Virtual/Software Appliance or Hardware appliance

Question

Hi, 
 I would like to know what kind of limitation(s) I can get if I used a Virtual/Software UTM as opposed to the Hardware? My main question is that when I'm looking at the hardware devices, obviously the throughputs get higher as you go up in device. So what limits it from Device to Device, is it just the hardware specs, HD, Ram, CPU. And if that's the case, would it stand to reason that if I had a bare metal machine or a VM host and I matched it as best as I could to one of the higher Hardware appliances, that I can achieve the same or close to throughput speeds as the hardware appliance? 
 This question has been asked to me and I can't seem to find a good answer. I would like to think that is the case but I'm not sure. 
 
 Thanks

Scott_Klassen · Accepted Answer

In a nutshell yes, and better. With your own hardware, you can upgrade the CPU and RAM, something that is not allowed with the appliances.

MikeManfredi · Answer

Thank you, thats what I thought, but wanted to make sure