> "Is it possible to have a Windows VM without any lag". > > Yes, I can confirm that it is possible. I run Windows 7 completely lag free > on Qubes OS, it feels very snappy and instant, just as if it was running bare > metal. Both with or without seamless mode. > > I've installed Qubes Windows Manager completely according to the official > Qubes guidelines. > > My setup that runs Win7 smoothly > - QVM instance: Windows 7 64-bit > - CPU: i5 6500 3.2GHz (default set to two cores). > - Total system RAM: 24GB > - QVM Win7 memory allocation: 5GB. > - Disc allocation: 100GB (Make sure Windows has plenty free space). > - Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 530 (CPU integrated graphics) > - Triple monitor setup, all controlled by Intel integrated graphics > (HDMI/HDMI/VGA). > - Seamless mode, sometimes on, sometimes off. > > In case you use VGA monitors, then VGA monitor in my case causes some issues > that impacts screen tearing a bit if used together with HDMI, only a slight > second when moving app between screens. It is slightly annoying though, and I > haven't looked into that yet. Though just be aware that VGA monitors might > not play too well with HDMI/Display monitors, in case you use a setup like > that. > > You don't need 24GB memory, i.e. I got more than plenty, you will be fine > with less. How much is a good guess though, I would say total system 8k GB > memory is fine (Qubes 4k, Windows 4k each is fine for normal use), just don't > open too many memory hungry VM's at the same time. > > My CPU and its integrated graphics isn't top notch, but not all bad either, > so if your system is anywhere near these specs, it is probably a > software/driver/Bios-setting issue and not hardware performance related. > > I found in my early Qubes days that Nvidia with the nouveau driver was laggy > as hell, to put it mildly. My nvidia GPU that I first ran Qubes on was > GTX1060, which is now retired from my Qubes setup. The GTX 1060 with nouveau > ran though, barely. It was by no means smooth, neither in Dom0 or any QVM's, > one big hell of lag. Some older graphic cards than 1060 might do better with > the nouveau drivers, but the newer the card the less perfect it will likely > run in Qubes (i.e. might be the case in your situation). The moment I took > out my monitors from my nvidia card and instead plugged them to my > motherboard internal graphics, I became completely lag free, and everything > was really smooth (Shutdown Qubes first, so it can boot proper graphic > drivers). I get stressed by lag, so I can definitely say that the contrast > was big to when I used nvidia, I feel nothing now with Intel graphics, it's > smooth. As many has said before with Qubes, Intel or many of the AMD > graphics, just works. Nvidia with their monopolistic product designs is a big > pain in the *** as they try to shove their market fragmented profit maximized > proprietary garbage down our throats... *ahem*... we lack competition (Go > AMD!). > > Anyway, In Bios, in case you have such a setting, then make sure to check if > on-board graphics are set to CPU, and not GPU. Furthermore be vary of any > "shared" memory features between CPU/GPU in the BIOS, when I turned mine on > it made Qubes's graphics teary and really laggy. This might hypothetically be > more or less laggy depending on the hardware used, make sure to test the > difference by turning it off if you got it on. > > So if you got multiple graphic cards, this may be a source to your problems, > especially if it is nvidia. If you are dual-booting (despite that it isn't > the best to do in terms of security), then you can still make use of your > nvidia card in other OS's, i.e. Windows should still detect your nvidia card. > If you are running it on a desktop instead of a laptop, then you can use a > KVM switch to switch between CPU/GPU graphic cards as you dual boot. > > Qubes OS doesn't need heavy graphics anyhow, not as long as heavy graphics > industry users, or gamers, isn't a supported audience target group by the > Qubes developers. > > Off-topic: However it has me puzzled why nothing more hasn't been done to > support heavy graphics, it would make many more potential users interested in > Qubes OS if it was possible to run heavy graphics on Qubes, such as games. > Perhaps the security issue it creates is just too big and unfix-able or time > consuming *shrugh* > > Lagging (pun intended ;) a bit info on your hardware setup, so I took the > liberty to make guesses. I hope any of this was of help to you, I had a laggy > Qubes too before I found the proper setup (i.e. ditching my nvidia card). > > P.s. if you haven't tried already, try experiment and reduce the resolution > to something less, see if it makes any difference.
Thank you very much for your very thorough answer! OK, I'll add some more info about my HW: I have a Dell workstation with 2 x Xeon E5-2687W CPUs with a total of 16 physical cores, and 64GB RAM. My win7 HVM now has 150GB disk, 10GB RAM and 16vcpus. (I have tried smaller numbers for all settings) I realize that my problem may be nvidia-related (Noveau). I have tried running on Nvidia Quadro K2000 (had problems getting full res on both displays), so I switched to the Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 which I'm running now. (using Noveau on both cards) During the install of the HVM I had to make a temp change of video driver setting as described here: https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/2488 but this is now changed back to xen. Not sure of this is related to my problem. As my other VMs and dom0 is nice and snappy, I would think this is not a general driver related, but only related to my HVM settings? I'm leaning towards Windows tools maybe? -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "qubes-users" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/qubes-users/ae769482-9410-40f2-b809-8586965a4eb3%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
