Noob Help Please!!

[olishea]

Hello!

I use vmware fusion on my imac to run windows for 3D applications and rendering.

it's a dual core 2.8 ghz mac with 4GB ram.

Currently I let vmware use half of my RAM (2GB)......what will happen if I let it use ALL my ram? I need the windows partition to be as quick as possible. are there any risks in using all the ram?

sorry if this is a noob question thats been answered before....

Cheers in advance for any help!

[Entegy]

If it you need Windows to use as much of of your computer's resources as possible, Boot Camp would be the better choice here. Install Windows 7 64-bit in Boot Camp so may use your computer's resources as much as possible.

I don't believe Fusion would allow you to give that much RAM to a virtual machine. If it does allow you, be aware that giving half of your computer's RAM to a virtual machine is already borderline starving the host for memory. Giving more would reduce the perforamce of both the host and the guest.

So my reccomendation would be to use Boot Camp if your needs in Windows are that heavy.

[olishea]

Hi, thanks for the helpful and quick reply!

I need to keep switching between windows and mac so boot camp isn't great for me.

I guess my vmware is running as fast as possible then. Are there any other tips to optimize speed? I read somewhere using full screen is quicker for example.

Vmware warned me about 'memory swapping' and the default ram allocation was around 1GB. It does slow dow my mac host (only when 3D rendering) but i guess it would be a lot worse if i increased to more than 2GB.

Again, thanks for the help.

[Entegy]

Any other tips I could give you are just general system ones. On both Mac and Windows, don't have programs or processes running that you don't need if you're about to do some of your 3D rendering. Keep all your software updated. At least have Microsoft Security Essentials (a lightweight free antivirus, I highly recommend it) installed in Windows.

[olishea]

Cheers!

Yeah I've been doing all that. RIght well I guess the solution is more cores lol

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I really appreciate it

Take care.