Run Windows 7 retro gaming on modern PC using Proxmox or Qemu virtual pc

[david]

It seems new computers can`t run windows 7 native but windows 7 is most good for playing retro games from 2005-up to 2015!
To make magic happend and use modern PC with old grafics cards we need to make windows 7 to work on efi vm.

Here is example configiration from proxmox VM running windows 7 in EFI mode! First you need to use pc-i440fx in UEFI mode and EFI patched windows 7 image to be able to make video drivers to work!

Download link for Proxmox open source virtualization platform can be found here:
https://www.proxmox.com/en/

Hint!
Join our telegram group if you want download link for patched windows 7 EFI iso ready to be installed in Proxmox!

Join our telegram group if you wana chat or have specific questions:
https://t.me/+h2K5CX5jEZA0MWJk


Proxmox host hardware is:

CPU - Ryzen 5950 16 core 32T
Ram - 128GB Ram Kingston 4x32GB 3400Mhz CL16
MB - Asus PRIME X570-PRO
PSU - 850W Seasonic
I tested with Radeon 560 and Radeon 7950 gpu`s.They both works in this way.

And there is proxmox VM configuration:

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bios: ovmf
boot: order=sata0
cores: 2
cpu: host
hostpci0: 0000:0a:00.0
hostpci1: 0000:0a:00.1
machine: pc-i440fx-8.0
memory: 4096
net0: e1000=82:94:80:A2:CC:AA,bridge=vmbr1,firewall=1
numa: 0
ostype: win7
sata0: hdd1T:109/vm-109-disk-0.qcow2,size=100G
scsihw: virtio-scsi-single
sockets: 1
usb0: host=1-1.3,usb3=1
vga: none

If you want to run on Qemu here is example tested by me working on Void linux on Qemu 10

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qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -enable-kvm \
  -machine pc-i440fx-8.0 \
  -cpu host \
  -smp sockets=1,cores=4 \
  -m 8096 \
  -usb \
  -device usb-host,vendorid=0x248a,productid=0x00da \
  -object memory-backend-ram,size=8096M,id=mem0 \
  -numa node,memdev=mem0 \
  -drive if=none,id=drive0,file=win7.qcow2,format=qcow2 \
  -device ide-hd,drive=drive0,bootindex=0 \
  -drive if=pflash,format=raw,readonly=on,file=/usr/share/OVMF/x64/OVMF_CODE.4m.fd \
  -netdev bridge,id=net0,br=vmbr1 \
  -device e1000,netdev=net0,mac=82:94:80:A2:BB:AA \
  -vga none \
  -device vfio-pci,host=0a:00.0,multifunction=on,romfile=/home/void/Polaris21.rom \
  -device vfio-pci,host=0a:00.1
  

Make sure you enable the network bridge before you run the vm:

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sudo mkdir -p /etc/qemu
echo "allow vmbr1" | sudo tee /etc/qemu/bridge.conf
sudo chmod 644 /etc/qemu/bridge.conf

sudo ip link add name vmbr1 type bridge
sudo ip link set dev vmbr1 up
sudo ip link set dev eth0 master vmbr1

If you wana learn how to install qemu with GPU passed to the virtual visit the link:
viewtopic.php?p=373&sid=ecc5f887407d297 ... 03043#p373


GPU i used in the video Radeon 7950 i think is perfect for retro games from 2005 up to 2015!


Asus PRIME X570-PRO support 2 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x16 or dual x8) that can be used in proxmox!



youtu.be/K-9utSPmJnw


youtu.be/bXF1NmKi8s8