Published Oct 29, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT

My love for computers started with a trusty Compaq back in 2005, and I haven't looked back since. This had me graduate into being an avid tinkerer, even if I end up soft-bricking stuff most of the time.

I do also love video games.

GPU passthrough is a fun little side activity, and essentially lets you allocate an entire (or, in some cases, part of the) GPU to a virtual machine. This gives your virtual machine 3D acceleration capabilities that far exceed what a virtual display driver is capable of — letting you run the most demanding of games with relative ease.

It might sound complicated, but it's actually quite easy to get up and running , assuming you’re familiar with both virt-manager and QEMU in the first place. I set up mine using an existing, older Dell Latitude, and it's been a joy to use so far.

How to get started with GPU passthrough

A bit of a long process, but it’s just a one-time setup

GPU passthrough is easy but a bit lengthy.…