3D Graphics Benchmark Testing Results (Nvidia, hyperv toggled, drivers toggled)


jonp

Recommended Posts

Hey all,

 

Since this is a topic that seems to come up more and more lately, I wanted to do some quick testing for folks to see what toggling between Hyper-V extensions and the 340.52 vs. latest version drivers would do.  To test this, I used 3D Mark's Fire Strike benchmark and re ran tests with various settings.  Here were the results:

 

Test #1:  340.52 drivers w/ Hyper-V Settings On

 

Final score:  9174

 

Test #2:  340.52 drivers w/ Hyper-V Settings Off

 

Final score:  9251

 

Test #3a:  347.88 drivers w/ Hyper-V Settings Off

 

Final score:  9399

 

Test #3b:  347.88 drivers w/ Hyper-V Settings Off

 

Final score:  9415

 

I ran the last test twice because the 3D Mark site said my "graphics driver was not approved" but it said it again the second time.  I guess they haven't added the latest driver from NVIDIA to their supported database yet, because the other tests were just fine.

 

Conclusion

 

From the tests I ran, the numbers show a better result with latest drivers and no hyper-v settings in the VM.  If your primary interest is gaming performance, this is the recommended approach.

 

That said, the Hyper-V extensions in Windows may impact performance in other areas which we are still researching.  Disk write performance inside the VM seems to be one area of impact, but we are still experimenting with further tuning settings to see if we can improve this.

 

Thanks!

Link to comment
  • 4 weeks later...

I Plan on creating a VM for Steam Streaming (client) from my Gaming PC in the house.

 

I have a Unraid backup server with a Core i3 and 2GB RAM (I guess i'll need more RAM!).  Is those settings (hyper-v) are related to MS Hyper-V ? or it's something with Unraid...

 

The core i3 may not have support for Intel VT-d, which is required for passing through a GPU (an setting up a Steam Streaming client).  You will definitely need more RAM as well.

 

 

The Hyper-V settings are only specific to Windows-based guests.  They do not have anything to do with unRAID or Linux-based guests.

Link to comment

I Plan on creating a VM for Steam Streaming (client) from my Gaming PC in the house.

 

I have a Unraid backup server with a Core i3 and 2GB RAM (I guess i'll need more RAM!).  Is those settings (hyper-v) are related to MS Hyper-V ? or it's something with Unraid...

 

The core i3 may not have support for Intel VT-d, which is required for passing through a GPU (an setting up a Steam Streaming client).  You will definitely need more RAM as well.

 

 

The Hyper-V settings are only specific to Windows-based guests.  They do not have anything to do with unRAID or Linux-based guests.

 

You are right, my Intel Core i3-3240 doesn't have VT-d...

So no solution for me :(  Or... I remove Unraid on my backup server and install the Windows version of Crashplan and just run Windows 8.1 on the computer for my Gaming Streaming need...

 

Link to comment

... You are right, my Intel Core i3-3240 doesn't have VT-d...

So no solution for me :(  Or... I remove Unraid on my backup server and install the Windows version of Crashplan and just run Windows 8.1 on the computer for my Gaming Streaming need...

 

... Or you could DOUBLE your "horsepower" and gain vt-d by swapping the CPU with an Ivy Bridge Core i7 [e.g. the i7-3770 scores 9373 on PassMark compared to your i3's 4316].    For a gaming oriented system, the higher performance CPU with 4 cores will provide appreciably higher performance than a dual core i3 => and with vt-d you'll also get the full benefit of your graphics card.

 

Link to comment

... You are right, my Intel Core i3-3240 doesn't have VT-d...

So no solution for me :(  Or... I remove Unraid on my backup server and install the Windows version of Crashplan and just run Windows 8.1 on the computer for my Gaming Streaming need...

 

... Or you could DOUBLE your "horsepower" and gain vt-d by swapping the CPU with an Ivy Bridge Core i7 [e.g. the i7-3770 scores 9373 on PassMark compared to your i3's 4316].    For a gaming oriented system, the higher performance CPU with 4 cores will provide appreciably higher performance than a dual core i3 => and with vt-d you'll also get the full benefit of your graphics card.

 

Even an i5 would do you pretty good for gaming.

Link to comment

... You are right, my Intel Core i3-3240 doesn't have VT-d...

So no solution for me :(  Or... I remove Unraid on my backup server and install the Windows version of Crashplan and just run Windows 8.1 on the computer for my Gaming Streaming need...

 

... Or you could DOUBLE your "horsepower" and gain vt-d by swapping the CPU with an Ivy Bridge Core i7 [e.g. the i7-3770 scores 9373 on PassMark compared to your i3's 4316].    For a gaming oriented system, the higher performance CPU with 4 cores will provide appreciably higher performance than a dual core i3 => and with vt-d you'll also get the full benefit of your graphics card.

 

Even an i5 would do you pretty good for gaming.

 

True ... but be careful, as not all Ivy Bridge i5's support vt-d

Link to comment

Only if you use AMD processors  :)

... I'm a died-in-the-wool Intel guy

 

Agreed! I had a friend that had his AMD processor fry his motherboard, burnt spot and everything! Granted this was 15+ years ago... but ever since then Intel all the way!

 

I used to be a big fan of AMD back in the 90's.  Mainly because AMD seemed pretty focused on gaming optimization whereas Intel was more focused on the business markets at the time.  One particular technology AMD had called 3DNow.  Back in the day (man I'm getting old), that was considered the bleeding edge of 3D gaming performance processor technologies.  Nowadays, Intel has more than caught up and more often than not, outperforms AMD.  AMD is still a good "budget buy" solution, but for any serious users, Intel is the way to go.

Link to comment

When Intel switched their CPU Architecture to the Netburst architecture of the Pentium-IV, AMD did indeed "catch up" and briefly exceeded Intel's performance in some regards.    Netburst simply proved to not be nearly as good as Intel had hoped (the longer pipeline simply didn't match actual execution paths of real world programs).  But Intel learned the lessons of that mistake fairly quickly; and when they released the initial Core architecture CPU's the skyrocketed past AMD's capabilities and have never looked back.    Even since the Core 2 CPU's, their CPU's have significantly higher performance at much better power efficiency ... and every generation gets even better.    I can think of NO reason to even consider AMD these days ... although for really inexpensive systems you can save a few $$, since they're priced lower than the Intel CPUs.

 

 

 

Link to comment
  • 1 month later...

Reviving an Old thread... I wanted to look at my options now.

 

My Mobo is a Supermicro X9SCL+-F that use Intel C202.  This is the info from the Supermicro site regarding CPU compatibility :

 

Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 & v2 series, Intel® 2nd Gen and 3rd Gen Core i3, Intel® Pentium® and Celeron processors

 

Per Intel's spec, for platforms using C202/C204 PCH:

  1) Intel i5/i7 CPUs are not supported

  2) Intel E3-12x5 series processors which have integrated graphics support are not recommended.

 

So, what would be a recommendation for a basic Streaming Client Steam and i'll use the VM as a desktop PC in my Office.  I needed to be able to use the VM by just opening the Monitor and start using keyboard/mouse.  The "host" would be Unraid 6 Pro with only 1 VM (this one) running Windows 8.1 or 10 (after July 29th).

 

I need a new CPU that will let me pass-thru the GPU and USB to the VM... any recommendation?

 

I guess I'm limited to E3-12X0 or E3-12X0v2 ? 

Anyone knows if a 2nd Gen. or 3rd Gen. Core i3 or Celeron have the VT-d required for Pass-thru?

 

 

Link to comment

... Anyone knows if a 2nd Gen. or 3rd Gen. Core i3 or Celeron have the VT-d required for Pass-thru?

 

No, they don't.  You'll need to use a Xeon.    But that's not all bad ... the cost difference will fade from memory, and you'll definitely get used to the higher performance :)

 

Link to comment

... Anyone knows if a 2nd Gen. or 3rd Gen. Core i3 or Celeron have the VT-d required for Pass-thru?

 

No, they don't.  You'll need to use a Xeon.    But that's not all bad ... the cost difference will fade from memory, and you'll definitely get used to the higher performance :)

 

Sure about that?

 

Here's a 2nd gen i3 that supports vtx and vtd:  http://ark.intel.com/products/68332/Intel-Core-i3-2115C-Processor-3M-Cache-2_00-GHz

 

Here's a 3rd gen equivalent:  http://ark.intel.com/products/78170/Intel-Core-i3-3115C-Processor-4M-Cache-2_50-GHz

Link to comment

... Anyone knows if a 2nd Gen. or 3rd Gen. Core i3 or Celeron have the VT-d required for Pass-thru?

 

No, they don't.  You'll need to use a Xeon.    But that's not all bad ... the cost difference will fade from memory, and you'll definitely get used to the higher performance :)

 

Sure about that?

 

Here's a 2nd gen i3 that supports vtx and vtd:  http://ark.intel.com/products/68332/Intel-Core-i3-2115C-Processor-3M-Cache-2_00-GHz

 

Here's a 3rd gen equivalent:  http://ark.intel.com/products/78170/Intel-Core-i3-3115C-Processor-4M-Cache-2_50-GHz

 

Yes, I'm sure about that -- and I WAS aware of these two individual exceptions.  These are special case embedded CPU's that Intel included vt-d on for very specific communications and cryptographic infrastructure applications.  They do not use a standard Socket (they're socket 1284 chips) and certainly won't work in any motherboard that's likely to be used for an UnRAID system.  I almost caveated my answer by mentioning these, but simply decided against it since they're such special-purpose chips and it was crystal clear that the real question was whether there were any Socket 1155 i3's that would work in his motherboard.    Relative to that question, the answer is simply No, there aren't any i3's with vt-d.

 

 

 

Link to comment

This was the best post here for guiding Pducharme.  All I did was click that link, then click 2nd gen core i3 from the "family" filter and then again for 3rd gen to find the results I posted before.

 

Except, of course, you didn't bother to filter it with the socket 1155 that Pducharme needed.  In which case you could have saved him the trouble by simply noting that there aren't any i3's that would provide vt-d for his motherboard.

 

(I did exactly that before I provided my original answer => more precisely, I filtered for vt-d and than noted that the only exception in both the 2nd gen and 3rd gen cases was for a specialized version with socket 1284, which is used in specialized embedded systems)

 

 

Link to comment

I do, of course, agree that Intel's ARK site is an excellent resource ... use it VERY frequently.

 

You DO, however, have to pay attention to ALL of the characteristics of the chips you're looking for.    For example, many folks on this forum have noted that you can't get ECC support with Core i7's.  I never challenge that, since it's effectively true => none of the typical sockets (1156, 1155, 1150, 1366, 2011) include that support.    But there ARE a couple of special purpose Core i7's for embedded systems that DO have ECC support.    If you simply search for ECC support, you'll see those ... but that doesn't alter the simple fact for for all reasonable intents there's no ECC support in i7's.

 

 

 

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.