Gaming on VMs?

[ghostpatch]

I want to switch to Linux on my main computer for year now. The only thing keeping me from doing that is gaming. So my question is, does anyone know, what I could expect from a light linux system that runs win7 through VirtualBox for gaming? I use several VMs but I never tried gaming. I'm sure you loose a lot of performance. Its probably enough for adventures, jump'n run and such. However I play a lot of shooters too : |


My computers specs are:


# i5 2500K – 2.3GHz, 4cores


# XFX Radeon HD 7770 Dual Fan Black Edition 1024MB


# 8GB DDR3-RAM

 

[Wally]

Why not run Linux in a VM? Problem solved.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Forget 3d games.


Other games will work fine.


Also, use Qemu-kvm, it's the best virtualization solution. By far.

 

[Agrajag]

Might be better to dual boot than run either OS in a VM.

 

[ghostpatch]

annoying! I might not want to close everything and shut down my linux, to boot up win7 and play a little while... just to do eveything again the opposite way

Why not run Linux in a VM? Problem solved.

I already do that but its annoying to manage external storadges and stuff with VirtualBox.


good idea Linux-SWAT, I'll try Qemu

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Qemu-kvm, not Qemu.


Kvm uses the virtualization instructions of your processor.


To check them:


cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep flags


Look for vmx on intel or svm on amd.

 

[ghostpatch]

oh! thanks

 

[monstercameron]

wine?

 

[PokeParadox]

Wine and VirtualBox with 3D Acceleration installed should do reasonably well...

 

[Wally]

annoying! I might not want to close everything and shut down my linux, to boot up win7 and play a little while... just to do eveything again the opposite way

Why not run Linux in a VM? Problem solved.

I already do that but its annoying to manage external storadges and stuff with VirtualBox.


good idea Linux-SWAT, I'll try Qemu

Use something like VMware then and share certain folders with it. Works quite well

 

[notaz]

I want to switch to Linux on my main computer for year now. The only thing keeping me from doing that is gaming.

What games do you want to play? I do all my gaming over wine, it has improved a good deal in recent years.

 

[ghostpatch]

mostly heavyly stylized shooter like Bioshock, Metro2033, Hard Reset, Dishonored, or Borderlands. For anything else I have my PS3 or Pandora. Guess I could just buy these games for the PS3 but I dislike playing them with a controller.


What games do you play over wine?

 

[TrashyMG]

Some research on Wine..


Bioshock - looks like it may work well


Metro2033 - May be good as well.


Hard Reset - Looks like it runs, may be some movement issues.. but only feed back on older versions of wine.


Dishonored - Problems with video sequences, but reporting it playable.


Borderlands - reports the steam release as playable, also the DVD release too.


Borderlands 2 - Reported as playable as well on steam..





Looks like with tweaking most of these can be played..

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Yup, last time i tried Starcraft under wine, it was almost perfect.

 

[skeezix]

wine runs SC2 perfectly; Deus Ex:HR, Portal 2, Skyrim, Civ V.. a lot of things work great out of the box; a lot of things don't, as well


I reboot to Windows for a game here or there, but it makes me sour .. I prefer to stay in my real OS, and I tend to.. I can go months without switching .. the .net (mostly C#) stuff can trip it up severely, but non-.net works pretty well.ie: Terraria is DOA.


Next to try.. Fallen Enchantress


jeff

 

[WizardStan]

I have a lot of problems with .NET stuff. I worked some kind of magic combination on my last install, but I built a new PC and reinstalled and now I'm not sure what I had done before.


edit: I mean explicitly .NET stuff through Wine via Steam. I run straight .NET stuff all the time through Mono with no problems.

 

[PokeParadox]

With the wine-mono package I got Sonic Generations working... if that's any help.

 

[ferrule]

I want to switch to Linux on my main computer for year now. The only thing keeping me from doing that is gaming. So my question is, does anyone know, what I could expect from a light linux system that runs win7 through VirtualBox for gaming? I use several VMs but I never tried gaming. I'm sure you loose a lot of performance. Its probably enough for adventures, jump'n run and such. However I play a lot of shooters too : |


My computers specs are:


# i5 2500K – 2.3GHz, 4cores


# XFX Radeon HD 7770 Dual Fan Black Edition 1024MB


# 8GB DDR3-RAM

Look up vt-d/IOMMU and PCI-E passthrough. You will need a CPU that supports it.


Oh wait:


http://ark.intel.com/products/52210/Intel-Core-i5-2500K-Processor-6M-Cache-up-to-3_70-GHz


That's why I didn't buy the 'K' one.


For anyone else interested, you can actually run two cards in your machine, one for the 'host' OS and one passed through to the guest VM, so full 3d/etc and the VM 'thinks' it has your spanky 7770 directly attached. But since you bought the K, you don't get vt-d. This works really well with newer chips since you get one graphics card for free. You do need a monitor switch or manually switch cables tho.


I haven't tried it, but I did read that it actually works well under both Xen and KVM with some small issues. That was a while ago, so it's only going to get better...


Ian

 

[ghostpatch]

yeah, I wasn't looking for that. The price/performance seamed more important at that time..

Some research on Wine..
[...]


Looks like with tweaking most of these can be played..

I was scaptical about the performance and afraid of having to tweak the hell out of every single game There are already enouth problemes with DRAM and Steam.


I'm gonna use Wine since it seams to be the most reliable solution for me


Thanks eveyone! it helped a lot!

 

[Linux-SWAT]

A quick Valve story:


http://games.slashdot.org/story/12/10/29/154207/valve-linux-better-than-windows-8-for-gaming