bhyve Windows 10 VM Fix for laggy GUI

ChaosBlades

Contributor
Joined
Jul 4, 2015
Messages
137
When you have a bhyve Windows 10 VM and RDP into it you might find that everything is super laggy even opening 'This PC' takes a few seconds. Here is how to fix it. This was tested on the latest Windows 10 1809 (Build 17763.1)

Windows Timer Resolution is set to 15.625ms and needs to be set to 0.5ms.

What is Windows Timer Resolution?
https://randomascii.wordpress.com/2013/07/08/windows-timer-resolution-megawatts-wasted/

How do you fix it?
https://vvvv.org/contribution/windows-system-timer-tool

Edit: Just tested and this does increase power consumption. With Timer Resolution set to 15.625 ms whole server pulls at idle 162 watts on average. With Timer Resolution set to 0.5ms it pulls 171 watts on average. So just keep that in mind. This is with the Windows VM idle at the desktop and with all my other applications and VMs at idle. Tested multiple times flipping this change off and on it is consistent.

Should probably also point out with Windows 10 VM powered off server only pulls 144w idle. Moral of the story, only use a Windows VM if you have no choice.
 
Last edited:

soulburn

Contributor
Joined
Jul 6, 2014
Messages
100
I just tried this on Windows Server 2019 and this indeed made a huge difference! Thanks for this. I'd never have figured this out. Performance is still not great, but it's way better.
 
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