VMware Fusion vs Citrix Virtual Desktop vs VDI - Performance

[William_2019]

Hello there,

When I recommend company to deployed Fusion for support users, others against and said the performance is not good on VMware Fusion on Macbook, we have Citrix and VDI already for users. Do your guys have any officially solution evaluation like performance, usability, supportability between Vmware, Citrix and VDI.

PS: my personal idea for performance on local vmware virtual machine should (8/10), Citrix cloud (6/10), VDI (didnot use)

Thank you very much.

Will

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I'm not from VMware, but I don't think they have this type of report.

You'll have to google it and then critically look at what you can find.

The problem is also that "it depends" on a number of factors that we don't know about your needs.

If your workload is graphic intensive then citrix or VDI might work better.

My experience with virtual machines running under VMware Fusion is very positive, but I do know how-to troubleshoot in case things are not perfect and am aware on what to expect (or not).

Normal office workloads on a properly configured VM tend to run very well under VMware Fusion, fast and responsive.

Compiling source is about as fast as on native hardware.

Playing videos is smooth.

However, OTOH gaming is not going to be great for quite a lot of games as the virtual graphics card does miss the Oompf you need for  that.

Note: Please be aware that if you are going to test with macOS 10.14.6 that it isn't representative for normal performance (see https://planetvm.net/blog/?p=67185 for the details on why) as there's currently a performance issue with that update. A fix for that is apparently coming in the next few days. FWIW, I have not seen an issue of this calibre before on VMware Fusion and am hoping the fix arrives soon.

--

Wil

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[William_2019]

Thank you Wila, that very useful information and I also find the performance slow when upgrade new OS version.

The users has only developer task that I think should be okay with Fusion, unfortunately I feel the performance not as my thinkpad windows PC + Vmware station. I think the MacBook has strong hardware, but seems not compatible or due to the 10.14.6 bug...

Hopefully Vmware can release the hotfix as soon as possible.

[wila]

Hi,

Well I use several VMware products, including VMware Workstation Professional as well as VMware Fusion, but also their vSphere products.

I guess I would have to if I want to support the product in my signature :smileygrin:.

Personally I prefer VMware Fusion over Workstation, normally it does perform very well.

Having said that Workstation does have a pretty good feature set.

There's a rumor/promise that a hotfix would be out by Monday (or earlier).

However as far as release dates go, it is about as clear as muddy water.

If something comes up during testing then the release date might be set back.

We'll have to wait and see and keep our fingers crossed.

--

Wil

[sjesse]

I don't use fusion, but I use workstation and I also manage a few horizon view deployments. It really comes down to the cost to deploy what you need, if you or your uses have decent hardware in macs, fusion is probably enough. If the macs are on the lower end then a vdi would probably be better. I have visual studio 2015 running in a VDI desktop I use, and while I'm not exactly a developer, I've been able to develop small custom applications as I've needed them. Cirtix virtual desktop/ VDI are the same depending on how you define VDI

[William_2019]

Performance had been improved when upgrade Fusion new version morning. Thanks for quick fix.

[wila]

Hi,

Glad to hear that it works better now.

Beware though that performance is still not where it should be, but apparently to address the remaining performance issues will take a bit longer (the VMware developer mentioned weeks instead of days)

--
Wil