Major drop in video performance with 7.1 vs. 6.0.5

[RJKflyer]

I see posts re problems with 7 being 'slow' but not sure if this is the same issue:

I have Yosemite 10.10.1 and was running VMWF 6.0.5, which ran very well.

I 'upgraded' to 7.1 based upon the promise of "a whole set of incredible new features" and "Even Better Performance" and "And with powerful 3D graphics and support for OpenGL 2.1 and DirectX 9.0c Shader Model 3 graphics, Fusion 7 will make running highly demanding 3D applications like AutoCAD or SolidWorks a breeze"

The appeal of improved graphics performance was the greatest enticement.

However, the video performance is terrible: jerky video files and software that uses a virtual reality generated simulator now so laggy that it is unusable.

Looking at Windows Experience Index with 7.1:

• Graphics 2.9
• Gaming graphics 3.5

With 6.0.5 on the same machine with same Mac OS X:

• Graphics 5
• Gaming graphics 4.5

I have:

• Ensured that I have VMWare Tools correct
• Reset PRAM on the host computer.
• Not tinkered with any of the default settings in VMWare
• Not made ANY changes to the guest OS (W7Pro 32) or the applications I run on it.

I've had to rip 7.1 out and reinstall 6.0.5, simply to 'use' the VM.

Is there a solution to this?

[wila]

Hi,

A number of people have complained about video performance issues, many others - like me - have no problems at all.

There's a few things you can do:

- You can change back to Virtual Hardware Version 10 (With VM shut down -> Settings -> Compatibility -> Change to version 10)

Most people with video performance issues reported that doing this would bring them back close to Fusion 6.0.5 performance.

So no not enhanced performance over Fusion 6, but at least close to where it was.

You're not mentioning your host hardware, but if it is an iMac you might be able to help yourself with the following posts:

Have a look at this answer from DariusD here:

Yosemite and Fusion 7 - Very Very Slow

You can verify if you have the issue by checking if your machine has the interrupt storm as is described here by HPReg:

Re: Fusion 7 is running VERY SLOW on the GM of Yosemite

hope this helps,

--

Wil

[RJKflyer]

Thanks Will, I'm not on an iMac and had ended read those posts, although they seemed to point to interrupt issues which I'm not aware I have.

[wila]

Hi,

There are some non iMac users that have experienced the interrupt issue, it is rather easy to verify if you are affected.

Btw, I just noticed that my link did not jump in on the post from HPReg as I intended so will quote the relevant bit:

1) The root cause of the issue is a storm of interrupt 0x49 (apparently ACPI events, we are not sure yet) on CPU 0.

You can verify this by running the following command in Terminal:

    sudo powermetrics -s interrupts

On the machine which I'm currently observing (remotely, using Screen Sharing), the command yields:

   CPU 0:

      Vector 0x49(iMac12,2): 105725.77 interrupts/sec

This rate of interrupts (more than one interrupt per microsecond!) is way too high.

However I agree with you that if you're not on an iMac that this is not likely causing your trouble.

The current workaround for Fusion 7 then is to downgrade the virtual hardware of the VM until VMware gets this reproduced and fixed.

--

Wil