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thewul
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Workstation 14.1 - Recommendations on performance

Below VM (100GB Single file)

Stored on Samsung 850 Pro (1TB)

Windows 10 x64

Intel Core i7-5820K

Running a single VM only.

Is there any way to improve the performance?
I have sufficient RAM - would increasing RAM to 4GB improve matters.

VM is a bit unresponsive, I need to wait a little while before something happens.

Which is not the case with Windows on host-pc.

But then again, maybe it is just the way it is...

=

VMware Workstation-Settings-14052018 080612.png

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wila
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Hi,

The biggest performance increase you can make on this config is to go from 1 vCPU to 2 vCPUs.

As for increasing RAM, Windows 10 x64 does run well on 2GB of RAM, but depending on your in guest OS usage it might help to bump it up a bit.

FWIW, my production Windows 10 x64 VMs are 2vCPUs and 2GB RAM.

Extensive testing showed I had nothing to gain by upping that and those are software development VMs.

Your use case might require different tweaks, but that is what works best for me.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva

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msihtasham
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increase the RAM to 4 GB

And

Increase the amount of Processor 2,2 Smiley Happy

The speed will be awesome after doing this

Lemme Know if you have any Problem again

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wila
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Hi,

The biggest performance increase you can make on this config is to go from 1 vCPU to 2 vCPUs.

As for increasing RAM, Windows 10 x64 does run well on 2GB of RAM, but depending on your in guest OS usage it might help to bump it up a bit.

FWIW, my production Windows 10 x64 VMs are 2vCPUs and 2GB RAM.

Extensive testing showed I had nothing to gain by upping that and those are software development VMs.

Your use case might require different tweaks, but that is what works best for me.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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thewul
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Many thanks to you both!

I will definitely give it a try.
Meanwhile what about the VT-x thing?

Enable or just leave it like that?

thanks again.

-

SnagIt-15052018 054514.png

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wila
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Hi,

That "VT-x thing" is for running nested virtualization.


Eg. for if you want to run a virtual machine in your virtual machine. If checked it offers virtual VT-x to your guest.

Normally those 2 checkboxes should not be checked and will not help you with the performance of your guest, more like the opposite.

You are correct that you need it at the host level.

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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thewul
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Again, many thanks.

I did some testing.

CPU 2-2 - this made a big difference. Memory does not affect the difference too much.

Testing on 1 VM which ONLY includes Windows, i.e. no applications are installed, it is just a 'clean' Windows 10 x64 (latest version)

Measuring from: clicking on "Power on this virtual machine"

then passing the Windows logo with the spinning wheel,

then passing the desktop image with username (I don't need to enter user id and pw, automatically logged in)

uptil the second my self designed desktop shows up.

(from there applications are being launched and are going to show up in the taskbar, which is different for everyone, so

I don't count that in)

Launched with default settings

CPU : 1-1 * Memory: 2 GB, launched in 60 seconds.

*(nbr of processors/number of cores)

then tried: CPU : 2-2, Memory: 2GB, launched in 20 sec

also tried:  CPU : 2-2, Memory: 4GB, launched in 21 sec

(ignore the 1 second, cud be that I was a split second late with clicking the button of my stopwatch)

I tried with another VM, also Windows 10 x64, but with a few applications installed, browsers, AV etc.

CPU: 2-2, Memory: 2GB, loaded in 22 seconds.

All in all, this change in CPU was a major improvement!

Thanks!!

There are 2 correct answers, I thank you both, but regretfull I can only mark 1 as correct....

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wila
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Hi,

I think that CPUs either 2 1 or 1 2 (to use the previous terminology) would give you pretty much the same performance.

CPU 1 1 -> 1 vCPU

CPU 2 1 -> 2 sockets, each 1 core, so 2 vCPUs

CPU 1 2 -> 1 socket, with 2 cores, so 2 vCPUs

CPU 2 2 -> 2 sockets, with each 2 cores, so 4 vCPUs

The difference on Windows 10 between 1 vCPU and 2 vCPUs is quite big. The difference between 2 vCPUs and 4 vCPUs is much smaller.

However if you want to run multiple VMs concurrently then the 4 vCPUs config will cause CPU "congestion" at the host level much earlier.

With only 2 concurrent VMs and your host CPU that is not likely to cause an issue though, but it is something to keep in mind.

re. marking correct. I'm perfectly happy if you mark the other person as correct, I'm not here to "gather points".

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva