Fusion vs. Parallels Review -- Performance and Multiple CPUs

[iandol]

Hi, I just read this benchmarking review:

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9760910-1.html

Showing fusion cleanly beating Parallels performance-wise. I was quite curious as by default multiple-CPUs are turned off in Fusion. The author is not explicit in what settings he used, but I assume he turned them on. I've read here that enabling more than 1 CPU is generally harmful for performance. Has this changed for V1 final, or is it just the balance of what is tested (general use vs. explicit multithreaded tests)?

[SMB1]

Multiple CPUs are something you should only turn on when you know you need them. Leaving them off allows the Fusion guest to use one while OS X uses the other making everyone happy. If you run a VM that is primarily running your normal desktop apps, in other words apps that do not really make use of multiple processors, you end up with a situation where Fusion gets both processors exclusively (it always grabs 2) while only using one anyway and has to be frequently scheduled off to allow OS X to operate normally.

This is of course assuming you're using a Mac with just one dual core processor. If you had a MacPro or a xServe with 2 dual cores or with a quad core processor, you could enable 2 processors in the guest and most likely have no problems with performance at all.

[Andreas_Masur]

Has this changed for V1 final, or is it just the balance

of what is tested (general use vs. explicit multithreaded tests)?

Actually, it is more or the less the latter one....for more information take a look at the following topic[/url]...

Ciao, Andreas