Speed Up Vista

[phunkidude]

I have Fusion 2.0 installed on a MacBook Pro (2ghz Intel Core 2 Duo) with 2GB of RAM. Vista Home Premium is the virtual machine that's installed and it runs like a dog. Any ideas on how to get a little more performance out of this thing?

Thanks

Sean

[asatoran]

A little more info, please. Have you installed VMWare Tools? How much RAM have you allocated to the Vista VM? Anything less than 1GB and you can barely open any application, even on a physical PC.

[phunkidude]

Hi, thanks for replying. I think I have installed VMWare Tools, how would I know for sure?

To answer the other questions:

1. Mac OS is 10.4.11

2. It's a MacBook 2ghz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM (the maximum these models can take)

3. Settings: Processors & RAM is set to 2 CPUs and 1524MB of RAM

Do you think there would be anything to gain by upgrading to Leopard (I would rather not do so but am prepared to try anything)? Maybe this machine is just not up to the task or perhaps XP would be a better choice over Vista.

Thanks

Sean

[Bob_Zimmerman]

That's your problem. You shouldn't give a guest two virtual processors on a system that only has two physical processors. Set the VM to only have one virtual processor.

Essentially, you are trying to do three things simultaneously on a system that can only do two. OS X has to run, the guest's first processor stuff has to run, and the guest's second processor stuff has to run. On a normal dual-core system, setting the guest to use two processors will cause a significant performance hit because the processor has to juggle all of this as opposed to simply running the tasks.

Additionally, Mac OS requires a decent amount of RAM to run, but you're giving 3/4 of your memory to the guest. Try decreasing the amount of RAM given to the guest.

Giving the guest a lot of memory also sounds like a good idea, but the problem is that it takes up all of that memory from the host. When the host doesn't have enough physical RAM to store everything, it uses disk space as "virtual memory". This allows more things to be run at the same time, but it is vastly slower than keeping everything in physical RAM. It gets even worse if you have 3D enabled, because that takes up another chunk of memory for video RAM on top of what you give to the VM for its memory. Chances are good that the host is paging parts of the virtual machine to disk because it doesn't have enough space for everything. Then, when the VM wants to do anything with that memory (even just look at what it contains), the host has to stop what it's doing, page something else to disk to make room, then read what the VM is trying to get back into RAM so the VM can use it.

Which model of MacBook do you have? The one with the GMA 950 or the GMA X3100? The 950 takes 64 MB of system memory for video operations and the X3100 takes up to 144 MB. There is a bit of good news, though. All of the Core 2 Duo MacBooks can actually use up to 3 GB or 4 GB of memory, depending on the model. The Core 2 Duo models with the GMA 950 can have up to 3 GB (one 2 GB module and one 1 GB module), and all of the ones with the X3100 can go up to 4 (two 2 GB modules).

[phunkidude]

Thanks Bob. Why do I need 3D enabled? Also what does VM Tools bring to the party? Finally, the model in question uses the GMA 950. Are you sure these can take up to 3gb of RAM as that is contradictory to what Apple says? Would the machine run any hotter with more RAM than Apple recommends?

Sean

[asatoran]

Thanks Bob. Why do I need 3D enabled? Also what does VM Tools bring to the party?

Enabling 3D also configures the virtual video card for the maximum 128MB of RAM. And VMWare Tools will add the proper video driver. This will help in color depth and cursor movement, as well as other things.

Finally, the model in question uses the GMA 950. Are you sure these can take up to 3gb of RAM as that is contradictory to what Apple says? Would the machine run any hotter with more RAM than Apple recommends?

Apple only likes to recommend matched paired memory. the GMA 950 has a max limit of 3GB. But to get that, you'd need to put in one 2GB and one 1GB DIMM, breaking the "matched pair." The maximum matched pair would be two 1GB DIMMs. Thus Apple's claim of a max of 2GB. However, OWC has done tests on machines and found that more RAM is almost always better.

So for your situation with a dual core, 2GB RAM machine, best to make the virtual machine a single vCPU and 1GB of RAM. (Remember, with only 2GB of RAM, if you set the virtual machine to 1.5GB of RAM, that only leaves half a gig of RAM for OSX.) Adding more RAM to the Mac, you can increase the RAM to the virtual machine. But unless you have a application that needs the second CPU, leave the virtual machine with 1 CPU. But if you really do have an app that needs that much CPU, then you'll have to get something with more cores, which means a MacPro or Xserve.

BTW, you didn't say what app you're running in Vista, but I'm running Vista Business 32 with Office 2007 on a Macbook Pro. Originally I had 2GB of RAM and the VM configured for 1GB of RAM and one CPU. I could still play Netflix in the VM, although not at full screen. So try reducing the RAM and CPU and see what happens.