Re: [Qemu-devel] Re: QEMU-KVM and video performance

[Jamie Lokier <jamie@shareable.org>]

Gerhard Wiesinger wrote:
> On Wed, 21 Apr 2010, Jamie Lokier wrote:
> 
> >Gerhard Wiesinger wrote:
> >>Hmmm. I'm very new to QEMU and KVM but at least accessing the virtual HW
> >>of QEMU even from KVM must be possible (e.g. memory and port accesses are
> >>done on nearly every virtual device) and therefore I'm ending in C code in
> >>the QEMU hw/*.c directory. Therefore also the VGA memory area should be
> >>able to be accessable from KVM but with the specialized and fast memory
> >>access of QEMU.  Am I missing something?
> >
> >What you're missing is that when KVM calls out to QEMU to handle
> >hw/*.c traps, that call is very slow.  It's because the hardware-VM
> >support is a bit slow when the trap happens, and then the the call
> >from KVM in the kernel up to QEMU is a bit slow again.  Then all the
> >way back.  It adds up to a lot, for every I/O operation.
> 
> Isn't that then a general problem of KVM virtualization (oder hardware 
> virtualization) in general? Is this CPU dependend (AMD vs. Intel)?

Yes it is a general problem, but KVM emulates some time-critical
things in the kernel (like APIC and CPU instructions), so it's not too bad.

KVM is about 5x faster than TCG for most things, and slower for a few
things, so on balance it is usually faster.

The slow 256-colour mode writes sound like just a simple bug, though.
No need for complicated changes.

> >In 256-colour mode, KVM should be writing to the VGA memory at high
> >speed a lot like normal RAM, not trapping at the hardware-VM level,
> >and not calling up to the code in hw/*.c for every byte.
> 
> Yes, same picture to me: 256 color mode should be only a memory write (16 
> color mode is more difficult as pixel/byte mapping is not the same).
> But it looks like this isn't the case in this test scenario.
> 
> >You might double-check if your guest is using VGA "Mode X".  (See 
> >Wikipedia.)
> >
> >That was a way to accelerate VGA on real PCs, but it will be slow in
> >KVM for the same reasons as 16-colour mode.
> 
> Which way do you mean?

Look up Mode X on Wikipedia if you're interested, but it isn't
relevant to the problem you've reported.  Mode X cannot be enabled
with a BIOS call; it's a VGA hardware programming trick.  It would not
be useful in a VM environment.

-- Jamie