Re: [PATCH v2 2/5] KVM: SVM: Always intercept RDMSR for TMCCT (current APIC timer count)

[Sean Christopherson <seanjc@google.com>]

On Thu, May 07, 2026, Sean Christopherson wrote:
> Oh!  Actually, even better!  This is a great opportunity to dedup Intel vs. AMD
> (and we can/should do the same for writes).

Scratch the writes idea, the behavior of Intel x2APIC virtualization and AMD x2AVIC
are too different.  Intel doesn't trap writes when x2APIC virtualization is
enabled, and instead redirects the raw value to the APIC backing page.  Which I
guess makes sense since WRMSR interception is about the same overall cost, and
it allows the host to safely and fully disable interception for registers it
doesn't want/need to interpose on.

AMD on the other hand more or less follows the xAPIC (AVIC) behavior, where regs
without "fancy" acceleration generate traps.

Side topic, handling a trap-like unaccelerated AVIC #VMEXIT is ~10 cycles faster
than handling an intercepted WRMSR (out of ~1770+ cycles for a super simple reg
like LVT0).  I.e. we _could_ deliberately disable interception of x2AVIC MSRs that
get trap-like behavior, but for me, being perfectly consistent between Intel and
AMD is more valuable than shaving a few cycles for paths that should rarely be hit
(most of the trap-like registers are "configure once and forget about them").

The only reg that's at all hot is Timer Initial Count Register, and (a) it's a
moot point with TSC Deadline mode, and (b) the cost to program hrtimers is so high
than shaving ~10 cycles is completely meaningless.