VMware Fusion support of AVX/AVX2

[EMR]

I'm running the 32-bit version of Windows 10 on a VMware Fusion 11.5.1 virtual machine on a Mac Pro 5,1. I've tried running an application that simply dies on me when I launch it. Its developer thinks it fails because my computer's CPU doesn't have AVX/AVX2, but he pointed out that he knows for a fact that Oracle VirtualBox supports AVX, by which I assume he means the virtual machine emulates this feature. Is there a way that Fusion can support AVX/AVX2?

EDIT: I misunderstood what the developer had said. He simply meant that his application could run on VirtualBox on an AVX-compliant computer. So, am I out of luck?

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi,

AVX/AVX2 is a CPU feature.

It depends on your CPU, if it supports AVX/AVX2 then your guest would too.

VMware does pass-through the CPU directly to the guest OS, so it isn't emulating features.

What VMware can do for you at CPU level is masking certain features, but I would be really surprised if they masked AVX or AVX2.

FWIW, if you want to figure out the specific CPU name so you can verify the feature online then run the following command from the terminal:

sysctl -n "machdep.cpu.brand_string"

You can also directly test via sysctl if your CPU has AVX/AVX2 support.

For more details on how-to do this see:

Serious Multiplatform Software Development: How to check Intel AVX2 support on Mac OS X

--

Wil

[dempson]

Assuming Wikipedia is right, AVX was added in Sandy Bridge processors (2nd generation Core-i3/i5/i7), and AVX2 in Haswell processors (4th generation Core-i3/i5/i7).

For the Mac Pro (Xeon processors), the Late 2013 Mac Pro (MacPro6,1) has an Ivy Bridge Xeon (E5-1620 v2 or better), so it has AVX support (but not AVX2). The 2010/2012 Mac Pro (MacPro5,1) has a Bloomfield/Westmere/Gulftown Xeon, which predates Sandy Bridge and does not support any version of AVX.

Confirmed by checking a selection of processor models at ark.intel.com.

Conclusion: your Mac Pro is too old to implement any variant of AVX.