I’ve been tweaking my configuration for my needs and it performs very well. As a reference, I’m posting my:
- hardware configuration
- Linux distro, kernel, etc.
- Windows VM configuration (XML)
Hardware
- AMD Ryzen 9 3900X CPU
- Gigabyte X570 Aorus Pro motherboard, upgraded to latest BIOS F12e
- 64 GB RAM
- Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB NVMe drive for guests, set up as LVM drive
- Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 500 GB NVMe drive for the host
- Gigabyte Nvidia Geforce GTX 970 GPU for the guest
- PNY Nvidia Quadro 2000 card for the host, updated to support UEFI
- A bunch of HDD drives using LVM – around 11 TB internal storage
- Asus Xonar Essence STX PCIe sound card
Host
- Manjaro Linux, Xfce 4.14.2
- Kernel 5.4.43-1-MANJARO
- QEMU 5.0.0-6
- libvirt 6.4.0-1
Windows 10 VM Configuration
Warning: Don’t just copy/paste the xml file below – it needs to be edited to match your system / hardware configuration!
<domain xmlns:qemu="http://libvirt.org/schemas/domain/qemu/1.0" type="kvm">
<name>win10</name>
<uuid>d32abe99-3f96-4aa5-a12b-123456abcdef</uuid>
<title>Windows 10 Pro</title>
<metadata>
<libosinfo:libosinfo xmlns:libosinfo="http://libosinfo.org/xmlns/libvirt/domain/1.0">
<libosinfo:os id="http://microsoft.com/win/10"/>
</libosinfo:libosinfo>
</metadata>
<memory unit="KiB">50331648</memory>
<currentMemory unit="KiB">50331648</currentMemory>
<memoryBacking>
<hugepages/>
</memoryBacking>
<vcpu placement="static">24</vcpu>
<cputune>
<vcpupin vcpu="0" cpuset="0"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="1" cpuset="12"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="2" cpuset="1"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="3" cpuset="13"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="4" cpuset="2"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="5" cpuset="14"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="6" cpuset="3"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="7" cpuset="15"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="8" cpuset="4"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="9" cpuset="16"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="10" cpuset="5"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="11" cpuset="17"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="12" cpuset="6"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="13" cpuset="18"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="14" cpuset="7"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="15" cpuset="19"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="16" cpuset="8"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="17" cpuset="20"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="18" cpuset="9"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="19" cpuset="21"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="20" cpuset="10"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="21" cpuset="22"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="22" cpuset="11"/>
<vcpupin vcpu="23" cpuset="23"/>
</cputune>
<os>
<type arch="x86_64" machine="pc-q35-5.0">hvm</type>
<loader readonly="yes" type="pflash">/usr/share/OVMF/x64/OVMF_CODE.fd</loader>
<nvram>/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/win10_VARS.fd</nvram>
<boot dev="hd"/>
<bootmenu enable="no"/>
</os>
<features>
<acpi/>
<apic/>
<hyperv>
<relaxed state="on"/>
<vapic state="on"/>
<spinlocks state="on" retries="8191"/>
<vpindex state="on"/>
<synic state="on"/>
<stimer state="on"/>
<reset state="on"/>
<vendor_id state="on" value="AuthenticAMD"/>
<frequencies state="on"/>
</hyperv>
<kvm>
<hidden state="on"/>
</kvm>
<vmport state="off"/>
</features>
<cpu mode="custom" match="exact" check="none">
<model fallback="allow">EPYC-IBPB</model>
<topology sockets="1" cores="12" threads="2"/>
<feature policy="require" name="svm"/>
<feature policy="require" name="apic"/>
<feature policy="require" name="invtsc"/>
<feature policy="require" name="hypervisor"/>
<feature policy="require" name="topoext"/>
<feature policy="require" name="ibpb"/>
<feature policy="require" name="ssbd"/>
<feature policy="require" name="virt-ssbd"/>
</cpu>
<clock offset="localtime">
<timer name="rtc" present="no" tickpolicy="catchup"/>
<timer name="pit" present="no" tickpolicy="delay"/>
<timer name="hpet" present="no"/>
<timer name="kvmclock" present="no"/>
<timer name="hypervclock" present="yes"/>
<timer name="tsc" present="yes" mode="native"/>
</clock>
<on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
<on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
<on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
<pm>
<suspend-to-mem enabled="no"/>
<suspend-to-disk enabled="no"/>
</pm>
<devices>
<emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64</emulator>
<disk type="block" device="disk">
<driver name="qemu" type="raw" cache="none" io="native" discard="unmap" detect_zeroes="on"/>
<source dev="/dev/vmvg/win10"/>
<target dev="vda" bus="virtio"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x03" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</disk>
<disk type="block" device="disk">
<driver name="qemu" type="raw" cache="none" io="native" discard="ignore"/>
<source dev="/dev/photos/photo_stripe"/>
<target dev="vdb" bus="virtio"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x08" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</disk>
<disk type="block" device="disk">
<driver name="qemu" type="raw" cache="none" io="native" discard="ignore"/>
<source dev="/dev/media/photo_raw"/>
<target dev="vdc" bus="virtio"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x0a" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</disk>
<disk type="block" device="disk">
<driver name="qemu" type="raw" cache="none" io="native" discard="unmap" detect_zeroes="unmap"/>
<source dev="/dev/vmvg/workdrive"/>
<target dev="vdd" bus="virtio"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x06" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</disk>
<controller type="usb" index="0" model="qemu-xhci" ports="15">
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x02" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="0" model="pcie-root"/>
<controller type="pci" index="1" model="pcie-root-port">
<model name="pcie-root-port"/>
<target chassis="1" port="0x8"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x01" function="0x0" multifunction="on"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="2" model="pcie-root-port">
<model name="pcie-root-port"/>
<target chassis="2" port="0x9"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x01" function="0x1"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="3" model="pcie-root-port">
<model name="pcie-root-port"/>
<target chassis="3" port="0xa"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x01" function="0x2"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="4" model="pcie-root-port">
<model name="pcie-root-port"/>
<target chassis="4" port="0xb"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x01" function="0x3"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="5" model="pcie-root-port">
<model name="pcie-root-port"/>
<target chassis="5" port="0xc"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x01" function="0x4"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="6" model="pcie-root-port">
<model name="pcie-root-port"/>
<target chassis="6" port="0xd"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x01" function="0x5"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="7" model="pcie-root-port">
<model name="pcie-root-port"/>
<target chassis="7" port="0xe"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x01" function="0x6"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="8" model="pcie-root-port">
<model name="pcie-root-port"/>
<target chassis="8" port="0xf"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x01" function="0x7"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="9" model="pcie-to-pci-bridge">
<model name="pcie-pci-bridge"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x07" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="10" model="pcie-root-port">
<model name="pcie-root-port"/>
<target chassis="10" port="0x10"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x0" multifunction="on"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="11" model="pcie-root-port">
<model name="pcie-root-port"/>
<target chassis="11" port="0x11"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x1"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="12" model="pcie-root-port">
<model name="pcie-root-port"/>
<target chassis="12" port="0x12"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x2"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="13" model="pcie-root-port">
<model name="pcie-root-port"/>
<target chassis="13" port="0x13"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x3"/>
</controller>
<controller type="pci" index="14" model="pcie-root-port">
<model name="pcie-root-port"/>
<target chassis="14" port="0x14"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x4"/>
</controller>
<controller type="sata" index="0">
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x1f" function="0x2"/>
</controller>
<interface type="bridge">
<mac address="52:54:00:e1:01:07"/>
<source bridge="bridge0"/>
<model type="virtio"/>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x01" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</interface>
<input type="mouse" bus="ps2"/>
<input type="keyboard" bus="ps2"/>
<hostdev mode="subsystem" type="pci" managed="yes">
<source>
<address domain="0x0000" bus="0x08" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</source>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x0b" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</hostdev>
<hostdev mode="subsystem" type="pci" managed="yes">
<source>
<address domain="0x0000" bus="0x08" slot="0x00" function="0x1"/>
</source>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x0c" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</hostdev>
<hostdev mode="subsystem" type="pci" managed="yes">
<source>
<address domain="0x0000" bus="0x08" slot="0x00" function="0x3"/>
</source>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x0d" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</hostdev>
<hostdev mode="subsystem" type="pci" managed="yes">
<source>
<address domain="0x0000" bus="0x0b" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</source>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x04" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</hostdev>
<hostdev mode="subsystem" type="pci" managed="yes">
<source>
<address domain="0x0000" bus="0x0b" slot="0x00" function="0x1"/>
</source>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x05" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</hostdev>
<memballoon model="none"/>
<rng model="virtio">
<backend model="random">/dev/urandom</backend>
<address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x0e" slot="0x00" function="0x0"/>
</rng>
<panic model="hyperv"/>
</devices>
<qemu:commandline>
<qemu:arg value="-device"/>
<qemu:arg value="ich9-intel-hda,bus=pcie.0,addr=0x1b"/>
<qemu:arg value="-device"/>
<qemu:arg value="hda-micro,audiodev=hda"/>
<qemu:arg value="-audiodev"/>
<qemu:arg value="pa,id=hda,server=/run/user/1000/pulse/native"/>
</qemu:commandline>
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