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12 Replies Last post: Oct 2, 2008 1:41 PM by bgertzfield

Fusion 2's CPU use when idle

Sep 21, 2008 6:19 PM

mdelvecchio 73 posts since
Mar 18, 2008

hello,

in the pre-release feature videos, i thought i saw one where a developer showed off that Fusion 2 only consumed 1-4% CPU use when the guest was doing nothing in the background. im running XP, and w/ no programs running it seems to idle in Acitivty Monitor at 12%.

is the 1-4% no longer a feature?

thanks,
matt

Reply Re: Fusion 2's CPU use when idle Sep 21, 2008 6:49 PM

Pat Lee 1,076 posts since
Jan 3, 2007 VMware

mdelvecchio wrote:

is the 1-4% no longer a feature?

On a clean Windows XP install, 2-6% is totally doable. As you add more software that adds more startup processes and the like, idle will get higher. On a Windows XP SP3 VM with Office 2007, Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and power management enabled, I am hovering between 5-8% with an occasional spike to 10-14% in Single Window mode after startup.

AntiVirus and Unity will increase that further, but in Single Window or Full Screen hovering at well below 10% should be fine unless you have lots of startup processes that take up CPU.

Pat

Reply Re: Fusion 2's CPU use when idle Sep 27, 2008 7:58 AM

in response to: Pat Lee

mdelvecchio 73 posts since
Mar 18, 2008

i see. mine seems to sit around 10-12%, havent got it much lower. ive disabled the obvious services and startup items, but there are many listed that i dont recognize or know they do.

Reply Re: Fusion 2's CPU use when idle Sep 27, 2008 8:31 AM

in response to: mdelvecchio

Pat Lee 1,076 posts since
Jan 3, 2007 VMware

mdelvecchio wrote:
i see. mine seems to sit around 10-12%, havent got it much lower. ive disabled the obvious services and startup items, but there are many listed that i dont recognize or know they do.

Yeah, welcome to Windows!

Pat

Reply Re: Fusion 2's CPU use when idle Sep 27, 2008 1:18 PM

in response to: mdelvecchio

mudaltsov 205 posts since
Nov 12, 2007 VMware

Are you using a laptop such as MacBook or MacBook Pro? Those will slow down the CPU when it's not being fully used, to reduce power usage and CPU temperature. So the apparent CPU usage will be higher. For example, if Fusion is actually using 5%, it may appear as using 10% in Activity Monitor if the CPU is running at half speed.

If you run a CPU-intensive task while a VM is running, you may be able to get the CPU to full speed and see the actual numbers. Of course, when your computer is using more resources, the results from Activity Monitor may be less accurate, since it needs CPU time as well. Using 'top' in Terminal may be better since it's not as heavy.

Reply Re: Fusion 2's CPU use when idle Sep 28, 2008 3:54 PM

Jay Levitt 67 posts since
May 6, 2008

I'm not the OP, but in Unity mode, I am seeing vmware-vmx consume ~30% of one CPU when the Windows XP SP3 guest is 99-100% idle. Is this normal? It does drop to ~5% in Single Window mode.

This is on a Mac Pro (early 2008), 8-core Xeon 3.2GHz, 16GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 8800GT adapter, Spaces enabled, OS X 10.5.5.

Reply Re: Fusion 2's CPU use when idle Sep 29, 2008 10:46 AM

in response to: mudaltsov

mdelvecchio 73 posts since
Mar 18, 2008

i am indeed using a MacBook Pro. however it is plugged into the wall power supply.

Reply Re: Fusion 2's CPU use when idle Sep 29, 2008 8:35 PM

in response to: Jay Levitt

mudaltsov 205 posts since
Nov 12, 2007 VMware

I'm not the OP, but in Unity mode, I am seeing vmware-vmx consume ~30% of one CPU when the Windows XP SP3 guest is 99-100% idle. Is this normal? It does drop to ~5% in Single Window mode.

That does seem a little high. Are any applications actually running in the guest, and do you have any Unity windows showing?

I'm seeing 15% idle CPU usage on a MacBook Pro when in Unity with no applications open. It's about 20% if I open up some simple apps such as Notepad and Paint, and spikes to about 50% (though it's hard to judge) if I actually use the applications. In Single Window, it drops to 6-7% while idle.

Reply Re: Fusion 2's CPU use when idle Oct 2, 2008 6:27 AM

in response to: mudaltsov

Jay Levitt 67 posts since
May 6, 2008

mudaltsov wrote:

I'm not the OP, but in Unity mode, I am seeing vmware-vmx consume ~30% of one CPU when the Windows XP SP3 guest is 99-100% idle. Is this normal? It does drop to ~5% in Single Window mode.

That does seem a little high. Are any applications actually running in the guest, and do you have any Unity windows showing?

Actually, yes - I have a FeedDemon window open, although according to the Windows task manager, it's not receiving any CPU (~100% idle), but vmware-vmx is getting over 20% CPU. Hiding that window with Command-H doesn't seem to make a difference, and neither does switching to a different space. Quitting FeedDemon brings the vmware-vmx CPU down to 6-8%.

FWIW, I think FeedDemon is a .NET application.

Reply Re: Fusion 2's CPU use when idle Oct 2, 2008 10:00 AM

in response to: Jay Levitt

etung 9,605 posts since
Oct 15, 2006 VMware

Actually, yes - I have a FeedDemon window open, although according to the Windows task manager, it's not receiving any CPU (~100% idle), but vmware-vmx is getting over 20% CPU.

Yes, this can happen - things that are cheap or offloaded to other chips on real hardware (e.g. servicing interrupts) can be more expensive in a virtual machine.

Reply Re: Fusion 2's CPU use when idle Oct 2, 2008 1:28 PM

in response to: Jay Levitt

bgertzfield 970 posts since
Sep 7, 2005 VMware

Jay Levitt wrote:
Actually, yes - I have a FeedDemon window open, although according to the Windows task manager, it's not receiving any CPU (~100% idle), but vmware-vmx is getting over 20% CPU. Hiding that window with Command-H doesn't seem to make a difference, and neither does switching to a different space. Quitting FeedDemon brings the vmware-vmx CPU down to 6-8%.

FWIW, I think FeedDemon is a .NET application.

I'll guess FeedDemon is asking for a high-resolution multimedia timer. On physical hardware, this doesn't cost much, but in a virtual environment, waking up 1,000 times a second to do nothing is quite expensive.

I'd recommend writing to the FeedDemon folks asking them not to use a high-resolution multimedia timer unless they really need to.

Reply Re: Fusion 2's CPU use when idle Oct 2, 2008 1:35 PM

in response to: bgertzfield

Jay Levitt 67 posts since
May 6, 2008

Those both make sense - thanks.

To clarify before I write to FeedDemon: Is this the QueryPerformanceCounters timer, or the timeGetTime timer? (I learned way too much about Windows timers a few years ago.)

Reply Re: Fusion 2's CPU use when idle Oct 2, 2008 1:41 PM

in response to: Jay Levitt

bgertzfield 970 posts since
Sep 7, 2005 VMware

Jay Levitt wrote:
Those both make sense - thanks.

To clarify before I write to FeedDemon: Is this the QueryPerformanceCounters timer, or the timeGetTime timer? (I learned way too much about Windows timers a few years ago.)

I'm glad you understand the issue!

If I recall correctly, timeSetEvent, CreateTimerQueueTimer, and CreateWaitableTimer/SetWaitableTimer are the usual culprits.

I don't know what the .NET equivalents of these are, but any timer that requests millisecond accuracy would be a good place to start looking.

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