topic Re: VM's using double RAM then assigned in VMware Fusion Discussions

VM's using double RAM then assigned

aksoy492 — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 08:21:01 GMT

Hi,

I am using Fusion Pro 12.1.0 on MacOS 11.2. I have been seeing this behaviour on all my VM's, doesn't matter if the guest is Linux or Windows. A VM which assigned 2GB memory is using over 4GB memory from the MacOS according to Activity Monitor.

On first boot, the VM uses about 1.5GB from host, but once logged in and started apps such as Firefox, memory usage quickly jumps to 4GB+. I have talked to a few colleagues and some have the same behaviour while a few doesn't.

Any help is appreciated.

Re: VM's using double RAM then assigned

wila — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 11:05:12 GMT

Hi,

If you have 3D enabled for the display in the virtual machine settings, then it uses more RAM.
The shared graphics memory that you can configure under the 3D configuration for the video adapter all comes from your host RAM, not the graphics adapter.
This is most likely the reason that you are seeing this.

If you disable the 3D feature then the RAM usage is much more in line with the actual RAM settings for the guest OS.

Hope this helps,
--
Wil

Re: VM's using double RAM then assigned

aksoy492 — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 19:44:28 GMT

Hi @wila Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately, 3D was disabled on one VM. I just created a new VM without 3D acceleration, installed Windows 10 x64 (20H2 v2) but I see same behaviour even while installing. 2GB assigned memory and 4GB+ usage on Activity Monitor.

Re: VM's using double RAM then assigned

gringley — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 23:34:22 GMT

I agree -

Windows 10 32-bit 4GB RAM used 5.5GB on Mac.

Windows 10 64-bit 8GB RAM used 14GB on Mac.

macOS 11.2.1 4GB RAM used 3.7GB with or without AppleGPU0 enabled.

Re: VM's using double RAM then assigned

wila — Sat, 13 Feb 2021 02:38:32 GMT

Hi,

Interesting..
So for curiosities sake I have run a quick test down here as well.

Used an old VM, Windows Vista.. 32 bit (very old), virtual hardware set to version 9, 1 GB RAM and 3D enabled. I don't think that the old virtual hardware is relevant here, just mentioning the detail in case it matters.

On VMware Fusion 12.1 on a host running macOS 11.3 beta, the VM starts out at 1.2GB.. that then steadily climbs up to 2.13GB where the climbing stops. This took about 30 minutes (rough estimate)

I then suspended that VM and dragged it over to a macOS Mojave that has VMware Fusion 11.5.7, resumed that same VM... it starts out at using 1.2GB of RAM and does not increase at all. It stays put at 1.2GB

So yeah, I think that's not expected.

Perhaps @Mikero can get this looked into? Especially with most apple devices being a little low on RAM this is an issue.

--
Wil

Re: VM's using double RAM then assigned

aksoy492 — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 14:56:04 GMT

Any update on this issue?

Re: VM's using double RAM then assigned

wila — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 16:17:47 GMT

Hi,

We will first need somebody from VMware to acknowledge the issue I'm afraid. I do not work for VMware, but am a VMware Fusion user who just happens to be (too?) active at these forums.
Only reproduced your case and tried to get @Mikero 's attention..

Fair chance they know about the RAM usage issue.
After that the question is if they are able to do something about it as they nowadays depend on apple's hypervisor framework. It isn't an issue with VMware Fusion 11.x

--
Wil

Re: VM's using double RAM then assigned

aksoy492 — Sat, 27 Feb 2021 14:57:50 GMT

Thank you.

Re: VM's using double RAM then assigned

wila — Thu, 20 May 2021 15:07:23 GMT

Hi,

Please have a look at this post here:

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Fusion-Discussions/Memory-Usage-Doubled/m-p/2839970/highlight/true#M173475

It might help.

--
Wil