelerated H254/H265 encoding. So great video quality while being fast and with less stress for the CPU as the video doesn't need to be encoded in software by the CPU.